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From President Mark Stone
November 2009
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.
First, do you, or anyone you know ever question your connection with Sinai?
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.
Previous Messages from President Mark Stone