It’s a golden year for Cafe Shalom festival at Modesto synagogue

At 50, Cafe Shalom has a lot of longtime, regular attendees. But after all these years, the members of Congregation Beth Shalom still see fresh faces at the annual Jewish food and cultural festival.

One big reason? “Food,” said Marisol O’Connor, who brought her daughter to Sunday’s golden-anniversary event at the Sherwood Avenue synagogue. “And the sanctuary tour,” she quickly added, “and kids activities, and food again.”

O’Connor’s husband is Jewish, but not a member of CBS. His wife took their daughter because “I want her to learn as much as possible” about the Jewish faith and culture, “and she’s very curious to learn as much as possible, so we’ll see what the future brings.”

Peggy Harwell attended with family because a friend of her daughter is a CBS member and gave them tickets. “It’s a wonderful experience,” she said, agreeing with O’Connor that the food was very good. “The rabbi’s presentation was remarkable. He passed on a wealth of information.”

CBS member Kate Trompetter was glad to hear it. “This is one of the best opportunities to get inside this building and get to know a little more about the culture,” she said.

Visitors to Cafe Shalom were able to take sanctuary tours led by Rabbi Shalom Bochner, visit the Holy Land Experience and enter a drawing for a $5,000 gift certificate toward a trip to Israel. The price of admission to Cafe Shalom included one drawing ticket and a traditional bagel and lox meal, along with noodle kugel dessert and other food samplings.

For more on Congregation Beth Shalom, go to www.cbsmodesto.org.

This story was originally published May 5, 2019 at 4:44 PM.