Creating a Culture of Philanthropy
08/15/2021 07:57:40 PM
I’m writing this in the evening following our Culture of Philanthropy workshop and wanted to share my thoughts about the program and process.
For those of you that had a chance to attend our annual meeting this past June, I discussed that for this fiscal year, we were going to lean in to adding services (adding a full time rabbi, adding an ordained cantor, education coordinator, funding a part time social justice coordinator and an...Read more...
Masks for the Holidays
07/09/2021 04:36:59 PM
Popular legend has it that King Christian X of Denmark ordered all Danish citizens to wear yellow stars in support of their Jewish countrymen during the German occupation of Denmark. This act had a great equalizing effect: without a marking that differentiated Jews from non-Jews, the German occupiers had no simple way of uniquely identifying people by their faith or beliefs and all were treated equally.
As we look ahead towards...Read more...
A New Rabbi
05/04/2021 10:51:39 AM
I'm sure I'm not the first one telling you this, but we have a new rabbi at Temple Beth Shalom. At a special congregation meeting on April 21, the 157 members in attendance voted by overwhelming majority to approve Rabbi Eleanor Steinman's three year contract to serve as our rabbi. Unfortunately, we couldn't punctuate this moment with the applause Rabbi Steinman deserves.
At Erev Shabbat services April 30, we got...Read more...
An ordinary event is remarkable
04/05/2021 01:34:21 PM
I attended a remarkable event this past weekend. It really should have been pretty ordinary, but it wasn't. Temple Beth Shalom had an outdoor event to celebrate the (near) end of Passover. Scheduled to occur late on a Saturday afternoon, we threw in a Havadalah observance as well (a Jewish two-fer if you will).
Even the weather was ordinary. It wasn't one of our stunning central Texas spring days. Instead it was overcast and in...Read more...
Do you remember the Benchmark Survey
03/04/2021 02:34:55 PM
During the high holy days, we asked everyone to fill out (yet another) survey. This one was put together by the URJ and consisted of 3 parts: a financial and operating data benchmarking tool, a qualitative board self-assessment and a congregation wide survey. Staff provided the data for first part, the board graded ourselves for the second part and you (the congregants) filled out the last part. As part of our request to take part in the...Read more...