Jamie Spiller
As children of shtetl immigrants, my parents, who were disinterested in Temple life, nevertheless expected their boys to get formal Jewish education leading to bar mitzvah. It is thus unsurprising that I, too, wanted my children to prepare for bat mitzvot even if I was agnostic about wider involvement in a synagogue.
I frankly did not know what congregational life outside of children’s schooling could entail. That changed when my wife Anne and I visited Temple Sinai. Attending a Friday night service— so as to feel out the prospects for our daughters’ education— we were charmed by people’s conviviality, musical harmony, and spiritual/moral messaging, and we were smitten by a sanctuary open to the stars and to trees spotlighted against the dark night sky.
Now more than a decade later, our daughters may have finished their Jewish education, but Anne and I enjoy the special advantages of Sinai congregational life. Sustaining Sinai is important to us because we want to continue enjoying that congregational life and share with others adult learning, interfaith outreach, social action, and the aesthetic and spiritual grounding we feel whenever we attend services in the sanctuary.
Lindsey Hagan
My family joined Temple Sinai when we moved to Rochester in 1996 to be closer to family. I was 7 then and proceeded to grow up at Temple Sinai. I attended religious school, had my Bat Mitzvah, participated in confirmation, and was active in youth group. But what I think is most meaningful for me about Temple Sinai is that it cultivated an environment and relationships that drew me back as an adult. After going away to college and graduate school, I returned to the Rochester area. Still technically young enough to be on my parent’s membership, I dabbled in getting involved in things as an adult—klezmer band, teaching for the religious school, RAIHN, etc. This strengthened my relationship with Temple Sinai and made it a natural transition to join as my own rightful member when the time came. Temple Sinai is my extended family. It is the community of people with whom I celebrate the joys in life and lean on during the troubled. It is the community in which I was brought up as a child, to a young adult, to an adult, and the community in which I continue to grow in ways I did not even imagine for myself, spiritually, as a leader and as a person. It is because of the profound impact Temple Sinai has had on my life that it is important to me to Sustain Sinai.
Sue Bondy
Temple Sinai has been my spiritual home for over 25 years. I was raised Roman Catholic but realized many years ago that I was more comfortable at Temple Sinai and converted. When my father died in 2014, we had a Christian memorial service, but I found the custom of saying kaddish during the period of shloshim more meaningful to me during that sorrowful time.
When Peter and I were celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary, we decided to make it a real event and were married again, this time by Rabbi Katz. With our son and his future wife in attendance plus many other friends and relatives, it was one of the most wonderful events in my life. Sinai has been there for me in times of sorrow, and in times of joy which is why it is important to me to Sustain Sinai.
