Congregation Sinai of San Jose, CA

During this time the Youth group, which was affiliated with NCSY, was very active. David Hellman began the Jr. Congregation and guided our youth toward understanding their role within the Jewish community. Our incoming President, Sy Hoff, was the Director for this group for a time and helped guide them on many interesting and fun excursions. Some of those youths are now adult members with children of their own participating in our youth programs. Among them are Julie & Amy Sporer and Susan Silver. As a group, they held events such as bowling parties, tikkun olam projects such as cleaning up Jewish cemeteries, and pizza nights. The most attended events, however, were their famous Shabbatonim.

Sisterhood was also a cornerstone to Sinai's success in those years. The women involved with this group took on major commitments to ensure quality Jewish programs for everyone. In the early years Sisterhood was directly responsible for the creation, planning, and staffing of the religious school as well as the kitchen. Without these efforts, there might not have been any children's Jewish educational programming.

Sisterhood also took great effort to create holiday programming that could be enjoyed by the whole family; Purim parties, Simchas Torah, Channukah and much more. This wonderful group of dedicated women embraced each Jewish holiday to create meaningful yet fun-filled gatherings. Another major activity of the Sisterhood was the fund raising committees for the religious school. Together the group created such events as the yearly "Penny Sale" chaired by Jeanette Tobin and the "Posh Nosh" chaired by Diana Cowans. After several years of inactivity, Sinai Sisterhood has been re-established under the leadership of Susie Weitzman and a cadre of dedicated women.

The Men's Club also flourished during these years. One of its most successful endeavors became the Sunday morning Tallis & Tefillin Club. Guiding the next generation to lead their own daily minyanim, the Men's club helped many a child past confirmation age and continued to worship on a regular basis. The Sunday morning minyan and breakfast still continues today. The Men's Club also had its own fund-raising events such as the sale of Yom Hashoah candles.

Congregation Sinai spawned several new synagogues in the Silicon Valley area. Congregation Beth David and Am Echad were just two of these. Our members encouraged and supported those who wanted to start new synagogues by reaching out to them and lending Torahs to those who were without. Among those helped are Congregation Beth David in Saratoga, Ahavas Torah in San Jose and Bar Yohai Minyan in Sunnyvale.