Temple Beth Israel Preservation Society is proudly listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

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1 ANNUAL REPORT 2016 President s Message 2016 by Norman Berman Dear Friends, Six years ago we came together to form the Preservation Society. Our goal was simple. We would preserve Temple Beth Israel. We were children when this building was built. Many of us came of age here and learned about the world. We attended Hebrew school, went to school, helped around the house, played, and dreamt of growing up and creating our own lives. The passage of fifty to sixty years and our focus on our own careers and families provided us with the perspective to realize and appreciate the importance of TBI. We didn t know it at the time, but this unlikely and improbable flourishing of a Jewish community of Yiddish speaking Holocaust surviving immigrant farmers in a small-town, Yankee setting was remarkable. Times have changed for Jews and Jewish communities in America. In Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts with its surrounding Jewish population of nearly 30,000, the largest conservative synagogue recently experienced a drop in membership of over 50%. Last fall, Mishkan Tefilah agreed to sell its beautiful building to Boston College. Throughout the US, synagogues are merging, closing, and sharing Hebrew Schools. The Jewish people in America are at a crossroads. Now more than ever Jews are ambivalent about their identity. By most accounts, over half of the Jews are unaffiliated. Traditional, institutional religion is on life support. College students question the traditional models. Prayer, Hebrew and unquestioning support for Israel are all being examined for relevance and meaning. Our parents, many of whom were persecuted for being Jewish, taught us something about being Jewish. They reached back through the millennia and grasped the essence of our tradition. Many spoke Yiddish, quoted Talmud, and prayed. They resisted assimilation. They embraced their Jewish identity and taught us that being and living Jewish was more important than any particular affiliation or style of observance. TBI was a shining example of true diversity in practice, ritual, and background. So we learned to respect other traditions and to seek common ground. Many of our parents spent their youths surrounded by fear, death and anti-semitism. Because she was Jewish, Ray Gawendo found herself shot and lying under a pile of dead bodies in the Klooga concentration camp. Bluma Berman, Sarah Levine, and Feiga Kamenmacher slept in unheated, lice infested barracks in Stutthof, a forced labor camp in Latvia. Leon and Anna Israelit fought with the Partisans. Henry Drobiarz, Herman Sheppard, Jacob Gawendo, Izzy Levine and Stanly Zektzer each had unique encounters with evil. David Rosenberg served in the US Military and helped to liberate concentration camps. None of them gave up their attachment to Judaism. Many, like Tevye the Dairyman, sought solace in biblical tradition as they struggled to survive and dreamt of a better world. The Jews of TBI comprised a tiny minority in Killingly. They could have assimilated, rejected their Jewish identities and blended in among the Christians. Instead, they met in homes and rented halls to observe holidays. They displayed their Jewishness proudly and engaged in community life. They served in the armed forces. They joined and led civic organizations. They engaged local commerce with generosity and dignity. And they earned the respect of the community. And when the Holocaust survivor refugees arrived they built a temple. Our parents taught the importance of applying our tradition to our current lives. They showed us how to be involved in the community. We learned that prayer is not enough, Hebrew is not the only language and keeping Kosher while ignoring hunger and poverty doesn t cut it. We learned about helping our friends. We learned about supporting people who are different. Who better to stand up for the disenfranchised? Our parents were the world s experts on the consequences of hatred and bigotry. So as we worked to preserve the building, we realized that TBI represents a unique and unlikely moment in history when our parents created a Jewish presence in the community. They brought to this space their unique relationship with God, their Jewish identity and their world view. And now it falls to us at the Preservation Society to preserve and maintain a unique Jewish presence in this community. Just as our parents embraced their Jewish identities with tenacity and resilience, so have we struggled to preserve this building and its significance. We are renovating, stabilizing and beautifying a building while teaching decency, humanity and the consequences of bigotry and prejudice. What better credentials to bring to a flawed world? Through our programming, teaching, innovative rituals, diverse and progressive world view, we re trying to make sense of the world and we re using our parents; lives, their wisdom, their unique experiences encountering evil and prejudice with grace and redemption, their unique experience as Americans to guide us. And, we re bringing that all together into a program, a strategy, that is designed to enrich and strengthen the fabric of life in northeastern CT. We will honor our parents by preserving and building on what they started. We welcome your support. Temple Beth Israel Preservation Society is: A spiritual home of Jewish immigrants who settled on farms in NE CT, A product of interfaith cooperation and celebration A voice for social action inspired by traditional Jewish values A place to teach the lessons of the Holocaust A historic house of worship with an inspiring history

2 Our building - By Martin Weiner Board Member Co chair of the Building Committee Together with a team of board and community volunteers, it is our job to make sure that plans are in place and implemented to keep this nationally historically recognized house of worship maintained and looking beautiful at all times for friends and family members when they visit. Temple Beth Israel Preservation Society is proudly listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Mazel tov to Temple Beth Israel Preservation Society on becoming part of the National Historic Registry! Upcoming Events Our unique High Holiday observance, and the soon to be released TBIPS Cookbook edited and produced by Tonijean Ellenberg, another movie night, and still in the planning stages ~ an interfaith women s tea to be held at TBIPS ~ this was by request from a St. James parishioner who had attended the various women s teas hosted by St. John s Lutheran Church formerly of Brooklyn, CT. Naomi Weiner and Paula Rosenberg Bell are working on it! Our building - By Evert Gawendo Vice President & Co Chair Building Committee During 2015 we completed two significant projects to preserve the physical well-being of our building. The first was the restoration of the upper patio which will allow us to now make use of the first floor storage to convert it to useable interior office space. Also completed was the restoration of the lower courtyard patio thanks to the leadership of the Rosenberg family. These were two very significant projects that were desperately needed to stabilize and enhance our building. This past spring we secured donations to repaint all of the trim around the entire building and we held a major work day to clear away years of overgrown brush. The Synagogue has never looked more beautiful! We have also built a stairway to provide emergency exit from the rear of the sanctuary. Our next major endeavor, for which we have secured grant and matching funds is a restoration project to update all interior and electrical needs at TBI. Thank you to all of our volunteers and donors Our building - By Dora Glinn Board Member An important part of our responsibility is to document the stories of the families of TBI. As well as working to maintain the building, we also want to chronicle the history of what happened within the walls. There are many paintings and needlework pieces that have remained in place over the years. We are in the process of arranging this artwork and learning the history and significance of these pieces. If you know anything about this artwork please let us know. We have restored a tablecloth with family names embroidered on squares. We think it was a fundraising effort of the Sisterhood. This was done in the mid to early 1950's. We would love to have the story of this tablecloth as well. We are uncovering many interesting items as we clean and organize. Hopefully we can add a narrative which explains the importance to the temple.

3 Fundraising - By Dr. Elsie Fetterman, Board Member This past year was one of our most exciting and productive for the Temple Beth Israel Preservation Society. We co-sponsored a Holocaust Remembrance Day with the Killingly Historical Society. Incredibly over 150 guests attended from throughout New England. The Connecticut Association of Jewish Federations arranged for a bus for 50 Holocaust survivors from the Hartford area to attend. It was a moving and memorable day. Over the past twelve months the Preservation Society was awarded two major grants. The first came from the Daughters of the American Revolution, which made it possible for us to make much needed structural repairs to the upper patio entrance to the Sanctuary. The second grant, which was recently awarded, comes from the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation. With that grant for the first time in over 60 years there will be major upgrades to the entire electrical system within Temple Beth Israel. There were many matching contributions made for these two projects, the two largest coming from David & Summer Fetterman & the Google Corporation. Fundraising - By Joel Rosenberg, President Emeritus One of the primary goals of the Temple Beth Israel Preservation Society is to help make sure that no one ever forgets about the lessons and examples set by past and future generations of friends and family members connected to Temple Beth Israel. Ours is a unique history and story to be passed on from one generation to another. Each of us plays an important role as volunteers and as donors, as friends and supporters from the Jewish to the Interfaith Community. We wish to thank everyone who donated last year to support our general operating budget, the Let there Be Light Campaign, the David and Shirley Rosenberg Memorial Courtyard, the Blumenthal Family Fund, the Gawendo Family Fund, the Drobiarz Family Fund and especially to David and Summer Fetterman and Lisa Kranc. Together we all made a difference! On October 18, 2015, there was a ribbon cutting ceremony honoring the DAR and David and Summer Fetterman who provided matching funds. TBI PS had been awarded a preservation grant to help fund repairs to the upper deck terrace at the main entrance to the sanctuary.

4 Educational Outreach & Community Life - By Naomi Weiner Board Member, Education Committee, Liaison on Interfaith Council TEACHING TOLERANCE In 2015 the Preservation Society advanced its efforts to teach lessons of tolerance. Board President, Norman Berman, spoke to students at four local schools. As a child of Holocaust Survivors Norm captivated large audiences of students with presentations at Woodstock Academy, Killingly High School, the Learning Clinic in Brooklyn and Woodstock Middle School. He focused on the choices that adults made during WWII as bystanders, as freedom fighters, as collaborators and the Righteous Ones who stood up to unspeakable evil during the Holocaust. His presentations provided students with a clearer understanding of the choices that we make and face every day. These sessions were always followed by thoughtful questions and discussions with the students. The Preservation Society education program reached more than 200 young people through the first-hand accounts of the traumatic events that Norman s parents and so many other Victims and Survivors endured during the war. In addition, Norman spoke to a local chapter of the DAR. We also had three education sessions hosted by the Strassler Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies at Clark University. Doctoral students spoke about the Armenian Genocide, the genocide in Rwanda as well as the Holocaust. This partnership between Woodstock Academy, the Strassler Center and the Preservation Society has broken new ground in Northeastern, Connecticut opening the eyes of young people of how to stand up, be heard, and make a difference in the world! Ritual Director - Alan Turner, Board Member TBI PS continues the legacy of the founders by holding Friday night services once a month on the first Friday, as well as every Saturday morning. We also hold services on the High Holidays. We have innovated something new in line with our mission of community involvement. Besides an interfaith, community Seder, we have invited clergy from congregations throughout the community to speak on relevant topics during our holiday services. It has proven eye opening and inspirational. We have a lot in common. Norman Berman engages students of Woodstock Academy in discussion about Genocide. Temple Beth Israel Preservation Society Become a friend of TBIPS. Your membership will help us continue our mission of ongoing outreach and preservation. Name (s) Phone Street Address Town State/Zip Code Friend $25-50 Supporting Member $75 I would like to make an additional donation is support of TBIPS. $100 $250 $500 other Mail your check to Rosa Goldblatt, 63 Sherwood Lane, Norwich, CT or visit our website: Templebethisraelct.org to safely donate online. Stay in Touch - Judy Fetterman Engel, Board Member Communicating with friends of the Temple Beth Israel Preservation Society is so important to all of our future efforts. We created a Facebook page 4 years ago, and today we have a review rating of 4.9 out of 5, with 231 likes and growing! We have a wealth of information about upcoming and past events, and our unique history of this preservation society. We have reached over 12,000 people in a single post! We also have a fabulous website! It has grown from a basic website to one that includes options for online donations! We have evolved. Our site continues to improve and is updated frequently. Both of these services are maintained and updated at no cost to TBI. If you have questions about Facebook or our website please contact myself or our Board President Norman Berman.

5 Community Life - By Paula Rosenberg Bell Board Member Since forming the Temple Beth Israel Preservation Society, we have hosted many small and large group gatherings. Havdalah services and dinners have become an annual tradition. Each year, we gather as friends and family to end one week and celebrate the start of a new one. The warmth of the Havdalah service is followed by our Vegetarian Cook-off or Kugel Contests in preparation for our soon to be published TBI Preservation Society cookbook! Often the meals are followed by a movie, discussion, and of course desserts! We ve been known to burst into song ~ led by Norm Berman and on some occasions by guests! Parties!! ~ From TBI (Temple Beth Israel) anniversary celebrations to annual Hanukkah parties to birthday celebrations to just because we can, the Preservation Society opens its doors for events that are in one word FUN! Friends, family, members of the various faith communities (near and far) come and oft times need to be reminded that there will be more events ~ time to go home! During Yom Kippur services we observe an age old tradition remembering our departed family members and friends. Since the Preservation Society was formed I have had the honor of creating annually a Yiskor Book listing names of loved ones who have passed. The book is inclusive of family members and friends, Jewish and non- Jewish. During the very solemn service, each name is read aloud. The Yiskor Book is sent, upon request, to people who listed a name but were unable to travel to Danielson. Community Life - By Martin Drobiarz, Board Member Temple Beth Israel represents a big part of my youth and family life. At Temple Beth Israel, I made lifelong friends, received a Jewish education, was bar mitzvahed and observed the customs and rituals of my father and the congregation most of whom were immigrants from Eastern Europe and Holocaust survivors. I learned firsthand about what they went through and saw them rebuild their lives with the Temple as a centerpiece. I will always have a strong connection to Temple Beth Israel and I am privileged to play a part in keeping its legacy and spirit alive for future generations. Board Member, Education Committee, Liason on Interfaith Council - Naomi Weiner INTERFAITH COUNCIL TBI PS is an active member of the Council. The Killingly-Brooklyn Interfaith Council represents 11 faith communities in the Killingly Brooklyn area. In September the Preservation Society was part of a Creation Service in Davis Park coordinated by the Interfaith Council to give thanks for the gifts of nature. There was also a wonderful Holiday Fair in Davis Park to let the community know about the interfaith community. The Preservation Society for the second year had a beautiful Hanukah booth, with hundreds of visitors stopping by to learn about this Jewish holiday. In December we took part in a service on the longest night as a tribute to those homeless people who died this past year. The Preservation Society also shared in a program called Warm Hearts Warm Homes to raise money for people who need help to pay for home heating oil and electricity. YAHRZEIT NOTICES I take great pride in the mitzvah of sending out Yahrzeit notices to the families who have memorial plaques at Temple Beth Israel and to everyone else who wants a reminder of their loved ones date of passing. The Preservation Society continues to grow and we are delighted to welcome new members to the Preservation Society Board of Directors: Martin Israelit son of founders Anna and Leon Israelit who taught in the Temple s first Hebrew School. Michael Gawendo grandson of founders Jacob and Ray Gawendo and son of Preservation Society Vice President, Evert Gawendo Matthew Goldblatt grandson of founders Sophie and Henry Drobiarz and son of Rosa and Michael Goldblatt Richard Dvorin Community member and formerly active in the Beth El Temple of West Hartford, CT