Building for Our Future

This year we have laid the foundation upon which we will build for our future.
We have all been challenged in some way with the loss of investments and jobs, not to mention concerns with health issues and the overriding sense of gloom and fear in our world today. The foundation of the future of Temple Beth Hillel lies first and foremost in our attitude! We have come together repeatedly throughout this year to strengthen our community and to lift our spirits with prayer, learning, and fun too.

Our Temple has been humming with a wide variety of activities for everyone. We were introduced to the Friday Night Live Shabbat Service this year. The use of instruments to accompany our worship added such joy. Do you all remember our sanctuary filled to capacity for Purimspiel? Generations of Temple Beth Hillel families celebrated Purim together, in costume and with great laughter. Again the generations of Temple Beth Hillel joined together to welcome the B’nai Jacob Torah into our midst. With shofar blasting, joyous music and dancing, we passed this Torah down from B’nai Jacob to Temple Beth Hillel. It was an inspiring Shabbat. To top it all off, we had our first 3Choir Concert under the direction of Cantor Mekler. With an audience of over 200, we sampled Jewish choral music from old to new. This all started with the formation of our Temple Beth Hillel Adult Choir that made its debut at our High Holiday worship.

All of this activity was not done by just one person, or one committee. The success of each event represented the hard work and enthusiasm of many Temple members getting involved. With all of your efforts to bring the B’nai Jacob Torah to our Temple, funds were raised to help us financially. The Men’s Club Auction and your support of the 3 Choir Concert raised money for the Music Fund. This has enabled us to keep our Cantor Mekler here at Temple Beth Hillel. The Sisterhood sale of “Irv’s Bowls” (the artistry of Irv Kurtzman) has contributed to our ability to pay down our mortgage.

Your President and Board of Directors are pursuing other avenues of getting outside financial support for our Temple. With this year as our foundation we start to build for our future. We will form a Strategic Planning Committee to discuss and plan for the succession of new leadership on our Board of Directors and to chart our course for the future of Temple Beth Hillel. Planning has already begun for next year’s celebration of our 50th anniversary. Just as you have been such a big part of our success this year, we look to you to be a part of more wonderful things to come. Together we can All Build for Our Future!

Stanley J. Goldberg
President