WINTER DOLDRUMS?
Recharge Your Board with a Mid–Year Retreat

Your Board has been meeting for several months. Its members are starting to work together as a group, and some issues may have arisen that call for in-depth discussions. For example, the leadership may be grappling with whether or not this is a good time to start a building campaign. Maybe membership is down or stagnant and a serious recruitment/retention/integration program must be considered. Perhaps several of your members will come back from the Boston Biennial chock-full of enthusiasm and new ideas that will need to be fleshed out in a quiet environment. Now may be the perfect time to take a break from your normal routine and schedule a Board mid-year winter retreat.

See the December–January, 1999–2000 issue of Inside Leadership for a comprehensive article about planning a Board retreat. Consult the retreat manual Live Together, Learn Together: A Congregational Kallah/Retreat Manual, also available on the Web for information about planning retreats in general. Read Leadership: Shaping the Jewish Community through Board Seminars on the Synagogue Management Web site or call the UAHC Ida and Howard Wilkoff Department of Synagogue Management at 212.650.4040 to learn how our Leadership Development Program can provide a facilitator for your retreat.

With all of these resources at your fingertips by virtue of your membership in a UAHC congregation, you can begin planning today!

GO ON WITH THE SHOW!
Support the Arts and the Economy
and Bring Your Community Together

After the September 11 tragedy, Rabbi Jeffrey Sirkman of Larchmont Temple, a suburban New York congregation with 750 member units, and his friend who is the pastor at a local Presbyterian church were exploring ways to bring their anxious congregants together to heal and support their beleaguered city, as Mayor Giuliani was imploring. Larchmont Temple’s Social Action Chair Lee Perlman quickly sprang into action. He purchased a block of tickets through group sales for a family-oriented Broadway show (Aida) and arranged with a congregant who owns an Upper West Side eatery to accommodate the group for dinner at family-style tables. Flyers were sent to the congregants, and 116 tickets were sold. With the assistance of WRJ and the temple’s Social Action Committee, transportation was arranged. On November 4, 2001, NYC Marathon Sunday, the group spent an interfaith, intergenerational day of recreation, recovery, and renewal that even included frequent glimpses of thousands of runners as the buses careened around the marathon route making their way to the theater district and a surprise visit by one of the cast members (a Larchmont resident) at the dinner. A magical time was had by all.

Consider following Larchmont’s example with your own local theater parties. This is an easy and wonderful way to bring people together, and, as Lee Perlman said, “Whether it is Broadway or a touring company coming to hometowns across America, we all need to be tourists in our own communities. The arts are an important part of this country’s fabric, and there will never be a better time for us to explore and enjoy them as a congregation and as a community.”

To Every Thing There Is a Season: Congregational Funeral and Cemetery Practices addresses the particular areas in which the synagogue and its clergy can provide comfort and assistance to their members and offers guidelines and examples of practices within the Reform Movement during the sensitive time when a congregant experiences a loss. The publication highlights funeral guides and plans, how the synagogue can help with funeral and burial preparations, and Jewish service and mourning practices. It also discusses the acquisition, maintenance, and regulations of cemeteries. Several sections address issues as they relate to non-Jewish family members. The guide includes a lengthy appendix with specific examples of documents, including contracts, guides, letters, promotional material, rules, and regulations.

A project of the UAHC Ida and Howard Wilkoff Department of Synagogue Management, To Every Thing There Is a Season: Congregational Funeral and Cemetery Practices, can be acquired by temples, one to each congregation, free of charge, by e-mailing synagoguemgmt@uahc.org, by faxing 212. 650.4239, or by calling 212.650.4040. In addition, the manual is available for downloading from the Synagogue Management Web site at http://www.uahc.org/synman/publications.

THE BOY SCOUTS DILEMMA REVISITED:
Some Case Studies

Last year at this time, Rabbi Dan Polish, the director of the UAHC Commission on Social Action, posed the following question in Inside Leadership (November–December 2000): “Can and should our congregations maintain sponsorship of scout troops or work with the Boy Scouts of America in any way in light of the recent Supreme Court ruling permitting them to discriminate based on sexual orientation and the UAHC policy opposing discrimination against gays?”

Many synagogue Boards have chosen to take a position on this issue during the past year. Below are case studies from four congregations.

Even before the UAHC issued a statement, the leadership of Temple Judea in Coral Gables, Florida (625 member units), was trying to deal sensitively with the troop they had sponsored for forty years (note that in recent years there were very few Jews and fewer temple members in the troop). President Jim Barocas and his Board believed that it was appropriate to take a strong stand because of the Boy Scouts’ exclusionary policy regarding gays. When the Boy Scouts representatives who spoke at the Board meeting were able to offer no alternative solution, the troop was asked to leave the congregation. Expecting that result, it had already made arrangements for sponsorship by a local church, and the ensuing transition was peaceful and seamless.

Temple Israel in Hollywood, California (750 member units), had sponsored a Cub Scouts pack for five years. In light of the Supreme Court ruling, the issue of renewing the pack’s charter was raised and explored at a Board meeting to which representatives of all points of view were invited. A resolution to discontinue sponsorship, overwhelmingly supported by the membership, was passed by the Board in February. Meanwhile, supporters of the pack petitioned for a special congregational meeting to oppose the resolution and proffered their own candidate for president. With hundreds of people in attendance, a UAHC officer brought in to run the meeting, and passionate support of the temple’s resolution offered by the original founder of the pack, among others, the new slate was soundly defeated.

Temple Israel in Memphis, Tennessee (1,750 member units), has been sponsoring scouting programs for eighty-five years. Thoughtful discussions resulted in a strong desire to fight for change from within through the local affiliate, which frankly disagrees with the offending national policy. The temple’s pack and troop each issued a nondiscrimination statement, established a Tolerance Task Force, and vowed to work within the scouting organization to change the policy. Thus the Teaching Tolerance Project was designed, in consultation with the Southern Poverty Law Center, by the progressive parents of Troop 25. The overwhelming majority of families involved with the temple’s scouting programs are Reform-affiliated Jews. The temple Board passed a resolution strongly disagreeing with the Boy Scouts of America’s national policy and noting the temple’s refusal to turn away from any activity anyone associated with the temple because of his sexual orientation.

Steven Foster, the rabbi of Congregation Emanuel in Denver, Colorado (1,920 member units), and a proud Eagle Scout, delivered a Rosh HaShanah 2000 sermon that included the reading of the painful but impassioned letter he had sent to the Boy Scouts of America when he returned his hard-earned medals. The temple Board subsequently passed a strongly supported resolution ousting the troop it had sponsored for forty-five years.

The response of congregants and temple Boards has varied intensely across the country, depending on the culture of the community. Instituting thoughtful and inclusive discussions will insure that whatever the result, your congregation will grow stronger.

For further information about the UAHC position on this issue, please contact Rabbi Dan Polish, director of the UAHC Commission on Social Action, by phone at 212.650.4156 or by e-mail at dpolish@uahc.org.

CLICK ON Communicate!

FEATURED ENTRY OF THE MONTH...Jewish Living Tour

Congregation Children of Israel (185 member units)
3005 Walton Way, Augusta, GA 30909
Tel: 706.736.3140 Fax: 706.736.9003
Contact: Cynthia Parr

To facilitate learning about the Jewish holidays, we have established various holiday displays that we call a Tour of Jewish Life. For this program we set up numerous stations around a room and display one holiday on each table.

For example, on the Passover table, we display the following:

• Common ritual items, such as a seder plate, a box of matzah, an Elijah’s cup, etc.
• Symbolic decorations, such as a brick to stand for our slavery in Egypt; a walking cane to represent the staff used by Moses; wooden camels to suggest our transportation out of Egypt; cacti to denote the desert; sea shells to epitomize the Red Sea; doves to stand for peace; a small toy pyramid to represent our slavery in Egypt; plastic toys to symbolize each plague; and a small basket with a baby doll in it to suggest the infant Moses.

Resources: A list of symbols used for each holiday

Communicate!, the easy-to-use computerized encyclopedia of ideas, program expertise, contacts, and resources that is designed specifically for the UAHC and its member congregations, is a project of the UAHC Ida and Howard Wilkoff Department of Synagogue Management and is now fully available on the Internet. To submit an idea to or access Communicate! on the Web, click on http://uahc.org/comm. For more information about Communicate!, please phone 212.650.4040 or 800.894.4735, fax 212.650.4239, or e-mail communicate@uahc.org.

Current and all back issues of Inside Leadership are available on the Web at http://www.uahc.org/leadership/inside.

Click on Communicate! Now fully available on the Web at http://uahc.org/comm.

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 articles for Inside Leadership?

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