I hope that by now most, if not all of you have seen our new lecterns. We did just use them for Rosh Hashanah, but if you missed them, you have a chance to see them again for Yom Kippur (not to mention all the other events in our sanctuary for many years to come).
I hope you all agree with me that they look stunning. Since their debut, many of you have said to me, “They look like they have always been here.” For me, they are much more than a place to lead prayers from. For me, they represent our Temple. They do look like they have always been here. The wood matches the other bema furniture as well as pews perfectly, and the spindles on the front match the spindles in the various balconies as well as tie in the design of the ark and side flourishes. These lecterns show the continuity of our Temple’s long history. They also have some “great extras under the hood.” There are some great technological features built into them with various ways of connecting them to the monitors and enabling us to smoothly bring multimedia into our services and programs. These lecterns represent our past but also our long legacy of innovation.
I want to thank our committee that worked hard on having these come to fruition. The committee consisted of myself and Cantor Stanton as well as Ina Horn, Heather Kibel, Lanny Livingston, and Ron Struminger. I also want to thank Ron and the entire Struminger family for the tremendously generous gift of these wonderful additions to our sanctuary in honor of Phoebe’s Bat Mitzvah. Be on the look out for a new candlestick table arriving after the holidays! I also want to extend a big thank you to Alex Gruss from Studio Gruss as well as to Lanny Livingston for the design and the building of these lecterns. I hope you will all join me in congratulating the committee for helping the community gain these new precious gifts.
