Regardless of one's political affiliation, we Jews cannot help but feel enormous pride in the selection of Senator Joseph Lieberman as the Democratic vice presidential candidate. As Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism said, "For the first time, our children can look at a candidate for the second-highest office in the land and see themselves."
Remember that as temple leaders, your role is to insure that those who speak for the congregation are not tempted to publicly cross the line from asserting pride and joy in Senator Lieberman's persona to actually supporting his candidacy.
As in every election year, the IRS has issued a warning to charities that synagogues must heed or risk losing their task-exempt status and/or be subject to an excise tax on the amount of money they spend on a prohibited political activity. It notes that "charities should be careful that their efforts to educate voters stay within the IRS guidelines for political campaign activities."
According to the guidelines, the following activities are restricted:
- A synagogue may not endorse, contribute to, work for, or encourage its members to affiliate with a party or endorse or oppose a candidate for office. Note: This applies to both primary and general elections.
- A rabbi should not endorse or oppose candidates from the pulpit even if the rabbi makes clear that the statement is personal and not a congregational endorsement. According to the guidelines, the following activities are permissible:
- A synagogue may convene a candidate's forum provided that all "legally qualified" candidates are invited to participate and the synagogue takes appropriate steps to insure the fair and impartial treatment of candidates. Note: All candidates need not choose to participate; forums with different candidates can take place at different times but must be genuinely similar; and "fringe" candidates need not be included.
- A synagogue may promote nonpartisan voter registration, education, and "get out the vote" campaigns.
- A synagogue may spend up to 5 percent of its budget on advocacy efforts for initiatives and referenda.
- Individuals may speak on their own behalf as long as they clearly identify who they are and as long as they state that they are not speaking on behalf of the synagogue.
As board members, you have a fiduciary duty to guard your synagogue's tax-exempt status. Encourage your members and clergy to be safe and use the heightened public awareness occasioned by an election year to promote important issues rather than candidates. If Senator Lieberman is your choice, support his candidacy as a private citizen but never in your role as temple leader.
Please consult with your local counsel prior to planning any political activity by your congregation. For further information or if you have specific questions, contact the
Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism (RAC) by telephone at 202-387-2800 or by e-mail at
RAC@uahc.org.
FINAL HIGH HOLY DAY PREPARATIONS
Since the High Holy Days are "late" this year, your September board meeting provides you with one last opportunity to insure readiness. Consider the follow-ing items that might have slipped through the cracks:
- Make sure your temple is ready for its youngest and oldest members. Insure that arrangements and guidelines for child care are in place and that handicap access is available and clearly marked.
- Verify that those being honored with aliyot have received and confirmed the notice of their honor. Then conduct an "usher boot camp" for procedural training to explain the process regarding aliyot and to answer all other questions.
- Remember that an established procedure for collecting tickets not only encourages members to be current on their dues, it also serves as an appropriate security measure.
Consider scheduling and encouraging members to attend the following:
- S'lichot services, the beautiful and spiritual late-night service that takes place the Saturday evening before Rosh Hashanah, this year on September 23, 2000. The UAHC has created a S'lichot program of study and worship, titled Reaching for Holiness: A Program for S'lichot, that explores the purpose of t'shuvah. To receive the program booklet and for more information, contact the UAHC Department of Religious Living by telephone at 212-650-4193 or by e-mail at rliving@uahc.org.
- Tashlich, the outdoor, informal, family-oriented service that occurs on the first day of Rosh Hashanah (or on the second day when the first falls on Shabbat, as it does this year). The tradition encourages Jews to go to a body of water and symbolically cast their sins into the water.
- Break fast in the synagogue. Use this opportunity to provide temple members with a way to end the Days of Awe as a community.
Have you planned your High Holy Day Mitzvah Project? Consider distributing grocery bags with a wish list attached to each family on Rosh Hashanah and then collecting the filled bags on Yom Kippur. Your youth group can sort and distribute the food to a local food pantry. Or simply ask your congregants to make a contribution to a local food pantry that is equal to what their family would have spent on food had they eaten on Yom Kippur.
Keep a list of those who were particularly helpful in this colossal organizational task and express public gratitude to them in next month's bulletin.
L'Shanah Tovah Tikateivu!
WELCOME YOUR COLLEGE STUDENTS
BACK HOME TO THE TEMPLE
As board members, you are acutely aware of how much temple time, money, and resources are spent on educating our children Jewishly. In fact, many of our young people have spent five to fifteen of their formative years, from nursery school through post-confirmation, in the temple on a regular basis. As they prepare to go off to college, where young people make many important life decisions, they may find comfort and meaning in the knowledge that the temple will continue to be there for them and play a significant role in their lives. By establishing an appropriate connection with your college students, your temple can help them solidify a lifetime bond with Judaism. Keep the temple connected with your college students by creating a College Committee composed of clergy, concerned parents, and perhaps professional staff and affiliate members (WRJ and Brotherhood). The committee's responsibilities can include:
- Creating and maintaining a list of students
- Sending college students periodic "care" packages
- Organizing events for them at the temple
Consider the following creative approaches to "keeping in touch":
- College students love to receive mail. Send them the temple bulletin and initiate a regular column as their forum, whereby they can maintain contact with each other and the temple.
- Temple Sharey Tefilo-Israel in South Orange, NJ, sends college students regular mailings, including its extremely popular "beat the winter blues" package, consisting of hotel collectibles such as shampoos, sewing kits, and combs; donated items such as pocket calculators and sticky notes; and food (the favorite), such as wrapped cookies, cups-of-soup, and hot chocolate packets.
- Anshe Chesed Congregation Fairmont Temple in Beachwood, OH, sends college students a Jewish holiday calendar and a crisis card, the size of a credit card, which assures the students that the clergy is available to them via a collect call any time, day or night, if they have an issue that they would like to discuss.
- Temple Beth El of Great Neck, NY, sends college students an application for an absentee ballot so that they do not miss out on the opportunity to vote in what will be for many of them their first presidential election.
- Sponsor a "College Homecoming," consisting of a Shabbat evening dinner and/or service during Thanksgiving break, winter recess, or another time when many students are home.
The key to maintaining this connection is to collect the names of your college students and keep in touch with them. Let them know that the temple cares about them and is there for them. Your temple and Judaism will reap the benefits, namely, college students who come home to the temple.
For more information on staying in touch with your college students, contact the UAHC College Education Department by telephone at 212-650-4070 or by e-mail at
Kesher@uahc.org.
PLAN NOW FOR YOUR
REGIONAL BIENNIAL
During the next six months, regional biennials will be taking place in all UAHC regions. Those of you who attended the Biennial in Orlando this past December know how exciting and worthwhile these events are. Your regional biennial will be closer to home, shorter (basically Friday through Sunday), and more focused on issues that are of particular significance to your area.
Before your next board meeting, review the registration material and organize a delegation from your board. Workshops taught by national and regional UAHC staff will focus on topics ranging from board training to worship styles. Consider sending your delegates to different workshops so that most of the areas that are of interest to your synagogue are covered. Use these learning opportunities to expand your board members' knowledge beyond their own portfolios. Plan briefing meetings to share newfound knowledge and exchange ideas.
Encourage your delegates to celebrate Shabbat and share the transformational quality of worship and study with fellow leaders and clergy. This experience is sure to enhance spirituality and knowledge and make your board members better role models and leaders.
For more information, please contact your
UAHC regional office.
SEEKING AN EFFECTIVE
MISSION STATEMENT?
If your temple board has been struggling with how to best convey your synagogue's mission, obtain a copy of Hear, O Israel: Creating Meaningful Congregational Mission Statements from the UAHC Ida and Howard Wilkoff Department of Synagogue Management.
This new step-by-step guide to creating compelling congregational mission statements
- Defines what a mission statement is and is not
- Provides rationales for creating one o Lists ten criteria for effective mission statements
- Outlines a plan for developing such a statement
Three-hole punched for easy use, Hear, O Israel provides several creative and interesting ideas to use in focus groups, contains samples of existing temple mission statements, and presents suggestions for how to use a mission statement once it has been developed.
To obtain
Hear, O Israel: Creating Meaningful Congregational Mission Statements, contact the UAHC Ida and Howard Wilkoff Department of Synagogue Management by telephone at 212-650-4040 or by e-mail at
synagoguemgmt@uahc.org.
Share Your Ideas and Input
Do you have
- Programs that have worked well in your congregation?
- Topics about which you would like more information?
- Suggestions for future Inside Leadership articles?
For our September-October issue: Share how your board
members are preparing for the High Holy Days.
Contact the
UAHC Ida and Howard Wilkoff
Department of Synagogue Management
633 Third Avenue
New York, NY 10017
Tel: (212) 650-4040
Fax: (212) 650-4239
E-mail: Synagoguemgmt@uahc.org
