Yom Kippur in the U S of A

We spent Yom Kippur with Congregation Ahavas Achim - the Rabbi is Micah Becker Klein. He has a pony tail and played guitar - should tell you a lot about the style of services! It was a reconstructionist shul, with machzor of over 1200 pages. Shul built in shape of tent with stained glass window in apex. Lined with timber inside and windows all round at waist height - very light and airy. Has about 100 members and has been orthodox, conservative, reform and reconstructionist, in that order, over last 30 years. Service started with a cello rendition of Kol Nidre! Services on Kol Nidre & Yom Kippur lovely but too much English and not enough singing (in our opinion!)

On YK services started at 9.30 am but finished at 2 pm for an afternoon break not starting again until 5 pm. We took the opportunity to go walking since it was a beautiful day - walked for an hour round the perimeter of Goose Lake through the dazzling forest. The sky was blue, the water shimmered.......

Then back to shul for the concluding services and the after-the-fast pot-luck supper. Since many of the members have to travel for up to an hour and a half to get to shul, the supper was a substantial affair - which was nice on two counts - we were fed without having to cook for ourselves and it gave us the opportunity to chat to some interesting people with stories to tell. Everyone was warm and welcoming and seemed geuinely pleased that we had visited their shul.