With a little under 700 members, Congregation Olam Tikvah is a large synagogue in which it can be difficult to get to know everyone. That’s where the annual Labor Day picnic comes in.
For more than 15 years, the Olam Tikvah community has gathered on Labor Day to nosh on hot dogs, hamburgers and picnic fare. A flyer promises games and activities for all ages.
“It’s just a really wonderful way for us to build community,” Rabbi Ben Sigal of Olam Tikvah said. “On top of all that, it’s an opportunity for us to introduce our ShinShiniyot for the year to our community, as well.”
This year, the Sept. 5 Labor Day picnic will take place at Gesher Jewish Day School in Fairfax, where there is a playground for kids to run around and a field for games of kickball.
Sigal, who became Olam Tikvah’s assistant rabbi in July 2024, said the picnic is a laid-back social opportunity with some tabling so members can get to know what the congregation’s Men’s Club, Sisterhood and United Synagogue Youth are up to.
“There’s not a ton of programming to it intentionally so that people can spend time catching up with each other [or] getting to know each other,” Sigal said. “We’re a relatively large synagogue, and so it always surprises me when I find out that members who have been here for 20, 30 years don’t know each other.”
The picnic falls after summer vacation and before the High Holidays, which Sigal said is perfect timing to get to know another friendly face.
“We’ll all be in the same building for High Holiday services, but people are focused on the service a little bit more, hopefully, and there isn’t as much time to get to know each other,” Sigal said. “The idea is that in advance of that, people can have this social interaction so that they can say, ‘I met so-and-so at the picnic. Hello, how are you doing?’”
He added that he cherishes seeing members across generations getting acquainted and befriending one another at the Labor Day picnic.
“We’re proud to have as many families that are walking in with strollers as we do on the other end of the age spectrum, with walkers, canes, et cetera,” Sigal said.
One particular growing group at Olam Tikvah is young families.
“We have an exploding cohort here of families with 2- to 3-year-olds, and they don’t all know each other, and so we’ve been creating a lot of different opportunities for them to interact,” Sigal said. “I wouldn’t say [this picnic] is created for them in mind, but this is created with that opportunity in mind, of people getting to meet each other.”
Olam Tikvah has experienced steady growth since at least the pandemic, which is a “really, really beautiful thing,” according to Sigal.
“By name, we’re a congregation, but we really refer to ourselves internally a lot more as a community,” he said. “Community means being in relation with one another and getting to know each other as opposed to having many different communities under the umbrella that is Congregation Olam Tikvah.”
“We try to and pride ourselves on being one large community. … We’re very much a place that is focused on building out that community and that being a cornerstone of what makes us Congregation Olam Tikvah, as opposed to a place that people go for services.”
One of his favorite aspects of the Labor Day picnic is seeing members of five- or 10-plus years “sitting down and having a conversation for the first time, maybe.”
“That’s the thing I love about this, that it might be one or two or five or 20 people who bring someone into the community, but the connections don’t stop with those one or two or five or 20,” Sigal said.
