Marc Levine - President 

Now that we have entered the new year of 2012, our congregation is observing its 60th anniversary.

We want to make this a year of celebration. A year in which we remember those who came to White Meadow Lake and gave of themselves to form this congregation so they and their families were able to come together and practice our religion. We owe them our deepest gratitude. We pray, wherever they may be, they are smiling knowing we have kept faith with their belief that our temple is a place of faith and friendship.

This anniversary is also a celebration of the present and most importantly, the future, our future. We, after all, are just caretakers for our children and generations thereafter. In order for us to live up to our responsibilities, each one of us must feel as though we are the caretakers for our temple. If we see something that needs to be fixed let's not just complain about it, let's fix it. If something needs to be changed, like a policy, it needs to be addressed. Let's just not constantly complain about it but bring it to a committee or board meeting. All committee or boards should be open to having a congregant come in and talk about what they view as needing to be fixed. But don't just come with the problem, if you can, come with a possible solution. The Board of Trustees meetings, normally held on the second Sunday of the month, are open to the congregation. Just let me know you want to discuss something and I will make time for you. If you feel uncomfortable speaking before the board and would like me to bring it up for you I will.

We each need to feel comfortable and have a positive outlook towards the temple. After all, in order for us to grow and to be here to celebrate our seventieth anniversary each of us must be an advocate. So in this, our sixtieth anniversary year, I want to thank all of those who are organizing the celebrations. I also hope all of you, our congregants here and away will help make this year one of celebration and growth.

I hope to see all of you, along with family, friends and new members at all our planned events.

Marc

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January 2012
Reflection

At this time of year it is only natural to sit bank and reflect about what went on in 2011 and what we can hope for in 2012.

For my family and myself, we celebrated Joshua graduating from 8th grade and entering High School and Shana’s Bat Mitzvah. Steph and I got to enjoy our children and also had many occasions to spend time with our extended families.

In our temple community we welcomed our new Cantor, Hillary Blank. Thanks to the Men’s Club, Sisterhood, Adult Education, and Rabbi we have seen an increase in activities around the Temple. Plus, on top of all that, we have a beautiful new Temple entrance as well as the refurbished kitchen entrance and the updated ramp. While we lost some of our members and dear friends, for which we are saddened, our community has had a pretty good year.

For the coming year I hope the Temple continues to be a place of constant activity, from services to social gatherings. We get to celebrate our 60thAnniversary. The Men’s club and Sisterhood have lots of events planned for the coming year. We have an active Va’ad for anyone in need and our adult education is offering a variety of classes. In short; there’s something for everyone.

If you have a suggestion for a program or to make an improvement let us know, we always want to hear about what would excite you. You can always make comments and suggestions at parkinglot@whitemeadowtemple.org.

My family and I wish you a happy, healthy and safe New Year.
Marc

December 2011
The Warm and Fuzzies

I would like to start a discussion on what gives or doesn't give people a welcoming and nurturing feeling and stimulating environment when it comes to the temple.

I have heard people say they don't get the "warm and fuzzy" feeling from temple. My question is, what do they mean?

I wonder whether the people who say this come to temple for services on a regular basis, which I think is necessary in order to get a real feel for what goes on. If they show up only occasionally, they may feel like an outsider watching a community function, not quite knowing how to read the action or join into the flow. In that situation, they'd be missing the subtext of the service and the social dynamic of the people. If they never come to the social and educational events, they are missing out on a way to enter the community.

There are many different ways of joining a community, different ways of creating the bonds that lead to that warm and fuzzy feeling. For some people it will be the services, for others the social events and still others the volunteerism that comes from giving of their time and energy. For most of us it is the people we know and meet. We, the temple community, need all aspects complementing each other in order to create a vital, healthy and energetic temple. So what can we do together to create that welcoming, nurturing, and stimulating kind of environment?

Please send us your thoughts. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Have a happy Chanukah and see you at the December Shabbaton Dinner, the Sisterhood sponsored Chanukah Party, the second annual December 24th gathering and of course, services.

Marc

PS: Sometimes we tend to overlook those things that are right in front of us. In my thank you for the high holidays I was remiss in not thanking someone who did a lot of davening all 3 days. Joel Goldman, please accept my apologies for the oversight. You did a terrific job. The congregation and I owe you many thanks for what you do on the high holidays and throughout the year.

November 2011
Rumblings

Ah! I hear those grumblings making the rounds. The latest one: "Instead of spending all that money on the outside of our Temple, they should lower my dues!

The truth is that the money for the outdoors is not coming out of your dues. We were fortunate enough to have received a substantial grant from the Kreitzer Foundation that was specifically designated for the upgrade of the outside of the building, thus allowing us to undertake needed repairs at no cost to the Congregation. We are extremely grateful for the Foundation’s generosity and very appreciative of their recognition and support of our community. We are equally appreciative of the grant and support shown us by the Federation, which gave money for the new ramp.

The security upgrades are not coming out of dues, either. Stu Lefkowitz worked long and hard in writing the proposal for specific security installations that resulted in the grant from the Department of Homeland Security. We are very impressed and appreciative of Stu’s efforts and success.

(Note to Community: What would help to eventually lower dues is to bring in more members!)

Other grumblings I hear have to do with the social atmosphere of our Temple, specifically that it does not feel warm and welcoming and helpful in the spirit as it could be. Some of that may be due to the fact that much of the help we provide to many people flies under the wider community radar by being offered on a confidential basis so as to protect people’s privacy and sensitivities. We hope you know that Rabbi and the Board are available to help you in our different spheres, and that we are trying very hard to increase the sense of belonging and community which is the essence of the Temple. There are times when something may slip by but we are constantly working to improve ourselves. If you do hear of an instance where we can be or could have been more helpful or more on top of a situation, please let me know. If you have an idea for making community-wide events more enjoyable and engaging, please let us know. The good Lord gives us the opportunity but we humans have to make the best use of it.

Don’t forget our new e-mail address for comments and suggestions: www.parkinglot@whitemeadowtemple.org

High Holiday Thanks

It is my pleasure to say a huge Than You! to those who made the High Holiday season a successful one. It takes an enormous amount of behind-the-scenes time and energy for these services to come off as calm and inspiring.

Specific Thank You’s to:

 Rabbi Adler and Cantor Blank for their inspirational leadership

 Barbara Feinberg for handling the Israeli Bond Drive

 Dan Watter for the commitment drive

 Annie Mitchell, who headed another successful year of babysitting

 Hana Frankel who led Junior Congregation

 David Saposnik for his wonderful Shofar blowing

 The Mens Club which handled the ushering, giving out and collecting the Israel Bonds and commitment cards, the large honor board, and the break the fast challah and juice. David Schnurman, Eric Balis, Jeff Lefkowitz and all the men and women involved with this, thank you.

 Bob Goldberg and all the chasers

 The office staff of Bev, Mindy and Juliette, who handled the many requests for everything you can imagine, for keeping it all moving forward and coming together

And last but not at all least, the people no-one really sees, the ones who set up and break down the chairs and get the sanctuary ready to use:

    Rabbi, Jonah and Ronan Adler

    Sandy Bernoff

    Sandy Saposnik

    Sandra Paley

    Jodi Dormier

    Alice Kazin

    Maddy and Stephen Lashen

    Harry Baker

    Abbie and David Greenberg

    Nancy and Sheldon Kirsch

    Jodi, Alan, Alex and Seth Fayerman

    Harvey Pyser

    Mark Stein

    Mike Thailer

    Rich, Steve and Daniel Chassen

If I have missed specifically naming someone, please know that your contribution did not go unnoticed. I am very grateful and immensely proud for the commitment to our congregation and community from all of the people who had a hand in helping to make this holiday season run as smoothly as it did.

May our entire community enjoy a happy, healthy and successful year.

See you at Temple,

Marc