Giving Thanks For You!

Dear Friends,

With Thanksgiving arriving tomorrow, many of us are preparing to gather with loved ones, share a meal, and take a moment to reflect on the blessings in our lives. This practice of pausing to express gratitude echoes a deep value in Jewish tradition as well.

Our Passover Haggadah is built around the foundational story of the Israelites’ departure from Egypt. During the Seder, we retell this story in detail, connecting ourselves to the ancient journey from slavery to freedom.

In the Torah, this passage is introduced as part of the Bikkurim, or first-fruit ceremony, a ritual performed when an Israelite brought the first yield of the harvest to the Temple. Rather than being tied to Passover, this declaration expressed gratitude, identity, and collective memory at a moment of agricultural abundance, when the people stood firmly in their own land.

This idea of pausing before enjoying the harvest underscores a core Jewish value: stopping to express gratitude and acknowledging that something greater than ourselves shapes our world and our actions. Thanksgiving offers us a contemporary moment to do the same, to pause, to recognize our blessings, to reflect on the support that sustains us, and to find meaning even in challenging seasons.

In that spirit, the Kaiserman JCC is establishing its year-end Hineni (Here I Am) campaign. Hineni means showing up, for one another, for our children, and for our community. It’s about saying “Here I am” in whatever way you can: through giving, volunteering, or simply showing up with heart.

This year, we invite you to join us in living out that spirit. That can be done by making a year-end tax-deductible donation on Giving Tuesday, December 2nd. It can mean making a pledge of support for the future. It can mean volunteering your time and energy to make our community a better place. Or it can simply mean pausing to express gratitude, as our story alludes to above.

Every act of generosity, big or small, helps us continue to be a place of connection, growth, and joy for all.

Happy Thanksgiving and an early Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Moriah SimonHazani