Previous Messages From President Mark Stone

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)