Hard to believe but Kol Hai is turning THREE!

On December 12, 2014, people came from near and far to join our first Kabbalat Shabbat service. Perhaps you were there that night and felt the excitement and promise of what was to come….

Now, as we celebrate our first THREE years we first want to say how grateful we are to each and every one of you for your presence and your support in the growth of Kol Hai. As we love to say following each Kol Hai service: “WE ARE KOL HAI” and the WE is YOU!

Thanks to YOU our growth over our first THREE years has been stunning:

- Our membership continues to increase and now is over 200% higher over the last two years.

- Attendance at our Kabbalat Shabbat and Saturday Generations Shabbat services continues to increase, averaging well over 60 people of all ages on Friday night and over 35 on Saturday morning.

- We have settled into a permanent home for all Shabbat Services in the Great Room at Woodland Pond. Beginning January 2018 we will regularly hold Shabbat services the first and third Friday nights AND Saturday mornings of the month.

- The Kol Hai music offering continues to expand as Renee Finkelstein has joined us as a regular prayer leader bringing her exquisite and soulful voice and presence to our services. And: the multi-talented Seth Lieberman and brilliant young drummer Soloman Zweig often add to the mix.

- Kol Hai now has a TORAH! on long-term loan from Congregation Shaare Zedek in NYC. (Thank you, Rabbi Jonah Geffen!)

- We continue to celebrate together the full Jewish holiday cycle: this year adding an ecstatic Purim party as well as deeply moving ritual gatherings on Tisha B’av and Selichot. Our High Holiday services and our 2nd night Passover Seder drew almost 200 participants at each event.

And, as always, we remain committed to the THREE aspects of our core mission:

- Multigenerational in that we weave the wisdom of the village. We honor the gifts throughout all stages of life, cultivate intergenerational interaction, and create meaningful rites of passage.

- Ecological in that we are partners in the stewardship of creation. Starting in our own backyard, we strengthen nature connections, learning to see all land as holy land.

- Embodied in that we’re hands-on and hearts-in. We model our commitment to life through Jewish practices that generate hope and help us to overcome disenchantment: prayer, study, and communal projects.

As Kol Hai begins its fourth year, we invite your continued support in the form of a tax-deductible YEAR-END DONATION so that we can keep on bringing light, hope and connection through all we do together.

And, If you have not yet become a sustaining member of Kol Hai <http://kolhai.org/membership> we invite you to join us.

Thank you for being part of this wonderful experiment in community building through time-honored Jewish ritual and practice. We greatly appreciate your generosity.

Wishing you a new year full of unexpected joys and wonderful surprises!

Kol Hai Board of Directors,

Dave Nidorf, Ken Ross, Linda Montecalvo, and Aaron Warshawsky