Previous Messages From President Mark Stone

Well, it’s really not goodbye but it will be the last time I will address in writing you as President of the congregation. My intention was to update you on what we have been doing and where we are headed. I have since changed my mind. In mid-May you will be receiving a communication that will offer you all the updates you need.

In this setting, I would rather like to tell you what I have learned over these past two years as Temple President. First, I wonder if I could ask you a few questions. What does the presence of Reform Judaism in Springfield mean to you? And, what do you think our congregation will look like twenty years from now?

I asked myself that very same question a few weeks ago when attending a Friday night service. You see, in June, I will be one of those congregants who have completed the B’nai Mitzvah for all my children. Yes, Lauren will become a Bat Mitzvah on June 11th. She will be the 2nd third generation B’nai Mitzvah for my family. It so happens that is one of the exit points for some of our congregants. The thought is I’ll check out for a while and come back later. Unfortunately, that model or way of thinking will not perpetuate our congregation into the future. For me it’s easy, being connected for so long and being part of a family that has been part of Sinai for four generations does help me stay connected. Of course, you don’t need to have that many generations belong to Sinai to feel connected.

I have learned that the future of our Synagogue and Reform Judaism in Springfield is ultimately up to us individually as it was in previous generations. They knew that, in order for the congregation to thrive, their continuing affiliation was paramount to its future as they built this congregation. I know we have competing priorities now a days but the Board and committees cannot resolve our retention concerns by themselves. You alone and collectively can do just that. If we were able to retain half of those who leave Sinai, we would not have a declining membership concern.

It is my sincere hope that many years from now, when I have entered my twilight years and I am slowly heading to the glow of a distant sunset, I will have a place like Sinai to be part of and help me complete that Journey.

But what about those of you that need help connecting? Now more than ever synagogues need our support throughout all our life cycle events. We have been working hard these past years reaching out to those who may question their connection with Sinai. We have done many things to communicate and connect with our entire congregation. Our Clergy, staff, board, committees and volunteers have been working very hard on these efforts and to them I would like to say THANK YOU for all you have done.
So here we are, one last time, and part of me finds it hard to let go. I know you may find this hard to believe, but I have thoroughly enjoyed every minute as President of the congregation. Sure, there can be some ups and downs, but I hope you are pleased with what we have accomplished over the past few years. It has truly been an honor to serve the congregation.

On behalf of my family (Grandpa Arthur Rogers and Nana Arlene Rogers - Alav Hashalom – May they rest in peace) who I hope are very proud of our Sinai Temple, my parents Marlene and Nelson, my wife Melanie, children Andrew and Lauren I wish you all health and happiness.

I can’t believe this is my second to last bulletin article. Where did the time go? As many of you know, this June will see some changes in leadership at Sinai. I will be one of those changes - completing my term as President. As I write this article, the Nominating Com- mittee is looking into what leadership at Sinai will be for this upcoming year. I am very excited to see new people getting involved as that is extremely necessary for Sinai and its future. If you think you might be inter- ested in Temple leadership, please do not hesitate to let me know.

In the May/June bulletin I would like to look back over the past two years but for now let’s continue our focus on what is going on at Sinai in the present. First, thank you to those who are involved with our last fundraiser or as I would call it,“funraiser.” Martinis and Magic was a terrific night, with lots of smiling faces. A wonderful social event. Thank you to Liz Leshine and her committee for making Martinis and Magic another success this year!!

First, Music Man is scheduled this month with per- formances on March 10th & 12th at 7pm and a matinee on Sunday, March 13th at 2pm. Tickets are on sale now.

In April we have a fundraiser scheduled with a group that is back by popular demand. Vocolot will be with us on Saturday,April 9th at 7pm.

On Sunday, May 1st, we have an opportunity for our community to get together for Mitzvah Day. This is a great time for congregants to get together and do some good for Sinai and our surrounding community.

In June we will be having our Annual Meeting which is in the planning phases but promises to be an- other fabulous event. It will involve a brief but informa- tive meeting like last year, dinner and a musical perfor- mance to be determined but from the list of possibilities all sound great!!
So, have you been to any events, services or programs lately? If not, I would encourage you to consider attend- ing one or two. Sinai has a lot to offer and reviewing the bulletin is surely proof of that.

As always I thank you all for supporting Sinai Temple. Without your support we would not have a place to call Sinai.

Were you there? December 3rd 2010 was an amazing evening. It started with a service with more people than seats would allow. The sanctuary was aglow with dozens of menorahs flickering away with the smiles of all the children perhaps wondering whose menorah would last the longest. What followed was a wonderful service filled with prayer and singing with the Cantor and Shir Fun. Even more noticeable than the glow from the candles was the sense of community that in my opinion brightened the room more than a hundred menorahs. You could feel it. This multi-generation gathering radiated a sense of community we have been working hard as a congregation to achieve. Last year’s Chanukah dinner was a great success. I could not have imagined it being even bigger and better this year, but it was. Almost 300 people attended the service and dinner.

What followed the dinner was also very special. We as a congregation took the time to acknowledge three individuals who have spent a lifetime ensuring that Sinai would have a bright future. Of course, I am referring to Thais and Gunter Fischel who are responsible for the gift shop for the past 26 years and Mike Bader who as Chair of the Membership Committee for 36 years has welcomed most of us into Sinai. (See pictures on page 15.) The evening ended with our guest speaker Peter Pitzele who captivated the audience with an interactive story combining theater and Bible.

So why do I share this with you? First, I am very proud of what we are doing and hope you are as well. Secondly, I would like to connect with those who may not have had the chance to attend this event. This was definitely more than just prayer. We were together as a community and I think sometimes some of us might be missing this component in our relationship with the synagogue.We have many more opportunities this year to take in a service, talk, lecture, social event or perfor- mance. Please take the time to see what might interest you and consider attending such an event.

Let’s make our next few events ones we can remem- ber for a very long time. I hope to see you at Martinis and Magic on Saturday, February 5 or Music Man March 10, 12, or 13. If you don’t attend regularly please con- sider attending. If your friends are attending and you are not, please consider going with your friends. If you know an unaffiliated family these two events would be wonderful opportunities to check out Sinai.

Finally, thank you to all those who made our Chanukah celebration such a success: David Amster and Men of Sinai, the many volunteers including our Religious School children, our staff, plus Donna and Angel.

Can you believe Yom Kippur is over already? It is hard to believe the holidays came so early this year. Since we just talked together last week I promise to be brief. Our primary focus for this year will be on retention and recruitment as outlined in my comments Rosh Hashanah morning. These comments are available on our web site for your review. We will of course, focus on our other priorities I spoke of as well. Below please find an outline of our Ten Commandment for 2010-2011, which is a list of ALL of our initiatives. (A more detailed presentation of the Ten Commandments can also be found on the website.) Please consider being part of one of them either by participating or perhaps volunteering once or twice during the year.

In order to focus our activities during the coming year, the Board of Trustees voted to pursue ten initiatives. We hope these initiatives will enrich and strengthen Sinai.

It is early August and hard to believe we are preparing for the upcoming High Holidays. It’s equally hard to believe that I am in my second year as President of the congregation. When I look back at this past year, I must say we have done a lot. Your board, clergy and committees have work very hard on our initiatives and I would like to say THANK YOU to all of them for their dedication to Sinai.

If you were at our annual meeting, we updated you as to how we are dealing with the challenges outlined in this past year’s communications. We are cautiously optimistic. It will take time!!! The success of our efforts in retention and recruitment won’t be known for some time, but things feel good. There is no doubt we cannot rest on feelings alone. We must convey to the entire congregation that affiliation with Sinai is necessary to ensure Reform Judaism has a place in the greater Springfield area for generations to come. These are our priorities for this coming year and we have been working diligently on them.

We have done many amazing things this past year, some internally, with wonderful programming and some externally with a wider reach than ever attempted. I am referring to our TRYASYNAOGUE program initiated here at Sinai. This idea of collaboration with our synagogue neighbors along with Federation and HGF is in full swing. The message I send to you is to consider those you might know who are unaffiliated and help me affiliate them!!! If they are empty nesters, ask them to leave the nest and try one of our fabulous programs. If they have never been affiliated or just lost their way, help me show them the way back to Reform Judaism. Our TRYASYNAGOGUE program is communicating as best we can with those we think are unaffiliated, but I am sure some of you out there know a few. We have tried to reduce the barriers that might exist with an unaffiliated Jew – whether the disconnect is financial or other. If you would like further information, go to our web site www.tyrasynagogue.org where upcoming events and our programs are explained.

As we enter the High Holiday season, I hope you will join me in making sure Sinai continues to thrive for years to come. My wife Melanie, my children Andrew and Lauren, and I wish you all the best in this New Year.

As I write this article we are a few days away from what I hope will be a successful initiative for Sinai and our neighboring Synagogues. Of course, I am referring to the "try a synagogue" collaboration I have talked about in the past. Your Temple President, Clergy, Board and Exec members have been working hard to put this program together. We have sent emails, flyers and many of you should have received calls from a Board member about this initiative. But, I must confess, as hard as we have worked, the main thrust for this will come from the synagogue congregants themselves and not from those who have put this program together. Your connection with any unaffiliated Jews in this area is paramount to its success. So please, if you know someone who is unaffiliated, be sure they attend one of our events over the summer. For more information on this please go to the web site www.tryasynagogue.org.

Over the past few months, I have had congregants ask how we are doing. I encourage those of you who would like an answer to this question to attend our annual meeting scheduled for Thursday, June 10th. At this meeting we will be honoring those who have volunteered at Sinai over this past year. We will also give you an update on what has been accomplished this year and our plans for next year. The evening we have planned will be fun, enjoyable and informative. We begin at 6 p.m. with a free BBQ dinner. Your whole family (adults and children) are welcome. I look forward to seeing you there.

Since this bulletin spans the beginning of summer, I would like to wish you and your families a safe and enjoyable summer. As always, I thank you for your consideration of what we as a congregation can do for Sinai.

A Letter from Mark Stone Joined by the Rabbis of Beth El and B'nai Torah - April 2010

We are very excited to inform you of a collaborative project that is about to be launched in our community. This project is intended to reach out to unaffiliated members of our Jewish Community in and encourage them to join one of our three synagogues.

By way of background, for the past few months the Rabbis and Lay leadership from Sinai Temple, Temple Beth El and Congregation B'Nai Torah, together with representatives from the Springfield Federation and the Harold Grinspoon Foundation have met on several occasions in an effort to develop a joint plan to recruit new members to our respective congregations. Specifically, the intended goal is to encourage individuals that have either left a synagogue sometime ago or have never been affiliated to become members.

What has developed from this collaborative effort is a series of community events which will take place over the next few months leading up to the High Holidays. These events will include several"Jewish Java" get-togethers at local coffee houses to meet and greet the Rabbis; a program for all ages called "Bagels, Books and Beyond"; and open house events at each of the synagogues. A special dues rate will be offered to these new members. Formal publicity of the initiative will be launched within the next few weeks.

We wanted to inform you in advance of the formal announcement in order to prepare you to "talk -up" the program to your Jewish friends and neighbors that are not affiliated with a synagogue. This project will only be successful if all our members work together promote it.

We wish to conclude by letting you know how excited we are about the collaboration. We are encouraged and believe that this is just the beginning of many programs that we can jointly support so that together we can build an even stronger Jewish Community in the Greater Springfield Area.

Jonathan Goldsmith, President of Temple Beth El
Mark Stone, President of Sinai Temple
Kenneth Abrahams, President of B'Nai Torah

I would like to dedicate this article to what has been going on at Sinai since the summer. Some of our focus this year has been on connection and retention of our members. Since September we have had some wonderful events occur and I would like to share them with you. First, we have had some great happenings in our religious school through programs that involved our children and their parents. We learned with our children about prayer and what prayers mean to us. This was followed up by another program in January that incorporated why we do certain things in a service, information behind some of our familiar tunes and the different types of prayer. Both mornings were full of spirit and great opportunities to learn.

Adults have also had many opportunities for involvement over the last few months. Some of those that stand out to me were the Slichot Coffeehouse, our Chanukah "Light up the Night" dinner, and the musical performance of Nava Tehila on January 15. Each of these events demonstrated Sinai at its best. The energy that could be felt in the room with over 200 people attending each event was breathtaking. The organization between the service and the dinners that followed was masterful. Imagine a wonderful program, a lovely dinner and all that without waiting in line for the food with 200 of your Sinai friends. The Chanukah dinner exemplified the process perfectly. We had a fantastic turnout plus many volunteers working together to ensure a wonderful evening. Between the volunteers and those who attended, which was a multi generational crowd, you could definitely feel the sense of community in the room!! The next event a month later was the Nava Tehila performance. All I can say is WOW!! Standing room only, amazing music and again another multigenerational crowd enjoying the dinner that followed. I thank all of those who made both evenings possible.

We are doing it!! Our programming is exciting and our turnout is better than ever. Just ask a friend who has attended one of these events.

So, looking ahead please consider attending one of our next events. On February 27, we have our Martinis & Magic, and, of course, this time of year would not be complete without Purim. Each year is different, filled with laughs and not just for kids.

As Six Flags promotes season passes by saying "More Flags, More Fun, Six Flags," I would like you to consider your membership to Sinai your seasons pass. We are having fun; please join us if you haven't yet!

And as always, I would like to thank you for considering what you can do for Sinai. It is my hope that together we will ensure Sinai will thrive for future generations.

It's November 25 and we have held up the development of our bulletin for a few extra days. The reason is that I have been working on an idea for outreach that had its start in comments I made Rosh Hashanah morning. One of our goals for this year is reaching out to those who are not affiliated with a congregation. Back on Rosh Hashanah, I asked each of you to think of unaffiliated people you might know. We will be contacting you to ask for suggestions in the next few months.

Meanwhile, what have I been up to? Just this morning at my request, the Presidents and Rabbis of Temple Beth El and the new Bnai Torah convened with me and Rabbi Shapiro to start dialog on how we as a community can reach out to those unaffiliated with a synagogue. It is my belief that together we can be stronger in this effort. Our meeting went very well many ideas were passed around the table and we agreed to meet again in mid December to further the process. In addition to the three synagogues, we agreed to reach out to The Jewish Federation of Western MA as well as The Harold Grinspoon Foundation with hopes of collaborating on this effort and they have enthusiastically agreed to meet at our next meeting. Together with the other congregations and our other partners we want to figure out how best to approach synagogue affiliation utilizing any resources we and our partners bring to the table.

So, Sinai will be embarking on a more active effort in outreach externally to our congregation and I will keep you posted on our efforts in this area. As a reminder, I am hoping you to will consider doing your part to ensure Sinai thrives for a long time to come. If you recall I have a few things I was asking each member to consider:

Be a lifelong member: Continue your Sinai experience even after life cycle events.

Thank you for considering what you can do for Sinai. My hope is that together you and I will ensure Sinai will thrive for future generations.

So here we are. It’s November, and many of us have not talked since Rosh Hashanah morning when I spoke about retention, connection and recruitment for Sinai. Some of you, however, have communicated with me about your own Sinai connection or that of a friend. A few have come forward in other ways to assist our congregation financially. To all of you I say “Thank You!”

And where do we go from here? My goal over the next year is to reduce the number of congregants we lose. At the same time, I would like to focus on reaching out to unaffiliated Jews in the greater Springfield area. To do this, I need your help!!

Over the winter your Board will be reaching out to the entire congregation through a program we do every year called Panim el Panim, which means “face to face.” During the past three years, we have attempted to contact all members of the congregation just to say hello and to listen to anything you have to say.

Here is where you come in!! This year when we call I’m asking if you could consider a few things.

Whichever way works best for you please let us know and please start thinking about this now!

These are critical times and I ask that you consider helping this way if you can. Remember it was congregants like us who built Sinai from nothing. Now it needs to be congregants again who must get involved to ensure Sinai thrives into the future!!

In addition to what I am asking you to do, I want to update you on one project of my own. If you recall, during my Rosh Hashanah speech I mentioned a survey about the significant number of Jews who do not belong to a synagogue. Days after that I started to consider how we might reach out to these people. I pondered this for a while and came up with an idea. WE ARE NOT ALONE IN THIS QUEST. All the area synagogues are faced with this very same issue. So, I have reached out to the Presidents and Rabbis of both Conservative and Orthodox synagogues in the Springfield/Longmeadow area and asked them to get together so we can jointly address this issue. My feeling is that together we have a better chance of getting our message out to those who have no connection than to try individually. As I write this article, the other congregations have responded enthusiastically. We are hoping to meet together before the end of October. I will report back to you in the coming months.

Thank you for considering what you can do for Sinai. My hope is that together you and I will ensure that Sinai thrives for future generations.

As I write this message, it is the beginning of August and we have just sent out a congregational letter updating those who could not make one of our open meetings in the spring. We wanted to let everyone know what has been going on since those important meetings.

We your Executive, Board of Directors, committees and volunteers have been very busy over the summer working on what we are calling our “Ten Commandments.” These are ten initiatives for the coming year that focus on building a great sense of community here at Sinai.

Moving forward it is important for every congregant to understand their importance to Sinai Temple as a whole. Whether it is adults volunteering for an event or committee, teenagers continuing on with studies after Bar/Bat Mitzvah or connecting on any other level as a empty nester , we need you all!!!

It is important to understand that in order for Sinaito thrive we must consider that our affiliation with the Temple goes further than what we may individually get out of the Temple. We do support Sinai for our personal reasons, but we also support it because Sinai guaran- tees a continuing Reform presence in the Springfield area. When our founders organized to create a Reform Temple they did so because they could not find a place to worship where they felt comfortable. Let’s continue the mission they started over 75 years ago.

As we enter the High Holiday season I hope you will join me in making sure Sinai continues to thrive for years to come. My wife Melanie, my children Andrew and Lauren, and I wish you all the best in this New Year.

Please See President Stone's Extended Remarks
Delivered on Rosh Hashanah 5770 (September 19, 2009)

Previous Messages From President Mark Stone

Remarks to the Congregation by Mark StoneJune 19, 2010

Remarks to the Congregation by Mark Stone
June 19, 2010