Temple B’nai Shalom Annual Meeting Address June 14, 2015/5775
Respectfully submitted to the secretary as required by the by-laws:
Honey tasting, Chocolate tasting, Latkes, Blintzes, Bagels, Brunch, Hamantaschen, Challah, Spartans and more! This was a year where our L.I.F.E. theme prevailed in every aspect of our congregation. We have had twelve amazing months of Food for Thought, even on Yom Kippur. We come to this Annual Meeting feeling nourished and satisfied as a community of learners, pray-ers, eaters, and mitzvah-doers.
I began the year going from the sublime to the ridiculous — playing God as Chef, cooking up the world for Rosh Hashanah, and then dressing up as Minnie Mouse (with Gary as a surprise Mickey) to teach repentance to our kids for Yom Kippur. And perhaps the greatest irony of all was that my sermon, Hunger as Food for Thought on Yom Kippur kicked off a year where we more than tripled our donations of food to those in need – we collected cereal and more all year long for Lorton Community Action Center, and TBS was the largest donor to this year’s community CROP walk for the second year running. Feeding the hungry became a TBS priority in a year when we spent so much time eating.
The year also began with a visual art project in our hallway called the Selichot Project where we shared what we were atoning for, and it transformed at Mitzvah Mall to donations we contributed, and is concluding this summer with our Shavuot project, What does Torah mean to you? If you haven’t filled out a card for the wall in the hall, please do so before you leave today.
What a menu we had before us this year! We ate lots of Shabbat Dinners (thanks to Renita Seldowitz and Susan Biggs and their amazing volunteer helpers) and Brunched on Gary’s food, and Learned and Lunched more than ever before with a host of rabbis. Our kids fed their Hebrew brains with Pizza on Tuesdays thanks to BeaSTY, and Bagels and Donuts on Sunday thanks to Brotherhood, and we followed our full sanctuary each Shabbat and holidays with onegs…lots of onegs (thanks to all of you for helping and answering Deb Polayes’s call). And thanks to Bette Shanley and Bonnie Nathan and their partners, seder with Matzah and macaroons and mayhem happened at TBS this year, too.
Our recipe for a very successful year included:
1 Ton of Devotion from our amazing staff
12 month-fuls of wise and diligent Board Leadership
Multiple Containers of Mitzvah and Devotion from all of our faithful member volunteers
Endless cups of wine and grape juice from our 23 fantastic B’nai Mitzvah kids since last annual meeting
An all-you-can-eat buffetfor our nationally recognized Post-Bar/Bat Mitzvah YES students, 18 Confirmands and 50 Post-Confirmands – 25 of whom graduated last month.
Our recipe also included:
A dash and a pinch of technology on the web, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, streaming live services, and the first phase of our big screens!
A heaping spoonful of horseradish and charoset at our school, Sisterhood, and Temple seders.
A tablespoon of sugar and one of salt and tears, as three generations of Kohns brought us a Yom HaShoah to remember. Thank you Ruth, Frank, and Jacob for a most memorable remembrance.
A heaping helping of Mitzvot from Mitzvah Day, Mitzvah Mall, the Caring Community committee – all of you have kept TBS the caring and sharing community doing tikkun olam, every day, in every way.
Pounds of protection from the ever-present Steve Miller and the Security team.
Cups of caring for our library by Marni Miller and her incredible multi-generational team, Lynn and Ellen after the sprinkler caused a terrible flood and we lost hundreds upon hundreds of books.
Plates of wedding cake for the increased number of weddings for our kids who are now adults, and weddings for adult members, and quite a few baby cakes for all the new children and grandchildren, too. Auf rufs, weddings, namings, brises, abound! YUM!
Too many hardboiled eggs, and deli platters at the shivas for our precious loved ones we lost, whose deaths rocked us to our core. And extra teaspoons of sympathy and love for the grieving families by our amazing Bereavement Committee, who worked overtime this year.
Add in dozens of hamantaschen that followed one of the best shpiels we have ever had “Megillah on the Roof” – bravo to everyone involved.
A cornucopia filled with blessings as we welcomed Abiding Presence for our 28th Thanksgiving of interfaith prayer together.
And speaking of Interfaith, we are so thrilled to add a new place at the table for the young interfaith family group that has formed thanks to Jaime Kurry, and the thriving older group that still has the best food at TBS, under Bette Shanley’s leadership.
Extra tablespoons of Tots as we more than doubled Tot Shabbat attendance this year
And morning morsels of Minyan Makers going stronger every week, under David and Donna’s incredible leadership.
Mouthfuls of musical marvels as we savored Cantor Rappaport, Rob and Rachel, Sheldon and Rick, a weekend of Peri Smilow, Sue and Brad, and more.
Cantor Rappaport is with us today and I want to recognize her wonderful contribution to this year’s menu of music at TBS. (Recognize the cantor).
And Rob and Rachel, without you, there would be no music at B’nai Shalom—thank you for Shabbats, and Tots, Confirmation, and for adding High Holy day family services to your ever growing repertoire of gifts that you give us almost weekly.
Tablespoons of T-Jam, our amazing teens who transform our worship and inspire us in song.
Teaspoons of our littler ones, Kolot Shalom, our Youth Choir, who share their sweet song as they Sing Unto God with Sue and Donna.
And a small taste of our Adult Choir, who we need to sing more often.
We even invited guest chefs to our Network:
A huge bar of Chocolate from our Scholar in residence, Rabbi Deborah Prinz
A savory social justice offering from Rabbi David Saperstein
The best lox of the year at the Israel Bond Breakfast with the insightful Dr. Ralph Nurnberger
And an Israeli tasting menu with Dana Kalishov, our JCC Israel Shelicha
And let’s not forget how many shovels full of snow we had this year and how gracious everyone was about my adding snow days to our calendar. I was thrilled when one of my Hebrew students said, “Rabbi Perlin, I wish we could go all summer!” Don’t worry… not happening, but there will be Hebrew and Pizza in July and August.
Overall, we provided a healthy, fresh, locally grown, traditional and innovative menu of choices for our members. And those who partook of the offerings gave us rave reviews for the most part.
Sometimes you ate and other times you cooked or shopped, or savored — but most of all, as I spent the year by myself doing the job of two rabbis and an educator, you supported.
My recipe for success this year was you, all of you. You understood that I only had 30 hours in a day and that often I had to call instead of visit. You were so kind and caring, as you all did what you could to keep our synagogue running, thriving, and strong. I gave over 45 sermons, and wrote to you weekly in Constant Contact and monthly in the KOL. I saw, visited, comforted, cared for, called, and counseled as many of you as I possibly could.
I especially want to thank Donna and Sharon for running the school all the hours that I just couldn’t and for doing so with professionalism, caring, and kindness; I thank Donna for all the wisdom and experience she brought to this task, while she fulfilled all of her other TBS responsibilities as a teacher and volunteer; and thanks to Nicky, our school secretary, for keeping all the details in order, without any direct supervisor all year. And to our amazing faculty who do more for the Jewish people’s future each class and each week than we could ever thank or praise them for.
I want to thank Sharon for all she has done in our school as an educator, teacher, and family education specialist in our congregation, and to energize our youth and reinvigorate all of our youth groups. Sharon you are such an important part of our TBS family and we are so blessed to have you here every day.
As we look forward to hosting Fall Kallah… please sign up to house teens as soon as you can. We want to be known as the best hosts in the region! And our amazing BeaSTY-ites deserve our best effort because they are the BEST! And the committees supporting our school and youth are tireless and second to none! Thank you to Mara, Barbara and Michelle, your committees, and hosts of volunteers, for all you do.
And to David Kleinman. He and Sandi will celebrate 40 years of marriage tomorrow, and I will celebrate almost 30 knowing this incredible man, who stepped in to lead services, give sermons, teach Mussar, run minyans, and always be available as a para-rabbinic partner with his wisdom and skill to help me when I couldn’t be in two places at once, and in ways that I could not teach or lead.
And to my Exec Asst, Ellen Wolynec, who runs my life and the temple and is my right and left hand most days, helping me keep it all straight and right. She has taken on so much out of love for me and for this temple, and I will always be eternally grateful.
And to our Executive Director, Lynn Richmond, who is our beautiful face to the community, to our temple family, and in our office. Her wisdom, professionalism, creativity, diligence, caring, and vision is an inspiration to me each day. She shows her love for our temple with her devotion, and has navigated us through times of trial and tribulation and flood with grace and clear thinking. I rest easier every night, knowing that Lynn is in charge.
And to our amazing President Scott Bauer and our first Vice President and chair of our rabbinic Search Committee, David Cherington, my undying thanks. Your patience and leadership brought us to a wonderful conclusion for our rabbinic search. Your Board and Search Committee, partnering with our members, gave us a process filled with values, integrity, and vision. We sat VERY CLOSELY, side by side, in front of my computer on Skype interviewing… and spent countless hours together with a common purpose and goal – finding the best available rabbi for TBS.
And you, gentleman, have been the most worthy and thoughtful partners in a process that was at times heartbreaking and at others just endless. To use our food imagery, we had our fill of small plates and indigestion, ultimately to be able to say we can anticipate the taste of a wonderful world to come. You found us everything we were looking for as you selected Rabbi Laura Rappaport: a master educator, an experienced and caring rabbi, capable coverage for me when I am away, and someone who has a sincere desire to be a part of this amazing place called TBS.
I am so very grateful to our Board. Their plates are full – ushering, meetings, committees, visioning, attending, supporting, guiding… so much time and so much devotion. Thanks to you, our cups overflow!
This is my 29th Annual Meeting address. I look forward to kicking off our 30th year with our 30th High Holy Days this September. We will be blessed to have Cantor Malka Rappaport back with us and to welcome Rabbi Rappaport, no relation to the cantor, as our new Assistant Rabbi and Educator. We have Rappaports on the menu, and I am so very grateful.
From my heart to yours, thank you for an amazing year. My review of TBS this season – five stars, four diamonds, and great value$! At the end of a meal we say Birkat Hamazon, a blessing or grace after meals.
Baruch atah Adonai, hazan et hakol.
Thank you God, for sustaining us with all we needed. Amen