The High Holidays are a time when our community comes together in all of its diversity and beauty. In addition to the prayers and the learning and the music and the opportunities for contemplation that draw us to GJC on these days, it is the chance to be together, to see each other and to be seen by others, that is a highlight of the holidays for all of us. So this is a particularly important time for us to make sure that we are welcoming everyone into the “us” that makes our community so rich: strangers as well as friends, infrequent attendees as well as regulars, new members as well as those who have been part of the community for decades. A friendly greeting, a handshake, words of welcome–these gestures are immensely important as we seek to make sure that everyone can find their place and feel that they are a part of GJC. So please, as we come together on Rosh ha-Shanah beginning on Sunday night, reach out to those around you, especially those whom you don’t know and those who may be entering the New Year with us for the first time, those who feel at home and those who are searching for a home. We can all play a part in this project of creating community, knitting ourselves together into a fabric that can support us in our celebrations and in our struggles. May we all reach out and may we all feel the support of those around us as we enter this New Year together.