At our last town hall gathering, I spoke to this congregation about what I consider the importance of selling this building. I made the case that this building’s sanctity is based not on its physical makeup, not on its address, but rather, on the gathering of people who come into it. What makes this building special is not the building itself – it is the community that has been fostered here.
At our last meeting, I spoke about the fact that holding on to this building is making it harder to sustain that gathering – making it ever more difficult to create that community – the resources that are wrapped up in this building are needed more than ever to ensure our synagogue’s long-term survival. They are needed to help us lower dues, to help us provide support for those who need it and to help us invest in both leadership development and membership engagement.
At our last meeting, I spoke about the importance of moving many of our programs and offices to the Jewish Community Campus – the center of Jewish life in our county – a place where Jewish senior citizens and young people and children are constantly coming together – a place where our religious school has now been running successfully since this past September – a place where we will have our own space for classes, and community gatherings and offices.
Much has happened since the town hall meeting we held this past summer.
Of course, most related to our plan, we learned that due to code restrictions, we are not currently permitted to pray at the JCC. Upon learning this, a leadership team here worked with the buyers of this building on a plan to lease back this sanctuary space for up to two years while a separate committee works to identify where we will worship long-term.
Since that last meeting as well, we have witnessed a transformative moment in the Jewish world.
On, October 7th, 1200 people lost their life and two hundred others were kidnapped in what was the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust. In the aftermath of this horrific event, we have seen rising levels on antisemitism on campus and beyond. So many in our community have felt scared and vulnerable – wondering about their own safety – wondering if they should hide their Jewish identity. Coalitions that we were active in have suddenly become places where we feel rejected. Our support for Israel is a foundation of our Jewish identity – but the world seems to be telling us that such support is illegitimate.
In our own community, Temple Beth Sholom has been at the forefront of responding to October 7th.
Days after the attack, we worked with our local school district superintendents in making sure that our schools were safe spaces; we worked with the town of Clarkstown in putting up an Israeli flag and publicly declaring our town’s support for Israel, we worked with our local Muslim community in developing a Healing Forum held at Rockland Community College which is now being planned for other schools as well, we worked with our local Federation in bringing ten buses and over five hundred people to the March for Israel in Washington D.C. In the weeks after the attack, Temple Beth Sholom held a morning seminar to teach adults what they don’t hear on the news.
We brought in speakers to our community including Congressman Mike Lawler, former Congressman Mondaire Jones and journalist Geraldo Rivera to offer us their views.
Since October 7th, Temple Beth Sholom has been communicating with the entire Rockland community by sending out weekly emails to help to contextualize all that has happened, to provide the latest updates and to offer support.
None of this work could have happened without a synagogue – none of these responses would have existed without a well-supported synagogue like Beth Sholom.
Organized Jewish life matters – it matters that we have institutions that bring Jews together, that support Jews in times of distress, that gives Judaism a public life – it matters that we have Rabbis and Cantors and Jewish educators and trained Jewish leaders – If anything proves the necessity of places like Temple Beth Sholom to exist, it is the work that our community has done in the wake of October 7th.
But in order for Temple Beth Sholom to be here, it needs the financial standing that is no longer provided by membership alone.
We are today a synagogue of 200+ families and we need to re-size our community to meet the needs of a new generation.
Our current plan is to sell this building, to bring our school, our programs and our offices to the JCC, to keep our worship here at 228 New Hempstead and then at another location identified by our search committee. The current plan is to use the proceeds from the sale of this building to help lower the obstacles to membership and to invest in our congregants and their families.
At the end of the day, we must stop people from believing that being a member of a synagogue – that being a member of Temple Beth Sholom – is all about a building.
It can’t be – that can’t be the meaning of what synagogue membership is all about.
A synagogue is about clergy that you believe in and want to have in your family’s life and in the life your community, a synagogue is about a meaningful and proud Jewish education that you want to provide for your children and others, a synagogue is about the collective power that the Jewish community has when it is well organized and well led,
a synagogue is about that gathering of people – whether online or in-person – that gathering of people that is so deeply sacred.
I want to again thank all of those who have put countless hours into this effort. This is my job and I am paid to do what I do – the incredible people who have been working on this have been doing this completely from their heart – they have worked through so many twists and turns, so many unforeseen changes, and they continue to marvel me.
Our president Marion, our treasurer Brian Smith, our attorney and longtime advocate David Sheichet – every member of our Executive Board and Board of Trustees—our sisterhood and men’s club leaders—all who give of their time to this community, who believe in what we do here, thank you for all that you do for our community.
