Dear Friends,
It's hard to believe that it has been a year since I first walked through the doors of Kol Ami. The year has flown by - and that, I think, is testimony to the warmth, the support, and the generosity with which I have been graced since my very first day.
In those first days there was, understandably, some anxiety. "How will we move forward without our founding rabbi?" "How are we going to do this?" "Who is this new rabbi?" "Why do we need an interim rabbi?"
Now looking back I hope these answers have become clear. Most importantly, the questions about how the community will move forward. For indeed, the CKA community has moved forward in a spectacular way. You have more than embraced the change, you have used it as a tool through which to envision the Kol Ami of the future. And, in just a few days, Rabbi Reznick will be sitting at this desk prepared to collaborate with you in writing a new chapter in the storied history of this blessed community.
It has been an incredible blessing to share this year with all of you. It is a bittersweet moment, indeed, to bid you adieu. But I know that while this is farewell for now, it is not goodbye. I look forward to joining with Kol Ami on many occasions in the years to come. And, most of all, I look forward to watching Kol Ami continue to grow, evolve, and to be a well-spring of compassion, a powerful voice of justice, and a source of much needed hope and healing for a world so very much in need.
As I say farewell for now I pray that as you move forward it will always be from blessing to blessing and from strength to strength.
Rabbi Barry Lutz
Interim Rabbi, Congregation Kol Ami
