The State of the Shul 5768 / 2007

Shana Tova and Shalom my CBS Family! Welcome home for the High Holidays. It has been my pleasure to serve as your President the past 27 months. As I stand here before you, I know now, more than ever, that CBS is truly a family and this building really is the second home for all Jews residing in Stanislaus County. I stand before you today to report on the state of our CBS Family.

As I have done the past two years, I would like to begin by reciting a prayer for our CBS family. This prayer is a contemporary interpretation of the Ma Tovu which speaks to me on a daily basis reminding me of what I am charged to do as your President. The prayer reads, "May the doors of this synagogue and the arms of its members be wide enough to receive all who hunger for love, all who are lonely for fellowship. May it welcome all who have cares to unburden, thanks to express, hopes to nurture. May the doors of this synagogue be narrow enough to shut out pettiness and pride, envy and enmity. May its threshold be no stumbling block to young or straying feet. May its threshold be too high to admit complacency, selfishness, and harshness. May this synagogue be, for all who enter, the doorway to a richer and more meaningful life." Amen.

If over the past year I, your Board or our staff have failed to meet these aggressive purposes, please find it in your heart to forgive us. Please know it has not been for a lack of trying nor for a lack of empathy. Hopefully, today, as a result of our collective actions we, as a CBS family, are closer than ever in bringing these words of prayer to reality.

Since last Rosh Hashanah, I, your Board, our staff, and every member of every one of our committees have been busily working to make CBS more Jewishly meaningful for all of us. What have we been doing, you ask? We continued a weekly email to communicate the following week's activities to all of you; we continued our member appreciation service and honored several of our members, including most recently Martha Loeffler; Our Tikkun Olam committee organized CBS's efforts to repair our little part of the earth and we planted trees in Beardbrook Park; we hosted a scholar in residence cantor Shabbat; we enjoyed the sounds of Rick Recht; many of us once again enjoyed our doggy days in the courtyard; we continued and built on our web site; we held a series of adult education classes, including Judaism 101, a conversion class, as well as a number of classes taught by our friend Rabbi Brod of Chabad; we held community Chanukah, Tu Bishvat, Purim, Passover, and Holocaust remembrance events; we welcomed a rabbinic intern, Rabbi Scott Kramer, into our family, we continued our search for a new rabbi while at the same time empowering our members to become more proficient and self sufficient Jews; we hosted several rabbi interview/audition weekends; we were able to finally instate a children's service that is truly a children's service that lasts about 30 minutes; we enjoyed our first ever Latkes and Vodkas fund raiser to raise money for youth scholarships, we held another profitable Cafe Shalom and hosted another successful year of Sunday Afternoons at CBS concert series.

We have made some significant improvements to our physical home this year as well. We replaced a drinking faucet and re-stuccoed some walls; we upgraded our kitchen with commercial stoves and granite counters; we repaired walls in the social hall and painted them; we made some long overdue repairs to the restrooms, including the installation of a baby changing station; and we installed a brand new sound system equipped with hearing devices for members with hearing loss. These improvements were made possible because of the many of you who responded so overwhelmingly to our High Holiday appeal last year. You pledged $28,000, you donated $28,000 and we spent $28,000. Thank you for caring enough to help secure our second home.

Last Rosh Hashanah, I reported that the Board had set 10 goals for the past year. Let me tell you how we did. These goals were:

• Achieve Saturday minyan every Shabbat. We made minyan every Shabbat last year except 4 times. Yasher Koach to all of us for making this happen.
• Increase membership to 160 family units by 8/1/07. Well, we end the year at about 155. That's 5 fewer than our goal, but it's still more than we were at last August.
• We created a base line of attendance at events for the purpose of increasing member participation. For instance, we had 130 attendees for Rosh Hashanah Eve services last year and we had 138 last night. That is a 6% increase.
• Recruit/Contract a Rabbi.
• Increase ecumenical community relations. We interacted with the Muslim community, Interfaith Ministries, participated in an Intra-Faith Thanksgiving Service with Mark Haskett, Andra Greenwald met with a local minister to share Judaism with him, and we had youth groups and classes from other houses of worship visit us.
• We held more than three Tikkun Olam/Mitzvah community events last year: Tree planting, Redwood Center gift bags, Project Isaiah food collection.
• Develop adult learning group. Our Adult Ed program was a success with several courses I have already mentioned.
• Hold 3 work days over the next 12 months. We did not do so well on this goal. I will share with you soon our plan for addressing this need for this year.
• Plan to raise funds through organized fund raisers. To this end we have begun the leg work towards some fun fundraisers this next year.

As you can see, we have made great gains toward our goals for last year. There remains however some unfinished work which we have incorporated into our goals for this year. Your Board has identified seven more goals and several action plans to bring them to fruition. This year's goals are:

• Increase/Maximize Prospective Member Entry Points to CBS
• Increase/Maximize Member Connecting Points to CBS:
• Increase Board connectedness to congregation.
• Assign individual member a Board member advocate.
• Board member calls to assigned members.
• Add "Members' Concerns" to monthly Board agenda.
• Vice President/ President calls to Refuah Shleima list.
• Pairing all new members with a mentor family and a Board member.
• Institute an "Adopt a corner of our CBS Home" for your family.
• Expanded and more diverse adult and youth ed opportunities (JCC).
• Recruit Full time Rabbi/Cantor
• Increase CBS involvement in the greater Stanislaus County community.
• Raise $20,000 in non-restricted funds through fund raising:
• Jewish Film Festival.
• Texas Hold 'Em Tournament.
• Art Auction.
• Define CBS Purpose/Mission Statements.
• Investigate feasibility of a Jewish Day School/Preschool at CBS.

As you can see, there is much work to do. I invite each of you to join me over the next year as we work to meet these goals.

There are a few other things I want to share with you today.

First, our CBS family has been without a permanent rabbi for some 14 months now. During this time several of our members have stepped forward to assume many rabbinical responsibilities. As a community we owe a heartfelt yasher koach to a small group of members. Please join me in recognizing those members. Thank you Joel Youngheim and Tom Gough for ensuring that services have been conducted, including these High Holiday services. Thank you Laura Biewer and Marlene Gonsalves for serving as our initial point of contact and for dealing with more issues than most members will ever know about. Thank you Andra Greenwald for setting aside so much of your life for the past 20 months to head up our rabbi search. Thank you Andra, Tom, and Norm VanSpronsen for your work last year in leading up our conversion program. Thank you Andra for organizing a Bet Din and Mikveh visits for our conversion students. Thank you Morrie Kirschen, Tom, and Joel for mentoring our B'nai Mitzvah students. Thank you Laura, Tom, and Joel for organizing several funerals, shivas and unveilings over the past year. Thank you Andra, Tom, and Joel for conducting a naming ceremony and other life cycle ceremonies this past year. Our community is blessed by you and your contributions. Thank you to each of you for filling in as our rabbis for the past 14 months.

Secondly, I must ask each of you to join me in sharing our appreciation to the members of our Rabbi Search Committee. I would like to thank Andra, Tom, Jim Shiovitz, Evan Jacobs, Barbara Palitz, Deborah Steinberg, Susan Podolsky, Keith Highiet, Al Angel, and Joyce Gandelman for their dedicated service. From the start we aimed to find a candidate who would be a good fit for our diverse community. After nearly two years of searching we think we may have found a rabbi who is a good fit for us.

The good news is that we now have a rabbinical candidate that the Board has voted unanimously to recommend to the congregation. Last weekend many of you were able to meet Rabbi Art Gould. You will be receiving a notice in the mail informing you of a special congregational meeting on Sunday, September 23 at 7 p.m. to authorize the Board to begin negotiations with Rabbi Gould.

Last year I told you we are not desperate for a rabbi. I told you that we will continue to re-empower our members to be active Jews. Judaism is not a spectator religion; it is a participatory way of life. In Judaism there is no second string or third string who sit and watch while the first string prays, pays, and does. We are all first string prayers, payers, and doers. To be a Jew means we aspire to comply with G-d's commandments, to live a life of mitzvot, to pray, to act, to be a mensch. Judaism is based on each of us acting as G-d's partner to complete this world. Judaism does not require a rabbi for each of us to be a good Jew.

Well, we still aren't desperate for a rabbi--but your leadership is getting tired. Many of us have put in extraordinary amounts of hours, expended tremendous emotional and physical energy, interrupted our personal and professional lives to insure that we didn't miss a beat as a synagogue, a Jewish community, a family. For this opportunity I am sure all the people I have mentioned today are honored to have been able to serve you and will continue to do so willingly. I know I have and I will. Serving as your President has been an honor. Sharing in your simchas has been a joy. Sitting with you in your time of need has been personally meaningful. Watching your faces from the bima has been entertaining. Seeing my extended CBS family at this year's High Holiday services enriches my soul. Thank you for the opportunity to be of service to you.

In summation, the state of our CBS family is strong, thriving with activity, growing in numbers, active with youth and alive ... but getting a little tired. We have a prospective rabbi. Our budget is tight but in the green. Our membership has not shrunk since last year. Our physical home is in better shape than ever. We have laid the ground work for a tremendous and a promising 5768. With your continued support, it is sure to be a good year.

L'Shana Tova my friends. May we all be written in the book of life for the New Year.

Religious School News

We are off to a fabulous start in the year 5768! I am pleased to be working with a top notch group of teachers.

Our Sunday School classes are grouped by grade level, beginning with our Kindergarten / 1st Grade teacher, Becca Brotslaw. This is Becca's second year teaching and I am thrilled to have this "ace" of a senior on our teaching team. Our 2nd / 3rd Grade teaching team is Taunya Schwimmer and Heather Doyle. Taunya is a returning teacher and Heather is new to CBS, but not to the world of teaching. This dynamic duo will be sure to keep their classroom fresh and busy. Our 4th / 5th Grade teacher is Celia Angel. Celia has taken on this challenge to deepen her own knowledge of Judaism and give something back to CBS. Our confirmation class is being taught by our resident Parnas, Tom Gough. Tom loves teaching this course about the real life lessons our teens are dealing with in the Jewish world today.

Tom has also graciously volunteered to lead a morning Shacharit service every other Sunday from 9:30 to 10:00 a.m. for parents and their children to better understand how and why we pray, and so much more. These morning services will begin October 7th at 9:30 a.m.

We have also added another position to our staff. I am happy to announce our longtime teacher, Kelly Villalobos, will be our enrichment instructor of this school year with the help of Hannah Hyden. Kelly will be planing and executing group craft projects with a flair and a theme you will be sure to appreciate at the conclusion of the year! Also, a talent not to be missed, our pro dancer, Lara Brotslaw, will be teaching traditional Jewish dances after our High Holy Days have passed.

Our Hebrew classes are not by grade level, but by readiness and ability. We have four Hebrew levels taught by four very competent individuals. Our Aleph or 1st level teacher is Aleah Gonsalves. Aleah's enthusiasm and ideas are sure to give this group of beginners a love of this challenging language. Our 2nd level or Bet class is taught by Rochelle Rosen. Rochelle has a heart of gold and a true passion for Judaism and teaching. Our 3rd level of Gimmel class is led by Ben Banuelos. Ben has learned Hebrew by sitting in our classes as an adult and teaching himself this beautiful language. Our 4th level or Dalet class is being taught by our resident chef, Tammy Kempner. Not only is Tammy fluent in Hebrew, but she is also fluent in Arabic, Spanish, English, and Italian! One more bonus to add to the year 5768: Tom Gough will also be teaching a short prayer service at the beginning of each Hebrew School session.

Thank you all for sharing your time and talents with us and our children!

It is a NEW year, so make it good and sweet the whole year through! May you all be inscribed in the Book of Life!

Remember, half of every subscription to J- will go to Congregation Beth Shalom.  See your Bulletin for details.