Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

Excerpts from Rosh Hashanah by President Emily Jennewein

Rosh Hashanah marks the beginning of a new year. And this is indeed a momentous new year for our congregation. It is the 150th time that this great congregation has convened to worship together for the High Holy Days. 

As we celebrate, it’s important to reflect on how Beth Israel reached this sesquicentennial. How did a group of Jewish pioneers on the wild, remote coast of California create a community so successful that it has endured 150 years and seems still to get stronger every year? 

I am convinced it was and is because of this congregation’s commitment to building community. Our founders sought to establish Jewish connection then, and we continue on that same quest now. We create a community where people find ways to connect to Judaism and to one another. We create a community whose core values focus on making the world a better place. 

A Vision for Our Future 

More than a year ago, with our milestone anniversary in mind, your temple leadership convened a creative partnership with clergy and staff to discuss the future of Beth Israel and to establish a vision for the first five years of our next 150. We identified scores of priorities, goals and dreams, and from those certain themes and areas of synagogue life emerged as the central focus: 

• In the area of youth, our vision is to make Beth Israel a second home to our future – the congregation’s youth – by providing social, educational, musical, cultural and spiritual connections that make Beth Israel central to the lives of San Diego’s young Jews.
• In the area of community, our vision is to offer multiple points of connection and engage our members at every stage of their lives. In a city like San Diego, where Jews are spread out geographically, we see a key role for the synagogue to be a convener and connector. Our vision is, metaphorically, to replace the walls of our synagogue with hundreds of open doors so that all can find their own way in, and be welcomed and embraced by Chavurot and with meaningful volunteer opportunities. 
  
  And we seek to build community by strengthening our pastoral services – offering compassion, support and acts of loving kindness. As a caring community, we hope to unleash the energy of our members who are eager to be a friend, a neighbor, a fellow Jew to those in need. 

• In the area of lifelong learning, our vision is to inspire members to keep learning about Judaism at every stage of their lives by creating innovative, exciting and compelling opportunities in Jewish education, music and arts, and which bring us closer to Torah, Israel, and our roots as a people. 

Bringing this vision to fruition will take time. But the vision will provide a roadmap to guide us as we take the first steps into the next 150 years. 

And how shall we achieve this vision, and ensure Beth Israel remains strong in the years to come? 

We must begin now to significantly enhance our financial foundation. We’ll need a more powerful way to assure our long-term financial viability: a new financial tool that will propel us into our next 150 years. That tool is a dramatic increase in the size of our endowment. 

Synagogues throughout the United States, including our own, are challenged to sustain comprehensive, high-quality programming and services with revenue derived primarily from membership dues. We think the innovative solution to this challenge – the strategy employed by major universities – is to build up our endowment. 

By creating a sizable endowment, we will fundamentally shift the financial model for Beth Israel to one that can help protect against economic uncertainty, and will allow us to continue to serve San Diego’s Reform Jewish community for the next 150 years and beyond. 

On this 150th anniversary of the founding of Beth Israel, we have a unique opportunity to stand on the shoulders of giants – those who had the vision and the courage to found and build our synagogue in 1861. Just as these visionaries imagined a thriving Jewish community in San Diego, we must consider what our efforts today can do to secure our children and grandchildren’s sense of Jewish identity and the continuity of Judaism itself. 

Let us now start building the next 150 years together. Future generations of San Diego Jews are depending on us.