Let's Ensure Beth Israel Flourishes as an Inclusive Community of Congregants

by President Emily Jennewein

The coming year is a golden moment in Beth Israel’s history. Our synagogue will celebrate 150 years of service to the Jewish community and to San Diego. Our stunning campus serves San Diego as an important religious, cultural, educational, and intellectual center. What a journey it has been from the minyan of Jewish pioneers who reached out to bond with each other in the frontier settlement of San Diego.

To mark Beth Israel’s 150th anniversary, we will host unforgettable celebrations, present learned speakers, and offer fascinating programs. A wealth of commemorative events will come to life under the capable leadership of Rabbi Michael Berk, Chair and Past President Mary Ann Scher, Executive Director Lesley Mills, Program Director Bonnie Graff, and the involvement of dozens of congregants.

As your president in this 150th anniversary year, it’s my objective to make sure that Beth Israel flourishes not just as an institution and a magnificent environment, but as a community of congregants. What I mean is that our congregation is more than its history and its buildings; it is a community of people who come together under the name of Beth Israel to pursue our shared interests and goals. As we celebrate our anniversary, we must ensure that that we build on this inclusive community, and indeed build upon the many communities that make up our large congregation.

A few examples of communities of people within Beth Israel are:

• Young families who are making the commitment to raise Jewish children and need the support of a welcoming congregation to achieve this goal
• Families embarking on the journey toward a child’s bar or bat mitzvah
• Teens who have completed their bar or bat mitzvah and will strengthen their Jewish identity by participating in lively and engaging youth programming Singles who seek the company of other Jews and an affirmation of Jewish values
• Chavurot – small communities of families and individuals who become a second family for each other.
• Interfaith couples who seek the traditional warm welcome of Reform Judaism –– Older congregants who seek to increase their knowledge through classes, speakers, daytime programming and lifelong learning
• Those who worship together, whether it be on Erev Shabbat – at Tot Shabbat, Family Service – or Shabbat morning, to welcome the b’nai mitzvah into our community, or who worship in our minyan
• The youth and adult choir and band members who do so much to bring artistic beauty to our worship
• Those who work together to fulfill our social responsibilities and act together to improve the world. 

Our inclusive congregation consists of many additional communities not named here. If you do not feel as connected to Beth Israel as you once did or as much as you'd like to be, please know we want to renew our relationship with you, to find out how we can better meet your needs, to learn what stirs your passions, Jewishly, and how we can make you feel more at home here.

From all the many communities we build our robust congregation and a spiritual, cultural and educational Jewish legacy.

I hope that in this 150th anniversary year we will celebrate with an eye on fortifying the communities of people that encompass Beth Israel. As we do we will ensure that Beth Israel will be a vibrant, relevant, inclusive community for another 150 years.