AGM Rabbis speech 2013

 If you can believe it, this is my seventh year at Shaarei Beth El.  In Jewish terms, we would call this the Shmitah.  In ancient times the 7^th year was when all debts were forgiven and the land was allowed to lay fallow and not harvested, to give people and the land itself a time to refresh and recharge.  Seven as you know is a whole number in Judaism – we have the seven days of creation leading to the seventh day as Shabbat, a time to rest.  We have many other sevens – seven circles of a bride around a groom, 7 day of shiva, 7 dreams of Joseph in the Bible, the armies circled Jericho 7 times before winning the battle, there are 7 layers to ascent to heaven.  Each 7 represents a milestone, a time to look back on what was accomplished and to spend a year planning for the future.  So lets look back seven years ago.

When I arrived here financially our synagogue was on shaky footing.  We had large debt and incurred losses each year.  Due to many factors we are now on solid ground.  We updated our dues structure, cut down on spending, restructured our debt, adjusted our staffing, created an annual fundraiser, and we balanced our budget.  This was due to the hard work of our treasurers, board and executive members and especially you, the congregants, who gave so generously out of your pockets.  In fact not only have we had a balanced budget each year, we raised enough last year to complete the first phase of Walking on Sacred Ground.  I think we were all impressed by how it turned out, thanks to some very hard work by our WSOG team and the renovation professionals.  One of our biggest benefactors, Eddie Weisz, took me to lunch the other day to express his delight at how beautiful our sanctuary looks.  I’m excited for phase 2 and the renewal of our entranceway and lobby to match our sanctuary.  Now if only TD Bank would respect our Shmita laws and forgive our debt, we would be thrilled.  However with a balanced budget now for 7 years its time to look to the future and establish an endowment fund, a place where we put money away and earn interest to go towards our operating budget.  This can be in the form of large donations from wills or stocks or final requests, or other such initiatives.  We need to have a long term plan for the continual survival of Shaarei Beth El, for us, our children, our grandchildren and beyond. 

When I look back 7 years ago, I wanted us to be a learning congregation.  Our education program has succeeded beyond expectations, as testament to our education staff and director Cheryl Wise, so that our children are learning in innovative ways. We even received special grants from Federation that have rewarded our new approach to Jewish study.  At the same time, we as adults are also continually learning. We have a wide variety of adult opportunities, such as Shabbat morning torah study, film nights, and Hebrew Sunday mornings.  Wednesday nights are going to be our adult Ed nights, as we have focused on Judaism and health recently, and moving ahead into more Israel and Jewish European history in the coming months, to tie into our upcoming trips.  Of course last summers’ Israel trip was a huge success, I’m looking forward to taking a group to Europe next summer and mark your calendar now for our return trip to Israel in 2015. 

7 years ago many outside our shul didn’t know SBE existed in Oakville.  We have raised our profile, with events such as our inclusive Chanukah candle lighting ceremony, participated in other civic events, highlighting our activities in the local papers and became much more active in interfaith events.  I remember when I got here we didn’t even have a sign on the front of the building that said SBE and now we are Or L’goyim, a shining beacon of light within the Halton community.  So I am not that surprised that many families are looking our way, and am happy to report that 17 new families have joined our shul this year.  With new membership chairs Doris and Arthur leading the way, we are surely looking at a very strong membership base.

 I look forward to using this year to recharge, see where we are, and build for the years ahead.