I am about to assume the Presidency and I have so many things on my mind. As I write this, we are about to confirm our class of 2010 and, especially this year, Shavuot takes me back to recall transformational times at my own Confirmation in a class of 124 kids at Fairmount Temple in Cleveland, way back in 1959.

 
We have been reminded that congregational survival for 50+ years was never a given, and yet we have reached this point together. Our course from here forward is the responsibility of ALL of the members, not just those on the Board, so I want to remind and encourage all of you to get deeply involved in our committees, events, and offerings. Sending in your membership, school fees and fundraising money is a great starting point to lubricate some of the Temple machinery, but we also need your active participation in all the things that need doing. We continue to offer some great opportunities for congregants to engage in Tikun Olam, while we socialize, learn and pray together. Let me know if you'd like to serve on any of our committees. Volunteers are particularly needed to firm up our team and assume some of the chairmanships during the next few weeks.

 Between the dates of my Bar Mitzvah and Confirmation, we had unexpectedly lost our long tenured rabbi, and thus my class was the first of a new era. Nobody there could be sure about how that Congregation might fare, though there was a huge staff in place to smooth the transitions. Our challenge may be a bit less stressful than that, because Rabbi Bernstein has given us fifteen months notice of his retirement. We have some time to do our work right. It is indeed an opportunity to move from strength to strength. For reasons that will be reviewed at the Annual Meeting on June 2, the Board has voted to follow Seth's advice and set our first goal to hire an experienced interim Rabbi (a specialist in transitional congregations) for 2011-2012. We intend to get a lot of help from that person in guiding our separation and redefinition processes. Thus the bulk of the intensive search work to recruit our next (hopefully long term) Rabbi is deferred until after our celebration of Seth's twenty five years of leadership is over. In many ways this will put us in a stronger position as we find the right person to become our next Rabbi at Temple Sinai.

 
Because mailings are costly, we plan to do most of the frequent progress communication by email as the year goes forward. Please make sure that we have your current email address on file, and take the time to read all of the messages. Make sure June Willey and I know of those of you who do not have a computer and do not use email. We need to know that information so that we can keep you informed in the best way as possible. The challenges are daunting, but the opportunities are great too.

 
B'shalom,
Gary Englander 
President Elect