The ancient Romans had a saying, “nomen est omen,” roughly 
translated as “your name is who you are.” This is true for Chavurat 
Lamdeinu as well. Understand our name and you will know a lot about 
who we are. We are a Chavurah, a group of people who are chaverim, 
friends, fellow travelers, fellow seekers. And we are Chavurat 
Lamdeinu, a group of people who are fond of each other and who 
believe in “Lamdeinu - Teach us!”

It takes a lot of words in English to explain what the Hebrew says quite 
simply: we are people who are eager to learn, from God through our 
sacred texts and through prayer, but also from each other, through 
praying, studying and being together.

Some of us have been together for years, some of us have joined 
recently. We are all volunteers. No one gets paid. We have no 
president, no Board of Trustees. We have a treasurer, Mal Schwartz, 
who handles our finances which we use to pay for our rent,  new 
books,  tzedakah and any other miscellaneous needs. Once a year we 
have a “congregational meeting.” Bruce Stein is our Webmaster and  
weekly email updater. Russ Jayne is our Shaliach Tzibbur, and I am our 
Rabbi. We all take turns furnishing our weekly Kiddush.  People 
continually contribute great ideas about enhancing our worship,  
prayer space, and community, and they just go ahead and do them. It’s 
a marvel, really.

In short, we like and respect each other and have a great time.