Happy Passover

Keeping Connected April 2019

Passover is coming soon, and you might be anticipating a call from a member of the Board wishing you a happy Passover. The Board’s intention with these calls each Passover and High Holiday season has been to convey to each member that the lay leadership of Congregation Shalom values their connection to our community, and that we are ready to listen if they wish to contact us. This is still true. But, lest anyone think they’ve been “left off the call list”, I want to let you know that we have decided not to make those phone calls this spring.

I want to assure you that we took this decision seriously. We have considered it occasionally over the past few years, finding that fewer members answer their phones than in a previous era. Leaving messages on answering machines just wasn’t the personal experience we were aiming for. The deciding factor for us was the response to a question in the member survey administered this fall.  When you were asked for your thoughts on the call you receive from the Board at Rosh Hashana and Passover, the vast majority gave a negative reaction. Over 35% said it has no meaning to them, nearly 20% don’t remember it, and close to 30% responded that they’d prefer an email instead. 

The Board wants to put its efforts where they are most impactful. As an experiment, we decided to replace phone calls to all members with some regular outreach to our newer members, inviting them to events. We hope to encourage them to join in and want to help them form stronger connections with other members.

We want to help make sure that every family has a place to go for Seder. Please contact us if you do not, and we will connect you with a family who would welcome you at their table. If you’d enjoy inviting someone to your home, please let us know.

Our Community Second Night Seder will be held at the temple on Saturday, April 20. More information will be coming, but please make reservations by contacting Bob and Pat Schneider at seder@congregationshalom.org by April 10.

On behalf of the Board of Trustees, we wish our members and their families a zissen Pesach–a sweet Passover.

L’shalom,

Joanna Myers