Words from our Congregation President, Ricki Bauman
February, 2026
Very early in 2025 I was reading our history to update our website — and realized that it was now 50 years since Rabbi Adolph Feinberg, a retired Army Chaplain, cobbled together a Jewish group in Sun City Center to worship together on Friday nights in 1975. And the light bulb went on — that 2025 is our 50th Anniversary and should be celebrated! And that was the start of our 50th Year celebration.
If Rabbi Feinberg were alive today, (he passed away in 1978), he would know that he left an amazing legacy to us — Beth Israel, the Jewish Congregation of Sun City Center. But we are so much more than that now; as we draw congregants from our neighboring communities of Apollo Beach, Brandon, Riverview, Ruskin, and Wimauma. And we have our out-of-state congregants too — from Indiana, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania who stay in touch with us via our livestreaming of services and Zoom events.
In looking at our geography, located in the southeastern part of Hillsborough County, we are poised to expand our reach, not just in the north semicircle around Sun City Center, but in the south semicircle into northern Manatee County; Bradenton, Ellenton, Palmetto, and Parrish, an area that we have historically ignored. This will be one of our goals for 2026.
And we have now hired a permanent Rabbi to start on July 1st, Rabbi Adam Ruditsky. Spoiler alert — Rabbi and his wife, Catharine, will be attending our 50th Anniversary Gala on January 31st! We look forward to welcoming Rabbi Adam to Sun City Center permanently in July!
And we have to look back to where we were one year ago — we did not have a Rabbi since the death of our beloved Rabbi Carla Freedman and we had lost our rear attic wall and much exterior lighting due to Hurricane Milton. And yet, we built back better with $40,000 in grants with $41,000 in expenses for a net of-pocket cost to us of only $1,000! Truly we were and we are blessed as a
kehillah, a family, a community — that is the essence of Beth Israel.
Now that we are wrapping up our 50th Year, we look forward to our next 50 years, l’dor vador, from generation to generation.
L’shalom,
Ricki
