Saturday Kiddush At Beth Sholom

Once your child’s Bar/Bat Mitzvah service is concluded, it’s time to celebrate with your Beth Sholom community during Kiddush. At Beth Sholom, the Bar/Bat Mitzvah family sponsors the Shabbat Kiddush. The following information is intended to facilitate this aspect of your planning process.

As with all aspects of your Beth Sholom celebration, please contact Debby Zaffos in the Beth Sholom office as soon as you decide what type of Kiddush you want to have. She will also need to know whether the Kiddush is dairy or meat. There is no rental fee because the entire congregation is invited to Kiddush, but there are choices to be made. In addition, you need to let her know if you are having a private luncheon for invited guests following the Kiddush, as that will determine in which room Kiddush is to be set up.

You will need to decide which of the following three options you would like to choose:

  • A fully catered Kiddush. With this option, the caterer provides all food and drink, linens, plates and cups, serving utensils, and a set-up and clean-up crew. Ideally, all food should be delivered by noon on Friday. If this isn’t possible, it must arrive no later than 3 p.m. on Friday. The caterer needs to contact the synagogue office to discuss the set up of the room. (Note that most caterers do not provide wine and some do not include grape juice, so you may need to provide these items yourself.)
  • Synagogue-catered Kiddush. With this option, Debby and the synagogue staff are responsible for ordering all food and drink, providing the tablecloths, paper plates and cups and hiring people for set-up and clean-up purposes. (Strong recommendation: Speak to Clark Loffman, chair of the Kiddush Committee, for advice about this option.)
  • If you have fewer than 50 non-Beth Sholom invited guests, the minimum cost of sponsoring the Kiddush is $700. This includes $550 worth of food and the cost of paper goods, soda, grape juice and wine, and one set-up person. You can either use the preset menu listed as Choice 1 on the enclosed order form, or you can customize your own menu. If you do customize, however, please note that you have to include $150 to cover the cost of non-food items.
  • If you have 50 or more non-Beth Sholom invited guests, we suggest that you use or adapt Choice 2 on the enclosed order form at a cost of $1350. Once again, feel free to customize, but note that you will have to include $225 to cover the cost of the non-food items and a second set-up person.
  • If you prefer to provide your own paper goods, you can subtract $40 from Choice 1 or $50 from Choice 2.
  • Dropped off catered food. If you choose this option, you can either provide your own tablecloths, paper goods and drinks, or pay a fee to the synagogue to cover the cost of having those provided for you. In either case, the food needs to be delivered as indicated above and you will need to provide the serving utensils. (All paper goods and serving pieces are easily available at a place like Party City, or you can probably purchase serving pieces from the caterer supplying the food.)
  • The tables will be set out for you by the Beth Sholom custodial staff, but you are responsible for hiring people to put out the food and paper goods and clean off the tables when Kiddush is finished. Discuss with your caterer what will be needed in the way of set-up so that you are adequately prepared.
  • One service that provides servers for hire is Preferred Staffing at (201) 750-1422. They should should be able to provide professionals who can set up the Kiddush to your satisfaction.

If you choose either of the options with catered food, naturally you will need to use an approved caterer. You may use someone from the enclosed list, or someone else, with Rabbi Berger’s approval. You should also let the caterer know that we get between 300 and 350 people on a typical Shabbat morning. Naturally, you will need to add the number of non-Beth Sholom invited guests to arrive at your final total for Kiddush.