Shabbaton with Rabbi Katie Mizrahi: December 10 - 13, 2021

March 2, 2022

I am thrilled to announce that Rabbi Katie Mizrahi will become our new rabbi at B'nai Havurah. She will start full-time on September 1, 2022. We will be developing a transition team to work with Rabbi Katie to smooth her integration into the B'nai and the Denver community.

As you know, the High Holy Days are at the end of September, which will allow Rabbi Katie to work with our High Holy Committee and Hal Aqua to integrate into our services. Many of you are anxious to interact with Rabbi Katie, but I ask that you allow her to settle in and move her family here before we bombard her with questions, requests, and advice.

I want to thank Hal Aqua and Becky Epstein, and our board and committee members for their hard work during these past several months. I also want to thank Jeff Haber, Susan Spero, and the entire rabbi search committee for their outstanding efforts in our rabbi search process.

Rabbi Katie also has some thoughts that she wants to share:

                                                                                 זֶה הַיּוֹם עָשָׂה יְיָ, נָגִֽילָה וְנִשְׂמְחָה בוֹ
Zeh hayom asah Adonai, nagilah venismecha bo 

This very day was made by Adonai, let us rejoice and be happy in it.

(Psalm 118:24)s a deep joy to arrive at this moment of making an official announcement. My cup overflows with gratitude, excitement, ideas and hopes for our shared future! For me, coming to serve as the Rabbi of B'nai Havurah will be both a new beginning and a homecoming at the same time, and I am so thankful for the blessing of this opportunity for us all.  

I truly appreciate the visible and invisible ways that B'nai Havurah staff and leaders have brought this moment into being, welcoming me so warmly, working to put important details into place, and being patient as I fulfill my obligations here and make this transition with my family.

It will still be a number of months before my arrival. As eager as we all are to build our relationships, that will really only begin in earnest once I start in September. When I do arrive, we will be creating many opportunities for connection.   

In the meantime, I trust that knowing this is official will strengthen and lift us all as we navigate the time between now and then. I hope we can all savor the joy of expectancy, the joy of This Day, in which we embrace our shared future and the possibilities to come!

Sincerely,

Ben Honigman, Board of Trustees Chair with Rabbi Katie Mizrahi