From Our Presidents

December 2018 Newsletter Article

In our continuing effort to provide the information you are looking for as efficiently as possible, you will be seeing some changes in temple communications in the very near future. A few months ago, we introduced our new website, with its home page designed to show what we’re all about – highlighting our welcoming spirit, the caring nature of our community, and key events. The website home page also gives our members easy access to information on services, events, and more. This was a major first step in a process whose goal is to provide the information you are looking for as easily as possible.

The next steps have been to consider carefully the role of our Newsletter and our Weekly Updates.

For quite a while the Communications Committee has asked the question, “what is the purpose of the Newsletter?” Much of the content of each Newsletter is already being sent to our membership in other ways. This is the right time for us to make a significant change. The Newsletter is being replaced with a much shorter monthly email. No need to worry. Each piece that is being taken out to create a more manageable monthly email will have a new home. Among the Weekly Updates, event-specific emails, and the new monthly email we will be communicating all the same information to you.

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November 2018 Newsletter Article

Dear friends,

I realize some of you might be tempted to skip over this column as soon as you realize that I’m writing to ask for volunteers. Wait!  Please give me me a chance to say why your reaction shouldn’t be, “Oh no, not again, can’t they ask someone else?”

As you know, we rely on our committees to provide many services which are the lifeblood of our temple.  A little over a year ago when I became President, I knew of a number of committees which had open positions and that it would be my job to help fill them. There were volunteers who had moved, were burned out, or were ready to move on to something new – and they needed to be replaced with fresh people who were interested in becoming involved.  It was a process of working to find the right people to step in to fill some holes.  I’ve been very pleased over these months to have been a part of making progress in these important volunteer areas.

Well, it turns out that looking for volunteers is a never-ending process.  Change is the norm.  Each volunteer has a limit on how long they want to be in the same position, doing essentially the same thing.  We each maintain a balance in our lives between looking for new challenges and wanting to keep to the comfortable status quo.  There comes a time for every volunteer when they let us know they’d like to move on.  If circumstances permit, most are gracious and offer to stay until someone can replace them, but we must respect their wishes once they’ve let us know..

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October 2018 Newsletter Article

First – The membership survey is being sent by email very shortly.  It will give each of you an opportunity to tell us what we are doing well, where we can improve, and where to focus our resources in the future.  We hope every one of you will fill out the survey.

Next – I’d like to share something personal I spoke about at Rosh Hashanah, when I said I’d realized recently that blueberries are a fantastic metaphor for Judaism!

This hit me a few days after we got back from a trip.  Here’s what happened: we got home, I took a few days to get caught up on laundry, etc. and then I looked up the hours for blueberry picking at my favorite farm.

Let me interrupt my story for some background –

During the season, I go to the farm to pick every week.  I really love to pick blueberries.  I like being outdoors, I like knowing that the berries are local, and I like that I’ve got a connection to them because…I picked each one.  I feel entitled to bring home as many as I want because, again, I put in the work.  My family never has a problem eating as many as get picked.  This was especially true when our kids were home.  Years ago, like lots of parents, we’d take the kids to pick apples and blueberries. More

September 2018 Newsletter Article

The High Holidays are relatively early this year, and it seems appropriate that this month’s column should speak to the importance of this time of year. The problem I’m finding is that I’m just a “Jew in the pew”, as the phrase goes. Rabbi Perry will inevitably be more eloquent, provide more insight, and be more knowledgeable on themes related to the High Holidays than I will ever be.

My brother, trying to be supportive, suggested that I could google ideas for what to write about this month.В  Someone else suggested that I could write about how imposing it feels to need to write something with appropriate significance.More

August 2018 Newsletter Article

Dear friends,

In today’s fast-paced world, a website that is more than three years old looks dated.  The URJ recognized this and decided last year to switch all websites to a more modern platform.  This news happily came just a short time after our own Communications Committee recommended to the Board that we update our website.  Eileen Hirsch has once again put in the hours needed to design and create our next generation website, and thanks to the URJ and a member’s contribution it’s been done at no financial cost to our temple.

This new website will give a great new face to the world for Congregation Shalom, while continuing to provide all the information that members have come to expect.В  Prospective members’ first contact with a synagogue is often through a website.В Our home page is designed to show what we’re all about – highlighting our welcoming spirit, the caring nature of our community, and key events.В  The home page also gives our members easy access to information on services, events, URJ articles, and more.More

July 2018 Newsletter Article

Dear friends,

June can be a bit overwhelming for many of us.В  I mean that in a good way.

There is so much to take note of and celebrate this time of year.  Many of us have family members graduating from college, high school, or even kindergarten and we stop to commemorate these happy events. Here at the temple we have recently had an adult B’nai Mitzvah service, Chai School graduation, and installation of our new Board. Not too long ago we passed the Torah down to our incoming Kitah Hay class, and Jodi led our children’s choir at our Teacher Appreciation Shabbat. Most weeks from spring through June a son or daughter in our community becomes a bar or bat mitzvah. There is indeed much that we take time to celebrate every year at this time.

Transitions can fall into all kinds of categories. We had a beautiful evening honoring Yael and, though we will miss her immensely, we have already started to forge new bonds with Dale as leader of our school. A number of temple members have stepped up recently to chair committees, often taking over from other temple members who had served in those spots for years. And just recently our membership voted to accept a new set of Bylaws, bringing our top governing document into the 21^stcentury.

The point is that all of this represents growth, and that’s a good thing. Those who move on to new things are growing. Those who step into their shoes are growing. We have these sorts of milestones and transitions happening around us all year long. But in the early summer we all tend to stop and take notice a bit more.

L’shalom,

Joanna Myers

June 2018 Newsletter Article

Dear friends,

Each year at this time, the president has the honor of announcing who has been named Congregation Shalom’s Congregant of the Year.  I am pleased to say that this year Lynne Rothstein is being honored as our Congregant of the Year in recognition of her long history of making volunteerism to our community a central part of her life.  She is a person who has made significant contributions to the well-being of our community over many years.  A list cannot really articulate the level of passion, love, and commitment she has made in our congregation.  She is a past President of Congregation Shalom and has continued to be an all-around “go to” person.  More

May 2018 Newsletter Article

As you may know, the Board of Trustees has been working on amending our Bylaws for quite some time. While our current Bylaws were sufficient at the time they were adopted, they are seriously out-of-date and inefficient for the workings of a modern synagogue. Not only is Congregation Shalom a much larger community today, but we operate differently on a day-to-day basis.

In addition, in certain sections our current Bylaws are vague, ambiguous, and internally inconsistent. Oftentimes the Board spends just as much time trying to decipher the Bylaws as it does conducting business under the Bylaws.
The Board did not take this project on lightly. Over the past five years the Board had read and reread the current Bylaws and made more than a dozen iterations of amended Bylaws. Three different committees worked on amending the Bylaws, seeking guidance from our professional and lay leadership and reviewing notes on the deficiencies of the current Bylaws which had been accumulating over the past two decades. The Board argued and debated each section (and often each word), met in several special meetings, and sent the draft document back to the committee on many occasions.More

March 2018 Newsletter Article

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February 2018 Newsletter Article

What would you say is at the heart of a synagogue?В В The rabbi?В The sanctuary?В Our children?В Our volunteers?

These are all great answers.  But here’s one more – the kitchen!

We all know that food is central to our practice of Judaism.  It is true in our homes, with latkes at Chanukah and matzoh ball soup at our Seders.  And it is certainly true within the walls of our temple building.  There are many examples…Nearly every Friday evening we offer an Oneg where we share food and socialize with others who have come to Shabbat services.  We hold a Second Seder each year for the community, Brotherhood makes latkes for the school children, and Sisterhood traditionally holds a dinner to kick off each new year.  In fact, I’d say that most events and meetings I attend involve snacks.  We rely on having a functioning kitchen for all of this. More