We Are Strong
December 22, 2008
In these challenging economic times, the need to look towards our Temple for strength has never been greater. We wish to share with you our response, rooted in the deepest and most enduring Jewish values. Throughout Jewish history, many stories are told of our resiliency, and of our ability to remain positive as we search for solutions. As always, Judaism offers us the assurance that our faith in ourselves, in God, and in one another will help us get through these times together.
We hope to respond to whatever concerns you may have, by finding ways to connect you with valuable resources, and deal with your personal anxieties. Please remember that our Temple community is here for you at all times; just as we celebrate the joys and blessings of life together, so too, do we share in our darker times of need. Together, we will look for opportunities to lessen our burdens.
We are also researching and scrutinizing ways to weather this economic storm at the Temple. The Budget and Finance Committee has already carefully analyzed this year’s budget and will continue to do so throughout the year. Our proactive steps to cut costs will be done in conjunction with ways to increase our income side through creative planning. Conversations with you about personal financial matters will be approached with compassion and sensitivity. Temple membership remains open to all, regardless of financial circumstances.
At our High Holyday service on Yom Kippur, the kick-off to our major fund-raiser, Fund for the Jewish Future/Sponsor’s Dues began. Our Congregation answered the appeal with tremendous generosity. We reach out to our Congregation, again, to ask you to consider making a gift or increasing your gift as a mitzvah to allow everyone in our Temple family whose personal circumstances have experienced a significant downturn to remain connected. It is through your voluntary contributions above membership dues that assure the financial well-being of the Temple. We thank you for your enduring support: past, present and future.
Overall, our level of service to our members is higher than ever. The religious school is in great shape, and other educational and social service programs continue to focus on the community Jewish experience. We are making a special effort to meet the needs and wishes of families with young children, teenagers, our senior members, interfaith families, and other groups. We continue to update and improve ritual practices in keeping with trends in Reform Judaism nationwide. We have introduced the new Reform prayer book. The brotherhood and sisterhood are vibrant auxiliaries. A new, more user-friendly Temple web site is on its way. We are always looking for new ways to give you what you want and expect from us.
Because we are a Jewish synagogue, we cannot address financial issues in the same way as a business might. We are a Temple dedicated to serving our congregants, not a business beholden to the bottom line. We address economic challenges in terms of our mission and within the traditions of our people. As always, we would love to hear from you. Rabbis, staff, and lay leadership welcome all manner of your engagement and participation.
Our promise to you is that we will continue to maintain the extraordinary quality of our services and programs, determined by your needs; please let us know how we can best serve you. May the year 2009 bring you and your family a year of peace, joy and comfort.
L’shalom,
David J. Meyer, Rabbi Judy Mishkin, President
We Are Building Community
December 22, 2008
The Samuel and Bernice Shapiro Religious School of Temple Emanu-El is dedicated to:
Preparing our students to live and engage
Jewish tradition in an inclusive community of life-long learning.
Amazing things have been happening. We are building community right before our eyes.
I hope that by now all of you have had the opportunity to be touched by our room parent program, for which more than a dozen Religious School parents have stepped forward to coordinate the communication and efforts of families in their child’s class. Some are organizing a classroom snack schedule; others have orchestrated holiday celebrations. Last spring Jessica O’Gorman and Beth German, then Third Grade room parents, planned our first class Shabbat dinner in recent memory to such success that it has become a model for all of our Hebrew school classes this year. Our room parents make phone calls when there is news to get out; they bring food to share at parent coffees. One of our grade 3 room parents, who shall remain nameless for her own protection, has told us, “just tell me when you need it, and I’ll bake.”
Mitzvah Day in November inspired many wonderful parental contributions. Karen Gruskin, whose sons attend Sixth Grade and Post-Confirmation, chaired the outstanding event, and a small army of Religious School parents headed up cooking, yard clean-up, and football game projects.
As I write, Dawn Gilliland, a Sixth Grade room Parent, is coordinating our annual Hanukkah party with the help of an energetic team of new and seasoned Temple members. So far they have rounded up donations of latkes, and a DJ, and by the time you read this I expect we will all be basking in the afterglow of a fantastic party.
There’s Sharen Solomon, who many of you know from the Temple office, but who also serves as room parent for her daughter’s Confirmation class. She initiated the hugely successful Plummer Home project on Mitzvah Day, and, in the words of Religious School Committee chair Naomi Dreeben, she “does everything for everyone.”
And then we have the Religious School parents whose involvement as parents leads them to even broader contributions to Temple Emanu-El: Debbie Davis and Diane Goldenberg, co-chairing this month’s fourth annual Taste of the North Shore, and Joel Markus, who designed the new Temple Emanu-El logo, have unleashed their talents to the benefit of the whole congregation.
All of these Religious School parents not only sustain our community by sharing their skills and passion with us; not only do they have fun doing something good for our community. They also fulfill an important mitzvah, a traditional obligation. We read in the Talmud:
If a person resides in a town 30 days, he becomes responsible for contributing to the soup kitchen; three months to the charity box; six months to the clothing fund; nine months to the burial fund; and 12 months for contributing to the repair of the town walls. (Bava Batra 8a)
Whether you bake, paint, or plan; whether you’ve been with us three months, three years, or three decades; you have what this congregation has been waiting for. To those who now and in the past have stepped forward with your contributions (and especially those whom I haven’t named here—there are so many of you)—thank you. You are our foundation, our life. Those of you who have yet to bring your contribution: you are our future. Looking for an opportunity? Don’t know where your gifts belong? Contact our Religious School Chair Naomi Dreeben at rscom@emanu-el.org, or call me at the Temple.
Especially in these hard economic times, we all need to know that we can contribute. When money grows scarce, heart and head and hands become all the more important. This is how we build community.
