This talented group of singers, each an experienced performer and member of the Washington theater community, last night put on the 11th annual Congregation Har Shalom Cabaret.

Here are the women of the group, with Michelle Hessel at the far right. There were 26 numbers. The performers chose the songs. The rules were simple. You had to select a role that you always wanted to play, but never had the chance to. Michelle chose songs from Peter Pan, Rags, Mame, and City of Angels.

So, it was a busy weekend. Friday night services honoring Rabbi Luxemburg’s 50 years of service, a 60th anniversary party in Annapolis, and the Har Shalom Cabaret. This week promises a lunch with a Haberman advisor, the Haberman Institute’s Annual Meeting, a half day of dog sitting, two graduations (one from elementary school and one from pre-school), a Haberman lecture by Rabbi Fred Reiner on “What Do Jews Believe Today?”, and a baseball game Saturday afternoon. Rabbi Reiner’s talk will be on Thursday at 2 p.m. EDT on Zoom, and you can register (no charge) at http://www.habermaninstitute.org. I would love to see some of you register and watch (I do see a list of everyone who does). Fred Reiner is the rabbi emeritus of Temple Sinai, the first congregation in Washington that Edie and I joined. He developed a statement of beliefs during the early days of the Trump administration that has been signed onto by over 600 rabbis and cantors. I am curious to know what it says. How can any statement of beliefs attract so many signers?

Temple Sinai is located on Military Road NW, just a few blocks from our first house, also on Military Road. When we joined in the 1970s, the chief Rabbi was Gene Lipman, best known for his solid devotion to human and civil rights, and (at least known to me for) his “my way or the highway” approach to most issues. Beloved by some and turned off by others, he had a “kitchen cabinet” that met together on Sunday mornings where he could pick up ideas of what those he trusted thought he was doing right and doing wrong (I guess they could tell him what he was doing wrong). Edie was a member of that kitchen cabinet and used to go to Sinai for an hour or so almost every Sunday (I think almost every Sunday). She could never quite figure out how he selected her (I could, of course). She said it was a group of psychiatrists, psychologists, and her.

We were very young then, of course, but somehow my law partner Ed Berkowitz, who was fairly active in the congregation, got me nominated to be the Assistant Secretary of the temple. It was the first time I was ever on a board of a real institution, and let me tell you how I felt: completely and totally lost. I understood absolutely nothing that was being discussed, and certainly didn’t understand the budget (or any budget). I don’t remember who the treasurer was, but if he had croaked and I had been thrust into his position, that would probably have been it for Temple Sinai.

I did learn during the two or three years I held that position that synagogue politics was nothing to get involved with. I saw how tempers flared when the sensibilities of board members were offended, and that for every opinion, there was an opposite opinion. For example, I remember that there was a very active congregant who did everything that you would want a congregant to do, and she did it with great knowledge and a smile and unflagging energy. So it was not surprising when she was elected to the board of directors. Only then was it discovered that she wasn’t Jewish (I think she was brought up Quaker or some such thing), but that her husband was and her children were being raised Jewish, and no one knew until after her election. You don’t think that started a controversy?

And then there was the time when the part time Associate Rabbi broke a clause of his contract by officiating at (in a far off location, I believe) a mixed religion wedding. Now, what? Continue his contract, or fire him? For once, Gene Lipman did not appear to have a firm opinion, so he said (and the board agreed) or maybe the board said (and he agreed) to put it to a congregational vote. Can you believe that? A big congregational meeting with hundreds in attendance and speeches about whether this Associate Rabbi should be retained or let go? You can imagine it if you try hard enough. At the end of the meeting, there was a secret vote (little tabs of paper handed to the ushers), and the Associate Rabbi was fired by (if I remember correctly) a vote of several hundred people with a difference of three. Something like 175-172 (I don’t really remember the numbers; we are talking over 40 years ago. Both rabbis and most congregants are long gone.)

Other than that, Temple Sinai was a fine place, and still is. Rabbi Reiner replaced Gene Lipman, and served the congregation for 25 years before retiring. Of course, Lipman had been rabbi for 26 years. He won. After he retired, Lipman became a vegetable farmer, growing vegetable for local homeless shelters. Not sure how Fred Reiner spent his time; perhaps we shall find out. My guess is he has not been farming.

I will say this about the positions I held at Temple Sinai. You would be hard pressed to find anyone who remembers I was on the board or the assistant treasurer. And I don’t remember anything about my service other than being in a daze the whole time and wondering how I got there. But when we moved to Adas Israel and I became a board member and then vice president (until I was asked to step aside – that’s even a juicier topic), I guess my Sinai service gave me a hint of what was going on.

Which brings me to the last story of the day, tying in the treasurer position I first held at Temple Sinai (I have since, by the way, been treasurer both of Haberman and of American Associates for Ben Gurion University of the Negev), with my service to Adas Israel and with last night’s cabaret at Har Sinai.

At Adas Israel, I was for a while on the board’s budget committee (not as treasurer, but as a board liaison) and I remember a day when various Adas employees came before us to explain their departments’ budget requests. Each one came in with charts showing how funds were to be spent, what was needed, what the past years’ expenditures were like and so on. Quite detailed. But then the director of the congregation’s pre-school came in. She had no charts, no figures, no nothing. Except for a scrap book with a picture of th.e pre-schoolers. Here is why I need the money, she said, pointing to the pictures And she got every penny.

Her name was (still is) Shelly Remer. Her husband, Stuart, is one of the two long time producers of the Har Shalom Cabaret, where they now belong. So, yes, it is a small world.

Okay, two days. No Trump. Will I make the week?