Board of Trustees

A Message From our President:
Sherry Thomas

Dear Friends,

As we begin our new fiscal year, July 1, 2025, Temple Sinai is in a much different space than we were one year ago. Last year, we faced several challenges, but I am happy to say that we have overcome many of them as we continue to re-imagine our synagogue.

We began the fiscal year with a balanced budget and continued to manage our expenses to maintain that budget. As the high holidays approached, so did the height of hurricane season and the Sarasota area was hit with, not 1 or 2, but 3 major hurricanes within one month. The last one, Milton, really did its work on us. In the middle of a planned roof replacement, we sustained much damage to our facility which forced us to shut down for several months. We are most grateful to our community for the help and support to get us through that challenging time.

As we always do, Temple Sinai picked up the pieces and moved forward. Our plan to begin a search for our next Rabbi was underway and the search committee spent months reviewing applications and interviewing candidates. Once again, just when we thought our search would end for the year without a Rabbi, we received a late application, followed by 2 interviews and then a visit to Temple Sinai. This was our bashert (it was meant to be).

On July 1, 2025, Rabbi Michael Cohen will begin his tenure as Senior Rabbi for Temple Sinai. Alongside Chazzan Abramson, Rabbi Cohen will lead services and begin a new chapter for our synagogue. We look forward to the experience he brings to the Bima, high holidays, programs, adult and youth education and so much more.

These past several years, Chazzan Abramson has kept Temple Sinai going with his meaningful and musical services, his many pastoral visits, amazed us with both youth and adult B’Nai Mitzvahs and so many other roles we can’t even describe. We owe him a lot and I am personally thankful for all he has done to make sure Temple Sinai continued to be the vibrant community it has always been.

As President of Temple Sinai, I am honored to have led such an amazing community, and I am extremely proud of the work we have accomplished this year. Many people thought it couldn’t be done, but I knew that together we remain and always will be Temple Sinai Strong!
 

L’shalom,

Sherry Thomas
President