Greetings!
I hope you are having an enjoyable and restorative summer. Nina and I, and our family, look forward to catching up and reconnecting with as many of you as possible at High Holiday services this year.
The purpose of this letter is to provide an update on our efforts to bring the member families and senior professional staff of Temple Judea Mizpah (“TJM”) into the Beth Emet community, and to let you know that we will be hosting a
Community Conversation
to share more information and provide an opportunity for questions
on Tuesday, August 14 at 7:30 p.m.
Because of the ongoing construction at Beth Emet, we will be meeting
at the Unitarian Church (1330 Ridge; Evanston).
The Importance of Membership
As you may have read or heard, one of the great challenges facing Reform and other Jewish congregations everywhere is maintaining and expanding membership. There are a lot of reasons for this challenge – changing demographics in the communities surrounding a synagogue, lessened interest in supporting religious institutions, and so on. Beth Emet has weathered most of these membership-related issues, but membership retention and growth is still a front and center concern of the Board of Trustees.
Last year, we officially welcomed the member families of Temple Menorah to Beth Emet after their Rogers Park synagogue had ceased operations. The former Temple Menorah congregants have been terrific additions to our community, serving on the Board and in other leadership roles, contributing to the Mitzvah Appeal and other campaigns, singing in the choir, attending services, and supporting other events. We are fortunate to now have the Temple Menorah community woven into the fabric of Beth Emet’s diverse and multi-generational membership.
Initial Overture to Temple Judea Mizpah
Temple Judea Mizpah is a warm and welcoming Reform Jewish community celebrating over sixty years in Skokie. This past spring, we learned that TJM was exploring options for a new home for a variety of reasons.
With our Board of Trustee’s unanimous support, we approached TJM’s senior lay leadership to explore the possibility of combining our two communities at Beth Emet. On the surface, it struck us as a combination that might be mutually beneficial. TJM members could have a new (and renovated) home at Beth Emet to pray, learn, celebrate, engage in social action, and live Jewish values, and not have to address the challenges of finding or building a new facility. Beth Emet could welcome TJM’s members into our community – as many as 130 member households to join us at services, participate in our lifelong learning events, expand the number of learners in our youth education and other programs, contribute to the synagogue through membership dues and other fundraising, and so on. Combined, the two synagogues potentially have nearly 800 member households, which would further empower our programming and social action initiatives. There also was the potential for Beth Emet to receive funds from the TJM building sale.
There was one other potential positive we saw for both communities. With the departure of Cantor Friedman, Beth Emet was in the midst of an active search for either a temporary cantor or one or more persons to provide the leadership necessary to support our b’nei mitzvah program and to assist with singing and prayer at services, and in other areas, at least until we are able to identify our next permanent cantor, which we expect to complete early next year. Additionally, our
klei kodesh
(senior staff) has been stretched to the limit for some time and needed more resources and support. TJM has three senior professionals, two full-time and one part-time, who would be able to be connected with us.
Ongoing Discussions
While issues like timing, membership growth, senior leadership, and economics are important issues to consider in a potential synagogue combination, they are really just scratching the surface. There is a broad spectrum of challenging issues that need to be addressed to assess whether a combination will work, from the sacred such as worship styles, education practices, and pastoral care, to the practical, like membership dues, personnel, and operations. To address these and other issues, each synagogue asked a handful of members to engage in open, creative and constructive discussions and see if we could together reach a Memorandum of Understanding setting forth the key elements of bringing TJM and its members and resources into Beth Emet. The Beth Emet representatives working on this combination include Rabbi Andrea London, Executive Director Bekki Kaplan, and Director of Lifelong Learning Marci Dickman, who were joined by congregants Mel and Patti Gerbie, Jeff Mann, Carol White, Georgene Wilson, and me. The discussions have been facilitated, in part, by Rabbi David Fine of the Union for Reform Judaism. Our collective goal in these discussions was to try and structure a combination that will be successful not just for the first year, but for future generations as well.
What we learned as we met to discuss a possible future together is that TJM shares many of the same values as Beth Emet and has a similar mission. There is a deep commitment to lifelong learning,
tikkun olam
, and to teaching and living Jewish values. TJM’s members are smart, interesting, dedicated, and fun and we are confident they will be able to make important contributions to the betterment of the Beth Emet community.
We even found some historical connections. TJM’s Cantorial Soloist Shawna Rosen served as the Beth Emet Choir Director under Cantor Erin Frankel, and substituted for Cantor Frankel in a number of services. TJM’s Rabbi Amy Memis-Foler and Rabbi London have both been on the summer faculty at OSRUI. Temple Mizpah itself is the congregation which Beth Emet Founding Rabbi David Polish served until 1950 when a subset of that community left to create a breakaway congregation, Beth Emet, that would offer Rabbi Polish the freedom to speak from the pulpit. In 1977 Temple Mizpah joined Temple Judea. Many of their founding members built civic institutions throughout the Skokie community, which are used by Beth Emet members.
Current Status
I am pleased to report that the combination discussions have borne fruit, and that we are now finalizing a Memorandum of Understanding, with the unanimous support of the Boards and
klei kodesh
of both synagogues. We expect to work out the remaining details over the next few weeks. Beth Emet and Temple Judea Mizpah communities will start our combination at the upcoming High Holidays and the start of the Beit Sefer year. That means you’ll see and hear from some new or unfamiliar faces in September. Please take a moment to introduce yourself and say “welcome,” because at the end of the day, members are what makes Beth Emet matter, and such a special community.
What comes next? Our communities will undertake the joint and critical task of fully integrating TJM member families into Beth Emet’s religious, educational, and social justice programs, and all other aspects of our synagogue life. We are forming a committee to focus on the integration of both communities to ensure that we meet our goal of creating long-lasting, intentional relationships throughout the congregation. If you are interested in working on this important effort, please contact me, or Bekki Kaplan.
Conclusion
Change is never easy, but it is necessary. We are fortunate at Beth Emet to have the broad shoulders of our founders and all the subsequent stewards of our community to stand on. We are indeed moving from strength to strength as we continue with T’rumah, our Capital Campaign, renovate and update our facilities, and welcome new communities like TJM to join us in worship, learning, and service. I wish everyone a great August with family and friends.
L’Shalom,
Ross B. Bricker
President of the Board of Trustees
