Six Years at 130 W. 30th St

On April 8, 2016, Senior Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum wrote this post on CBST’s Facebook page:

“TONIGHT! First services in our new home. Both 6:00 and 8:15 services are sold out! Seating available in our Evan Wolfson Community Room downstairs. Sing praises to the One on High. Next Friday night (and all subsequent Fridays) services will be at 6:30 pm! Shabbat shalom!”

That same day on CBST’s Facebook page, former Cooperberg-Rittmaster Rabbinical Intern Rabbi Ari Lev Fornari wrote:

” ‘Mah Norah HaMakom HaZeh — How Awesome Is This!’ I have been watching every video and liking every photo. I feel so touched by this homecoming, knowing what it means to the CBST members and the blessings of so many lives lost to AIDS. Thank you for connecting me to history, longing and community much larger than myself.

I am so grateful to have benefited from the deep Torah of Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum and her ability to be a channel for transcendence. Grateful to have learned, prayed and connected with Rabbis Rachel Weiss, Guy Austrian, and Yosef Goldman.

I am so honored to be in the CBST lineage. I cannot wait to walk on the holy ground of 130 West 30th St. In the words of Marge Piercy: ‘Remember the dead who paid our way here dearly, dearly and remember the unborn for whom we build our homes. Praise the light that shines before us, through us, after us, Amen.’ “

Such joy and so many memories today as we look back!