PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE – July 2025
One year ago I stood before the congregation announcing that it would be my last term as President of the Temple Board. Well, as the old Yiddish adage goes, “man plans and God laughs.” Things change.
Last year I announced we had a new Temple Board Secretary and three new directors. That Secretary and two of the directors are gone. Jen Levine has stayed on the Board. Joanne Serin joined the Board as a Director and Diane Lewis-Goldstein was appointed Secretary. Joanne and Diane have now been elected to full terms.
What a year it turned out to be. We have a new Rabbi, we have some new members of our Temple Family and some returning members as well. And for the first year in a long time I don’t have to tell you how precarious our finances are. We aren’t flush, but we are in better shape than we were last year at this time.
We have spent much of the last year getting our feet under us, and now that we are more stable, more secure, we need to start looking forward.
The question was raised at our Annual Meeting – what do we offer new families? Well, we are a really nice group of people, we have great services, but what else? Our best qualities remain intangible, but we need to be more visible. We need to start doing things again. Social, cultural, and educational activities. Just plain fun things to do together.
One thing that has pained me greatly was the suspension of our Religious School. The first step in rebuilding that is to reach out to families with children in need to Bar and Bat Mitzvah preparation. Rabbi Bieber took over the preparation of our two Bnai Mitzvah students. Finn has had his Bar Mitzvah and did an incredible job, and we look forward to December and Marley’s Bat Mitzvah. By all reports she too is going to be remarkable. No pressure, right? Offering Bar and Bat Mitzvah preparation is the first step in attracting the families we need to relaunch a Religious School.
Last year we didn’t do much to publicize ourselves, in part because we didn’t know if we would even have a rabbi for the High Holidays. Now we need to start getting the word out, we are ready to grow our Temple Community again. We all need to be involved in this. There are only nine people on our Board of Directors, we just can’t do it alone. But we can all do it together.
I start each new term optimistic about our Temple, because I know what a great family we are. I know how unique, how welcoming, how loving, how spiritually unique we are. This year, I am even more optimistic because I know what we have gone through this past year, how we came together and stayed together. In many ways we are a different Temple Beth Emet than we were last year, but in the important ways we are the same. We are as we always have been, the Temple With a Heart.
— IRA L. GOLDSTEIN, President
