Among those in attendance were Doris Cohen (left) and Jim Asbel (center) and his wife and daughters.

SIMSBURY – In November, the Farmington Valley Jewish Congregation/Emek Shalom held a Founders’ Service as part of its year-long celebration of the Reform congregation’s 50th anniversary.  Cohen and her late husband Sam, and Jim Asbel’s parents, the late Mim and Joe Asbel, were having dinner together one wintry evening in 1956 when they had the idea to found a shul in the Farmington Valley.  A story about the shul and its founding appears in the CT News section of this website.