The Peterborough Havurah began in 1996 after a long, hard effort by Mark and Jane Wisan, the founders of our havurah. Mark and Jane worked with Congregation Ahavas Achim in Keene and its President, Jane Taylor to get the havurah started and the first meeting of the havurah was at Mark and Jane's home on Kaufmann Drive in Peterborough. The havurah was formed around the time of Rabbi Paul Gordon's tenure at Ahavas Achim, shortly after Rabbi Barry Krieger left. The havurah started as a social gathering of Jewish families and later evolved to include topics of discussion. The havurah met monthly and meetings were rotated among various member's homes...the way it's done today.
In the beginning there were fewer than twenty families involved. Today our total membership is more than fifty individuals (families and singles) in the Peterborough area. By mid-2008 we had upwards of thirty attendees at many of our Havurah gatherings.
We still meet once a month at the home of a member and generally have a vegetarian pot luck dinner, preceeded by Hamotze and followed by a brief Havdalah service to properly end Shabbat. After Havdalah, we have a discussion on the topic selected for that month.
In 2007 we added monthly Erev Shabbat services and we have an annual Seder, Succot celebration and annual Purim and Chanukah parties.
Some of the Havurah members have indicated an interest in a group trip to Israel when the time is right.
With regard to communications: our Havurah gatherings are announced in the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript, on the Jewish Federation of New Hampshire's web site and in Congregation Ahavas Achim's Bulletin. Announcements are sent regularly to the Havurah's membership via an Email list.
For many years until the beginning of 2006, Allen Hollander and David Levene shared the duties of coordinator of the Havurah. In January, 2006, John Halper took over that role. In February 2006 the first Peterborough Havurah newsletter was published. It's published whenever its editor (John) feels like it (about once every two months).
In May, 2010 the Peterborough Havurah changed its name to the "Monadnock Havurah" to be more representative of the region we serve.
This web site was created in August, 2006 by John with input from a number of members.