Kiddush Presentation

11 Elul 5774
6 September 2014

I’d like to again welcome Rabbi Minkus’ family and ask them to stand up for a moment.

I want to thank everyone who participated today and also helped so much with the planning:  all of today’s Torah readers; Bob Channon, ace gabbai; Rabbi Lappe for her wonderful remarks; Jonathan Miller for his beautiful compositions; and Cantor Rachel Rosenberg for leading the service so beautifully—as always--and also for her tremendous help with the planning of the services.  Jim Gimpel’s reward for doing such a great job chairing the search committee was being asked to organize the installation!  He of course did a wonderful job, and everyone should know that he designed the invitations and program book himself.  Thanks also to our synagogue administrator Sherry Gutman for all of her help and operational expertise, to Leatrice Berman for managing the reservations, to Sara Loevy and Pam Spitzner for doing last night’s table assignments and place cards, and to Alejandro and Ramos for all of their work preparing the building. Of course, no meal here would be complete without the help of Joyce Feuer and her team.  And finally, I would like to again thank all of the donors.

We have a couple of items to present to Rabbi Minkus.  First, here is a notebook with signed copies of Jonathan’s music, congratulatory letters from Mayor Rahm Emanual and Senator Mark Kirk, and copies of the program materials.  Copies of the letters are displayed on this poster for people to look at later.

Then we have a special gift.  So we all know that Jim Gimpel is a talented architect who oversaw the building of the Lurie Children’s Hospital.  And we also know that he is very good at finding rabbis.  But not everyone may know that, like his father Max Gimpel, Jim is an artist.  Rabbi Minkus, in honor of your installation, Jim has created this beautiful paper cut containing words from Deuteronomy 16:20, words that we read just last Shabbat:  "Zedek Zedek Tirdof:  Justice, Justice, shall you pursue."

 Diane Altkorn, M.D.
President

→ Return to Installation Shabbat webpage.