Subject: Rabbi's Message: Jul. 2008 - Tamuz 5768: Summer Summary

Traditionally, there has been no July newsletter but along with the bill for the next fiscal year, has been an enclosure of the "Rabbi's Message". I tend to make the message more a "member's only" message, reflecting a bit more on Betenu's internals.

As fy2008 comes to an end, I think that Betenu is on firmer ground then we have been in a very long time. In my July 2006 message I wrote:

At this point in our history, individually and collectively, Betenu needs to recruit enough young families that we can have a viable kindergarten-first grade class. The religious school is busy trying to put together a new set of programs that is specifically aimed for this age group. When Betenu formed, we lamented that the one demographic we were missing was the post-60 generation with their age, experience and wisdom. The demographic we are missing now is the families with the youngest children. Rebuilding this part of the temple population is perhaps the foremost challenge facing Betenu in the upcoming year." The good news is that through the Tot-Shabbat program and the other programming that we have made available, we have re-established the demographic of young families with religious-school-age children! While many contributed to making that happen, a special kudu goes to Rahel.

With Sarah Korins as VP-Education, Pam Blotcky as principal and a good collection of staff and volunteers, I have particularly high hopes for the future. Over the last year, Betenu confirmands including Arianne Bennett, Tovah Burstein and Dan Thompson have visited or are visiting Israel; and they are giving us a really positive feeling that we at Betenu are succeeding in bringing Judaism to a new generation.

In addition, there has been some growth in membership which is contributing to fiscal stability which had been a problem for the last several years.

This year, Congregation Betenu celebrates its 25th anniversary and I have high hopes for a wonderful celebratory event this fall. It's a nice feeling to move into our 2nd quarter century with a sense of success for what we have done, a feeling of pride for what we do and a feeling of hope for our future.

Le-sha-lom,

Joshua L. Segal

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