18 Shoolman Way, Milton, MA 02186 | (617) 698-3394 | Email Us
18 Shoolman Way, Milton, MA 02186 | (617) 698-3394 | Email Us
South Shore Jewish Congregation
Shana Tovah
Last year I read a story about Itzhak Pearlman and a performance in which a string on his violin broke. Reflecting on the brilliant performance he delivered with just three of his strings, he said: “You know, sometimes it is the artist’s task to find out how much beautiful music you can still make with what you have left.”
And so it is that as we enter this prolonged period of Covid restricted life that our congregation has shown how much we can do with what we have left. I am honored to say that spiritually, religiously, educationally, and socially we have thrived.
Last year I recited a list of Dayenu’s as I shared the accomplishments of the year. As I review with you the beautiful evolution of life in our shul this year, the excitement that I feel is best expressed by the sacred word L’Chaim, To Life.
First to Rabbi Benjamin for a year of service full of commitment, attention, inspiration, generosity and caring to this Congregation and the greater Milton Community. Rabbi Benjamin in his passion and commitment to keep the Chayim, the life force of Jewish life flowing does whatever it takes in any area of our community that calls for energy, whether it be leading services, teaching adult ed classes, setting up tents and chairs, spending time with each new prospective member, having a significant presence in the community at large (which included personally delivering New Year bags a card from the congregation and apples and honey), working in concert with our medical team (Dr. Jon Pincus, Dr. Molly Perkins and Dr. Paul Etkind) to evolve our Covid Policies, continuing to assure that our physical and virtual channels of connection remain as open as possible, supporting Cantor Lisa and our religious school in its evolution, supporting our B’Nai Mitzvah students (we celebrated 7 B’nai Mitzvahs in the shul this past year that were designed to highlight the strengths and passions of each celebrant – Joshua Matlin-Heiger, Brady Sturdivant, Maxine Milt, Jack Schweitzer, Sammy Goodman, El Craghead-Goldman, Nina Minsky), serving the Jewish community at Fuller, supporting Arlene and Harriet and supporting me and all the officers and team members to name a few. L’Chaim!
To Jay Balaban and David Ehrmann who have selflessly provided their attention and expertise at almost every service and event that we have had since March 2020 providing us connection through Zoom Livestream and Roku and to Karen Wong, Arlene Klotz, Michelle Sturdivant, Karen Friedman Hanna and Bill Hanna for their techno Shamas support. And to CJP for their grant money in this regard. L’Chaim!
To Cantor Lisa our Educational Director of the Religious School, who is looking forward to her second first year, this one hopefully mostly in person. Last year we had 37 students who were with us and this year we have 47 students registered to date. The leadership team and the Education Team (Lisa Sadler, Deborah Ala, Ruth Gershman, Shlomit Hanz, Rob Milt, Marilyn Monderer, Jon Pincus, Lindsay Rosenfeld and Margie Skeer) is supporting Cantor Lisa, evolving the curriculum, staff and classroom layout and design, while she finetunes the focus of our religious school to include innovative, experiential, active and inclusive Jewish learning. New and evolved programs include the Shalom Children Activities Program, a free program for young children aged 4 – 7 which will meet 6 times, Shabbat Morning Celebrations for Families with Young Children, a revitalization of our Story Time program that Lila Rosenbaum lead for years and that Ronit Voit has evolved with the addition of song and dance; our Jewish Early Education Activity Program for students aged 4 -7 which will include participation of our music specialist David Wesson, who will be with the students on a regular basis this year as well as with the Congregation on monthly Friday night musical Kabbalat Shabbats and our 5 Religious School Shabbat Morning Services; a Back to Basics Hebrew Bootcamp to boost basic Hebrew skills for those students desiring to do so; Team Madrichim, Post B’Nai Mitzvah students who volunteer to assist our religious school teachers with one to one and class assignments throughout the year and the Tikkun Olam Teens, our new teen run and organized youth group supported by Cantor Lisa, parents and community volunteers that recently created the following mission statement “We are the Tikkun Olam Teens of Congregation Beth Shalom of the Blue Hills: Advocate for Justice, Work for Change, Do Mitzvot & Create Equity with us”. L’Chaim!
To Arlene and Harriet who continue to do whatever it takes to assure that all the myriad of details and steps that need to be taken so that the shul runs so smoothly are accomplished. This has been a year in which both Arlene’s husband Mel and Harriet’s husband Stephen and her nephew whom she cares for have had hospitalizations and rehabilitation and have not let any of the synagogue business go unattended to. I do not expect that as we prepare for the evolution of staff in the office that we will ever come close to finding a match for their commitment to the shuls welfare like they provide. L’Chaim!
In other critical areas I am pleased to share with you that we created a Strategic Planning Team this year comprised of our treasurer Steve Ostrovitz, myself, Margie Skeer, Shelley Charnoff and Michelle Sturdivant and lead by Natasha Minsky are currently reviewing responses to our request for proposals to facilitate a congregational process in which we will review our Vision, Mission and Values Statement this year; and we established another team, the Website and Social Media team ,comprised of these same folks and Sara Forster have been working on developing a communications strategy and protocol which includes revamping the format of This Week (great thanks to Sara Forster and Rabbi Benjamin for that) and implementing ShulCloud. With use we will all become proficient with ShulCloud and reap the benefits of this synagogue management program. I ask all members to register and begin to use SC as it saves time in for you and for the office. If you need support please call the office or access the self-help manual which explains each step. L’Chaim!
Lest we forget to mention our financial health and our Annual Tzedakah Campaign. Thanks to the Finance Team of Steve Ostrovitz, Jay Balaban, myself and Team Leader Steve Jacobs, building on momentum that began with the work of the Finance and Sustainability Initiative four years ago, for the second year in a row we broke even. This was largely due to the successful Annual Tzedakah campaign of last year through which we raised $47,000. In fact other gifts and Tzedakah contributions made for a total donated of $79,500. With an annual budget of $479,000 you can see the importance of Tzedakah contributions to our sustainability. We thank all who have been willing and able to make contributions.
In a few weeks we will begin this year’s Tzedakah Campaign and hope that every member will make a contribution no matter the size. Participation by a growing number of members is an important benchmark to measure our development as a congregation. L’Chaim!
Our Inclusion Team(Shelley Charnoff, Karen Friedman Hanna, Annett Koplovsky, Rob Milt, Lila Rosenbaum, Ada Rosmarin, Pam Shrago, Alan Rosmarin, Michelle Sturdivant, Ronit Voigt and Francine Weistrop lead by Deborah Ala) has had a productive year as well. This year the inclusion team purchased an adjustable Torah table eliminating a physical barrier to inclusion in addition to the hearing loops and magnifiers for that we purchased previously. The team helps us focus on our written language, for example editing to the new member form that is now being used and focused on programming by supporting the Juneteenth Shabbat, with Dr Kimberly Cauley-Narain speaking about explaining structural racism to kids, and a successful Pride Shabbat led by Jay Balaban. L’Chaim!
Karen Friedman Hanna and Emily Goldman are our Membership Team and they have helped 8 new families join this past year and are presently in conversation with several other families. L’Chaim
We anticipate that Jimmy Baez will be joining the team as our new part time maintenance person starting next week. L’Chaim!
In regard to the congregations active Tikkun Olam we flipped the switch on our solar electric installation taking us off the grid. Thanks to Robert Rosofsky for managing this project for us. And Jack Levy who coordinated our JFCS Family Table drive as well as the annual Red Cross Blood Drive and winter jacket drive this year. L’Chaim!
We enacted a new set of By Laws this year that modernized and streamlined our governing processes and capped a 4 year process started by Robert Baylor and continued with myself, David Mabel, Larry Rose, Arlene Klotz and Janet Petkun. L’ Chaim
A big thanks to the Eboard who day in and day out lead our synagogue life in vital areas of shul life: David Ehrmann Vice President of Spiritual Life and Religious Practices, Lisa Sadler our VP of Youth and Family Education, Lindsay Rosenfeld our Secretary, Steve Jacobs our VP of Finance and Administration; Steve Ostrovitz our Treasurer and Deborah Ala our Vice President of Social Action and Community Outreach. And a thanks to our Board of Directors. L’Chaim!
Despite the emotional and in many cases physical effects of COVID and the complicated lives that we all lead so many people contributed time and energy that has made and continues to make our shul so enriching. And it is warming to seeing the number of newer members volunteering to help, joining teams and joining the board. L’Chaim.
I encourage those who are new to our shul to take a step into our community by talking to any of the officers or Board members about contributing a skill, or a little of your free time and we will find a place for you to share and enjoy the benefits of meeting others in the shul in this way.
Finally for their efforts to making this year’s High Holiday services so memorable and sweet a Todah Gedolah to Rabbi Benjamin, and especially to Cantor Robbie for being with us for the second year and sharing his sweet gifts and wisdom with us and our choir which Cantor Robbie organized … Barbara Ehrmann, Allison Moll, Jen Zaslow, Ian Goldstein, Cantor Lisa and Emily Goldman; along with El Craghead-Goldman and Jay Balaban for their duets and Sophie Lin-David for her cello playing last night as we entered the sanctuary for KN; and a special thanks to Sam Solomon, Cantor Robbie’s son for helping us with the recording of the choir and to David Wesson and Sarah Monderer for leading our youth services in the tents outside.
And the crew of people who worked behind the scenes for the past month and more; Our Tent Team: Nate Spier, Robert Rosofsky, Al Mollitor, Steve Ostrovitz, Steve Jacobs, Bill Hanna, Rob Milt, Robert Baylor, Jay Balaban.
Annette Koplovsky and David Ehrmann for arranging our greeters, honors and ushers and to Annette for getting the apples for our RH bags.
Pam Shrago for arranging our Bimah Sitters.
And for helping us set up the sanctuary, which was ever more challenging given that we are in the process of hiring a new maintenance person, particularly Pam Shrago, Steve Jacobs, Lee Ann Jacobs, David Ehrmann and Jay Balaban and to all the greeters and ushers and others who did so much for us this High Holiday season. L’Chaim.
To Lewis Rosenberg, who not only donated all of the labor necessary to build the booths that allow the Rabbi and Cantor to lead services safely in this Covid era, but built these booths with an attention to the esthetics and details of the materials employed and the design of the booths themselves so beautifully. L’Chaim!
To our officers and directors, to our team chairs and team members, to those who have taken up the call to do tasks small or large from managing the grounds and managing our safety and security concerns, to managing our solar power installation, to making pickups or deliveries throughout the year, delivering mail to the post office, finding new office furniture, maintaining our Facebook pages, setting up and taking down our tents throughout the year, delivering old machzors to the cemetery for burial, scanning documents so we can preserve our congregational history; to those who have given feedback and ideas, for those who have organized activities; ALL of these contributions are appreciated. To you all I say L’Chaim!
With a list like this I am sure that I missed some very important things and people’s contributions…. please forgive me.
To all of you a Gamar Tov, a good year ! L’Chaim..
Op-Ed: Missing the comfort of ‘my’ seat in synagogue when the whole world is askew
Op-Ed from LA Times, August 31, 2020
Very useful material to help you and your child access the beauty and power of the High Holy Days
https://jgateways.org/Resources/High-Holiday
Congregation Beth Shalom of the Blue Hills is encouraging congregants to visit the Shul Sukkah. To do so, please fill out the attached Shul Sukkah Reservation Form and return to the office as soon as possible.
