What an Honor it Was to Dine with Our Double Chai Members!

By President Emily Jennewein

 Opening the 150th anniversary Speakers Series on November 11, Beth Israel honored its Double Chai members -- those who have been members for 36 or more years -- with a beautiful dinner and evening featuring Professor Deborah Lipstadt, Holocaust scholar, who addressed the congregation during services.

It is so gratifying to realize that there are a large number of Beth Israel members who joined long ago and have found an embracing community at Beth Israel as well as found meaning and purpose in our many programs and services. These many longtime members have remained loyal to the mission and goals of our congregation over many years. So this month I'd like to use this opportunity to tell a few stories about some - but not all - of the Beth Israel members who have embraced our community for the longest amounts of time, more than 50 years.

We believe Harry Tennebaum is the member with the longest tenure at Beth Israel. Harry was born into the congregation in 1928, though his family joined in 1919, more than 90 years ago. During WWII, Harry -- at the tender age of 13 and just one year past Confirmation -- was pressed into service to teach Sunday school.  He recalls that one Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941, war broke out 10 am Pacific time. Since San Diego was considered a war zone, everyone was ordered off street and went home to turn on their radios.

Lifelong member Fred Weitzen joined Beth Israel in 1950. After serving on the board for ten years, Fred was elected president in 1974.  But 1974 started with a funding shortfall.  Though the temple raised standard dues to $400, Weitzen recalls, it became impossible to pay the rabbi, a situation he found completely unacceptable. So he proposed to a group of businessmen that they contribute at least $1,000 a year.  They accepted, except for a few who offered to pay $2,000 a year. In so doing, Weitzen established the Century Club, which to this day honors members who voluntarily pay above-standard dues. The Century Club allows Beth Israel to offer membership to everyone regardless of the ability to pay full membership dues. 

Matthew Strauss grew up in the temple -- his mother was Rabbi Moise Bergman’s secretary -- and Matt was confirmed in the same class as Shearn Platt. Matt met his wife Iris Strauss at a Temple Youth League party after she arrived from Chicago at age 16. Iris and Matt raised their three children at Beth Israel, where each was confirmed and married, and Iris later chaired the Temple Follies, known to all as the greatest of all mixers. 

Rabbi Morton Cohn attended Shearn and Linda Platt’s engagement party, and the Platt children were bar mitzvahed and confirmed at Beth Israel. Linda later co-founded the Stand With Israel Committee with Phyllis Cohn. 

Anabel and Ted Mintz joined in 1958 although Anabel’s mother had been a member as a child. Her mother, who owned a millinery shop at 5^th & C Streets, downtown, joined all three San Diego temples for good will – for just $25 a year at each. Anabel and Ted met at dinner dance in Temple Youth League when they were 16 and 18, and were married three years later by Rabbi Cohn. Ted built the education building at Third & Laurel and chaired the construction and development committee for our current magnificent synagogue. 

Mel Goldzband joined in 1961 and worked with Rabbi Melvin Weinman to move High Holy Day services to the Civic Theatre in 1965 when we outgrew our own sanctuary. Mel designed the set for the services, and then for 35 years managed the lighting and updated the set until he retired from this volunteer endeavor in 2000. 

Chairs of the Double Chai Member evening Arthur and Sandy Levinson were both confirmed at Beth Israel, eight years apart. The Levinsons were married at Beth Israel and raised their two children, who have in turn raised their children, in our Congregation. Next month their granddaughter, Shanna, will be a Beth Israel bride. And a year and a half from now their grandson, David, will be ordained as a Rabbi. 

I wish I had move room to share more stories about our longstanding members. Among the many present at the dinner to celebrate more than 50 years of membership were Joan and Marvin Jacobs, Elene and Herb Solomon, Ann and Ben Weinbaum, Esther and Dick Rosenberg, and Bob Berton.

1,000 Protesters Peacefully Shared Civic Center Plaza With Beth Israel

By Emily Jennewein, President

Beth Israel’s peaceful worship on Kol Nidre and Yom Kippur at the Civic Theatre was a heartwarming example of Jewish values of respect and understanding in action. Just an hour and a half before we opened the doors to our worshipers on the holiest day of the year, the Civic Center Plaza was packed -- shoulder-to-shoulder -- with more than 1,000 protesters of all ages.

But those protesters -- from Occupy San Diego, an offshoot of the national Occupy Wall Street movement -- had already made plans to move away out of respect for Beth Israel’s worship there.

So the Beth Israel community gathered to worship at the Civic Theater on Friday evening and Saturday morning, October 7 and 8, while over a thousand protesters camped out just blocks away.

In keeping his promise to tell the congregation from the pulpit on Kol Nidre of the protest organizers’ thoughtfulness, Rabbi Michael Berk said, “There was nothing but utter respect and honor accorded to us, Judaism, and Yom Kippur.”

You may wonder, what did Beth Israel do when we learned of the protest? I’m so proud of the way in which our congregation communicated directly and with great respect with protest organizers.

Rabbi Berk and Executive Director Lesley Mills called and met with the leaders of Occupy San Diego to ask for their help in ensuring our peaceful worship on Kol Nidre and Yom Kippur. Cory Briggs, a congregant with close ties to the organizers, reached out to his contacts and carried a compelling letter from Rabbi Berk that asked that we be allowed to pursue our worship at the Civic Theater as we have since 1965.

As soon as the protest organizers realized that Beth Israel’s historic worship at the Civic Theatre might be jeopardized, they wanted to help Beth Israel. Protest organizers not only complied, but they insisted on moving their many hundreds of protesters. They even apologized to us for the inconvenience!

In the end, Occupy San Diego marched to the Civic Center Plaza on Friday afternoon, then at 5:00 p.m. left the plaza for Children’s Park, where they camped until after our Yom Kippur services were concluded.

“I am grateful that at great inconvenience for their planning they have moved their demonstration away from our praying place while we are here,” Rabbi Berk told the congregation. “Agree or not with them, the people we met who are their leaders are sweet, young, idealistic, gentle people, and I thank them for allowing us to proceed with our observance of Yom Kippur in the quiet, reflective way that our day of atonement brings to us.

“We can all be thankful that in America, on Judaism’s holiest day, civility and tolerance – values that originated with Judaism – ensured that Beth Israel could worship in peace in downtown San Diego,” our rabbi concluded.

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.

Introducing New Board President Emily Jennewein

By Emily Jennewein, President

Emily Jennewein and her family have traveled to Israel twice, most recently as

participants in Rabbi/Cantor Arlene Bernstein's Youth Choir Trip in 2008.

From left, Maddy, Chris, Penny and Emily Jennewein at the Temple

Mount in Jerusalem.

As a former journalist and volunteer for Beth Israel’s website, introducing myself to the congregation in writing feels second nature. But I also know that an article is not a substitute for a personal introduction, and I hope to talk with many members of our community over the next two years.

Let me start by saying that I feel very fortunate to be serving as your president at this momentous time in our congregation’s history, as we embark on an exciting, year-long commemoration of our 150th anniversary. It’s humbling to take on this important responsibility, but I had a fantastic, wise and intelligent mentor in Ron Simon. Ron strengthened the financial foundation of our synagogue, helped lay the groundwork for the 150th anniversary endowment campaign and personally cultivated generous endowment gifts.

A temple president can’t be successful without collaborating with an experienced team. Rabbi Michael Berk, Executive Director Lesley Mills and our board are entering our fifth year of partnering together and we are already working on setting our shared priorities for the forthcoming year.

Beth Israel has been an important part of my life since our family moved to San Diego 10 years ago.

My volunteer involvement with the synagogue began when I joined the Religious School parent committee and created a small website for the Religious School. Soon, I was asked to expand the website to encompass all the temple’s offerings and that evolved into serving as the synagogue's volunteer webmaster for several years.

I’ve also been vice president for education, served on the finance and communications committees and have worked actively on the synagogue's strategic planning process. I served on and co-chaired, respectively, the search committees that selected Rabbi Michael Berk and Rabbi Michael Satz. I chaired A Musical Night in Jerusalem, which honored Cantor Arlene Bernstein for her first 10 years with the congregation. And I just began a term on the board of Hillel of San Diego.

Outside of the temple I have for 15 years operated a marketing communications business, and for three years was the marketing director and a marketing consultant for the Jewish Community Foundation of San Diego. Earlier I worked at The Coca-Cola Company and was a business news reporter at The Miami Herald and The Atlanta Constitution. I earned an M.B.A. from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College and graduated from Amherst College.

My husband, Chris, and I live in Del Mar. Chris is senior regional editor for Southern California for AOL's Patch network of local news websites. Our daughters, Maddy and Penny, are entering their sophomore years at Brown University and the University of Pennsylvania. My parents, Alan and Liz Rubin, retired to Del Mar and live around the corner from us. Our family has always practiced Reform Judaism. I was born Jewish, and Chris converted to Judaism at Beth Israel. Maddy and Penny, became b'not mitzvah and celebrated their confirmations at Beth Israel.

I look forward to continuing to communicate regularly in Tidings and through the new congregational blog at www.bethisrael.blogspot.com. But more importantly, I hope to see all of you regularly at services, programs and events at Beth Israel and to hear from you any time at board@cbisd.org.

Yom Kippur Afternoon Worship and Break-the-Fast to be Held at Our Synagogue Home

by President Emily Jennewein

In honor of our 150th anniversary, the Board is very pleased to announce that Yom Kippur afternoon services and a light Break-the-Fast will be held at our synagogue home at Beth Israel this year.

We have frequently heard requests from members who would love the opportunity to worship in our own magnificent synagogue during the High Holy Days. Because of the very special nature of this anniversary year, we will move our worship on Yom Kippur afternoon to our own synagogue starting at 1:45 p.m. with Ask the Rabbi, then continue with the Afternoon Service, Yizkor and Neilah. At the conclusion of the day of Yom Kippur worship, we will offer light Break-the-Fast refreshments.

To accommodate all who will worship with us on Yom Kippur afternoon, we plan to expand our Glickman-Galinson Sanctuary by opening the wall to the adjacent David & Dorothea Garfield Social Hall. Light Break-the-Fast refreshments will be served in the Price Family Courtyard. Beth Israel’s regular High Holy Days tickets will include admission to Yom Kippur afternoon services at our temple. Because Yom Kippur falls on a Saturday this year rather than on a business day, we are very fortunate that congregants will be able to park freely in the Gateway Parking Structure.

Rabbi Michael Berk, Executive Director Lesley Mills and members of the synagogue Board of Directors are very sensitive to the fact that for some congregants the mid-day move will interrupt what is traditionally a full day of worship in one location. We understand that what will be a delight to many, will seem a disruption to others. Please know that the decision to bring Yom Kippur afternoon services back to our temple was made after very careful consideration and weighing of this special opportunity to worship in our own synagogue as well as the disadvantages.

In an effort to ease the transition during the worship day, we will provide three legs of shuttle transportation by reservation only: from Beth Israel to the Civic Theatre for members who would like to park near our temple in the morning; from the Civic Theatre to Beth Israel at the conclusion of the morning service; and from Beth Israel back to the Civic Theatre after the Break-the-Fast, for those who parked at the Civic Theatre in the morning.

On behalf of the Board, we hope you will all join us for the unique experience of worshiping on our own campus as we conclude our High Holy Days worship in this milestone 150th anniversary year.

Aleinu Members Gathered for Special Summer Celebration

L-R: Scholar in Residence Co-Chairs Susan Ulevitch and
Steve Ritter welcomed Rabbi Norman Cohen as our
2011 Scholar in Residence last winter.

Susan Ulevitch, co-chair of Scholar in Residence, and her husband Richard, hosted the Aleinu Adult Education Committee for a summer social evening at their La Jolla home last week. The evening was a special time for members to socialize and get to know each other with just the minimum of committee work involved!

The group enjoyed Susan's gorgeous ocean view, munched on appetizers, and a fabulous dinner. Susan and Bonnie outdid themselves with delectable desserts. Aleinu welcomed new committee members Jane Lazerow and Louise Winheld. People jumped on board to volunteer to head up programs for the coming year.

Aleinu members Janine Feldman, Liz Levine and Janet Acheatel
enjoyed the Aleinu summer get-together 

What a wonderful idea this was! Many thanks to the Ulevitches for their hospitality!

Men's Club Hosted Chris Jennewein on Re-Inventing Media for an Online World

by Emily Jennewein, President
I enjoyed joining the Men's Club when it hosted Chris Jennewein, my husband, at its Dinner Forum last week on the subject of Re-Inventing Media for an Online World. Here are four slides from Chris' presentation, including his recommendations for news websites to follow: