Committee Reports. Last Fall's season opened in fine form, with a superbly provisioned (!!) challah baking demonstration by Susan Silbovitz.

Transcription

1 Committee Reports Adult Education Nicci Gafinowitz The committee has benefitted from many new volunteers this past year, who have brought a new level of enthusiasm to the work. Meetings are held monthly. In 2009, a survey was conducted of the community's Adult Ed preferences and feedback guided much new program development (for example, see the Hebrew classes and Jewish film screenings below) Last Fall's season opened in fine form, with a superbly provisioned (!!) challah baking demonstration by Susan Silbovitz. The 'Tikkun Olam Around the World' program began with Lew Margolis discussion of the varied forms of public and private charitable funding that he d encountered during his recent stay in Israel. Irma Stein and her longtime friend shared a video of their annual journey of kindness and generosity among indigenous communities of the Pacific North West. Elizabeth Gervais- Gruen described her rich and rewarding life as wife, mother, and reknowned immigration lawyer. In February, Linda Frankel gave a captivating tour of her time in Israel and of her and others volunteerism there. Then in March, Simone Lipman and friends, Hal and Nora Meyers, recounted their extraordinary Wartime experiences and unexpected reunion in Chapel Hill, last year. In May, Connie Schertz, veteran docent at the NC Museum of Arts, presented a stunning slide tour of the museum s Celebratory Judaica collection on the very weekend that the renovated buildings finally reopened to the public. The Kehillah Chevra Kadisha group has met several times to discuss educational programming around end-of-life caring and to familiarize members with the procedures of taharah and shomrim. A follow-up visit to Howerton Bryan funeral home is planned for the Fall. The monthly Kehillah Book Club continues from strength to strength; and Jama Purser leads an informal Torah chanting group after Saturday services. Last winter saw the introduction of monthly Saturday Night Havdallah and Movies in the Chapel. Next season, Len Rogoff will feature in November s film and discussion session, and UNC Prof. Shai Ginsberg will lead discussions following the showing of Ajami. Rabbi Steve s very successful Hebrew and Torah study courses, which began in April, will be extended through the summer months; and in September, UNC PhD student in Religious Studies, Joe Gindi, will lead a broad range of philosophical reading and discussion seminars, More programs are in the works and the congregation is very welcome to participate in every way!

2 Cemetery Jonathan Kotch The Cemetery committee reconvened in February 2010 and has met monthly ever since. One new member (Ruth Katz) has joined us. We have recommended a new policy with respect to individual plantings on grave sites. We have visited the cemetery to determine maintenance, landscaping, and drainage needs. We are working on a long term plan for routine maintenance and staged improvements over five years, including costs. What remains is to prioritize the improvements, which include plantings by the wall, plantings around the perimeter, and paths. Estimates for these improvements will be obtained and the plan submitted to the Board. Communications Josh Ravitch Communications Committee: We worked with Melissa, Dina, and Stephanie to coordinate and encourage efforts to increase communication through a variety of means, including increasing use of posters around the Kehillah, messages, e-blasts, e-bulletins, and the official Kehillah Facebook group page. The use of multi-media for publicizing events contributed to some very successful, well-attended activities, including the CROP walk, New Members Social, and Purim Shpiel. It's fun to see lots of photos being displayed from our events, in the bulletins and on Facebook. We encourage congregants to continue to post events, interesting topics of discussion, and lots of photos on our Kehillah Facebook page. Finance Susan Zenn During a tough budget year, we ll be within 1% of budget Budget for next year is balanced Membership Jama Purser A primary goal of the membership committee this year has been to work closely with the executive, administrative, and rabbinical staff, lay leadership, and congregants to help build strength, community and social networks among our existing members, and to facilitate the ongoing growth and nurturance of our Kehillah community by reaching out to new members. We currently have a positive net growth rate for 2009/10, and we expect that to continue in 2010/11 as our community continues to grow in its care and concern for each other and for the broader Jewish community. This past year was a challenging one, and we have focused on a number of different membership activities to address the challenges. First, we have added many new members to the membership committee. This helped us attain our goal of welcoming every single person who visits our synagogue and/or who contacts us by phone. We have an ongoing need for additional volunteers willing to make regular phone calls and offer opportunities for social encounters to welcome people who are new to our community. Simply calling to say welcome to the Kehillah, offering to meet for coffee or a meal, volunteering to be a synagogue buddy and/or serving as a resource to new and prospective members are all ways our committee helps create bonds of friendship and caring. These are important volunteer activities! If you would like to serve your community in this way please do not hesitate to contact the committee. Another recent activity of the membership committee has been to work with staff to create online databases and evaluation metrics by which we can judge on a monthly, quarterly, and year-to-year basis the numerical state of our membership flux, in terms of our growth rate, expected exit rate, and the success of our outreach efforts. Quarterly numerical reports are being presented to the board, in order to keep our lay leadership up to date on the state

3 of our membership. Based on our recent growth rates, we have set a goal of 25% growth over the next 3 years, with a short-term goal of growing by a net of 12 new members in This goal is ambitious in an academic community where some transience is to be expected (i.e., for visiting faculty or students, or for normal attrition due to people moving or changing jobs). Nevertheless, this year the entire community has been working together to keep every visitor and member connected to the extent possible, and we believe our projected goals for growth in 2010/11 can be attained, or even surpassed. Another goal has been to support membership outreach. Many of you attended the recent new member wine and cheese social and havdalah service, which was held February 20 th in conjunction with our Purim spiel. This event was very generously hosted by membership committee members Stan and Marion Robboy (Todah Rabah!). Committee member David Luks chaired the event in a very humorous and relaxed atmosphere, which was followed by a beautiful havdalah service led by Rabbi Jen. Melissa Segal, Rabbi Jen, Howard Glicksman and individual board members all schmoozed and welcomed new and prospective members, and all committees of the Kehillah showed up to showcase the exciting work of our community in informal presentations to congregants and new members present. Prior to the event, approximately fifty people had RSVP d, but we estimate that as many as 100 or more may have actually attended the social and/or the Purim spiel that followed. Thank you to the entire community for your participation in the success of this outstanding event! Ongoing work is underway to develop new plans for outreach and marketing of the Chapel Hill Kehillah to our broader Jewish community. If you have additional ideas about outreach and/or would like to participate in outreach planning please do not hesitate to contact me (or anyone else on the membership committee) asap! May we continue to grow our membership and our spirit of community and caring at the Chapel Hill Kehillah. Nominations Meryl Kanfer The Nominating Committee was organized in February 2010, and started the process of identifying new board members in March. Approximately 40 congregants were contacted to fill leadership roles on the board. All positions, with the exception of VP of Ritual were filled. Preschool Tamara Rice The members of KJP Parent Advisory Committee are involved in developing policy for KJP, planning fundraisers, and advising on hiring decisions. During the school year, this committee met approximately every six weeks as well as any additional meetings that were needed. They worked in partnership with the Preschool Director to smoothly and successfully manage two unexpected mid-year staffing changes. Members of the group planned and organized the KJP Family Chanukah party, which is a highly attended and much-anticipated event each year. In addition, this group planned several successful fundraisers that raised over $1,800 for KJP including: two book fairs, class pictures, and a Pancake Dinner. Religious School Tamar Birckhead This year the Religious School Committee helped acclimate Dina Schiff into her new role as Director and served in an advisory capacity to her throughout the year. The committee met monthly and members were often in regular communication with Dina, providing feedback, support, and assistance to her. Prior to the start of the school year, we held a parent forum to gauge input from religious school families about the structure of the religious school week. The forum was

4 well-attended, and as a result of the feedback received, the committee changed the structure of the week from a Sunday/Wednesday format to a Sunday only format. To supplement the Religious School s offerings, the Committee also decided to run an optional cultural Wednesday program once a month with a focus on activities and educational projects for families to participate in together; the program has been well-received by the community and will be continued next year. The committee discussed policy for B nei mitzvah students who enter the religious school program late in their religious school careers. We sought to balance the school s commitment to ensuring that its students receive a meaningful and substantive education with a desire to welcome and incorporate families interested in joining the Kehillah. With the help of some generous donations we have been able to enrich the Religious School library with new books, including some that are written in both Hebrew and English. We have also been able to enrich many daily experiences with mnemonic modern Hebrew puppet shows for students in order to bring Hebrew to life in a fun way. Further, we reviewed and approved a new comprehensive curriculum for the school, conceived and drafted by Dina and Rabbi Jen. Rabbi Jen and Dina are working on creating a new Hebrew book to reflect the goals of the curriculum. We had an all school Matzah bake, and from that program have created a new position (of arts specialist) in the school. We will be offering several similar programs this coming year. We had many teens helping in the Religious School, several as volunteers. This coming year we will have many returning teens, as well as new teens. In response to this we are creating a Madrichim training program, which will be free to any teen working or volunteering in the religious school. Finally, we held an end-of-year forum for parents to gather feedback on changes implemented this year. The overwhelming majority of parents support the change in schedule from Sunday/Wednesday to an extended day on Sunday, and many expressed interest in participating in the Wednesday program during The Committee believes that the Religious School is strong in terms of direction, staffing, and curriculum. We are confident that enrollment will continue to grow and support the leadership of Dina Schiff and the active involvement of Rabbi Jen. Ritual Diane Wright & Henry Fuchs Over the past year, the Ritual Committee has inventoried all of the ritual items in the synagogue and repaired those that needed it. We have generated a list of items that people might donate if they wish to. We have taken on the preparation and running of the High Holidays after Chari Diamant's excellent leadership, and have documented the process so that it is easy to pick up in future years. We have been the location for the discussion of the development of a Shabbat policy process that will be carried on in the new year. We have modified services to include modified services for the sixth graders and monthly Shabbat Shira, which includes instruments. We approved the listing and reading of upcoming Yahrzeits at each service. With the loss of our custodian to set up for services, Warren has stepped in and has been instrumental in being sure the room is set up as well as usually setting the Torah scroll to where we will be reading next.

5 We also adopted a clearer process for who does what in seeing that the rooms are set up and taken down for each service. We have provided lay leadership for the Friday night and Saturday morning services and have been looking for ways to involve more people in that, especially our young people who have recently had their bar or bat mitzvah. We coordinated the building of the sukkah and Simchat Torah services. We continue to look at how to hold a community seder for Passover. Social Action Irene Zipper & Kathy Kaufman The Social Action Committee "regrouped" after the summer wth some new members with renewed energy. Activities have included: active participation in Justice United, with leadership from Rabbi Jen and Kathy Kaufman. This group has been very effective in moving its ambitious agenda forward attendance and assistance at Chapel Hill events including the Community Dinner and the Martin Luther King dinner ongoing representation and participation in the Interfaith Council with leadership from Ava Nackman strong Kehillah participation in the Crop Walk, which raised more money from the Kehillan than ever before, and which involved many congregants, with leadershp from Susan Siegel and Rebecca Kemp funds raised for IFC and Habitat through parking for ballgames at the Kehillah, organized by Jon Mills participation of Social action members (Susan Siegel) on the Communications Committee of the Board, with the goal of working toward facilitating communication among congregants These sum up our activities for this year. We will be seeking a new IFC liaison for next year as Ava will be leaving the area. Anyone interested should let us know. Our Crop Walk leaders are already planning our activities for next year. Anyone with interest in social action should contact us. We meet on the second Sunday of each month at the Kehillah. Twenties/Thirties Has started for the first time this winter, and has already drawn new interest to our synagogue Has had 4 events so far, two of which crossed over with Federation s Triangle Kesher 20s/30s group Youth Group Danielle Fradin Ordered t-shirts to use for fundraising and Congregation B nei Mitzvah gifts Joined the JRF Teen Kallah in Washington D.C. for the first time ever Raised enough money to cover the cost of transportation to the JRF Teen Kallah Had several successful events, including a Triangle Wide Teen Chanukah Party with other Jewish Teens from around the Triangle (Judea Reform, Midrisha, Beth El, etc.) Volunteered for The Kehillah Chanukah Party Has grown this year, and has many new members for this coming year!