Eighty (80!) people attended Shomrei’s Syria Supper Club Sukkot Dinner on October 8. The dinner featured bountiful, delicious vegetarian food prepared in Shomrei’s kitchen by three Syrian cooks who have been recently resettled in the U.S.

Rabbi Greenstein welcomed everyone in the sukkah, and then we moved inside (the weather was threatening) for the meal. It was a win-win event all around; attendees enjoyed a delicious meal and the cooks displayed their cooking talents and earned some income to help support their families. (Almost all of the proceeds of the dinner went to the cooks.)

Most of all, we got to know our new neighbors and their families a little better. In addition to the three cooks and their families, we were fortunate that Bara’a Oudeh and her daughter Kresten, and Muhammad and Hameda Taki were able to attend. Shomrei member Meredith Lopez had met Bara’a, Muhammad, and Hameda at a previous Syria Supper Club dinner and, as a result, we have been working with their families, through Shomrei’s Refugee Assistance Group, to help ease their transition to the U.S. Merrill Silver provided attendees of the dinner with a little background about Bara’a’s life and Kate McCaffery, co-founder of the Syria Supper Club, spoke about the group’s work in helping newly resettled immigrants in the community.

Thank you to Mike Legman for organizing the event on Shomrei’s behalf and for the valuable assistance provided by Arden Epstein, Aileen Grossberg, Karen Altman, Debra Caplan, Beryl Hiller, Sharon Streicher, Gail Stocks, Fran Legman, and Marge Wise, as well as our building custodians Lawrence, O’Neil, and Oren.

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