Over the past several months, there have been slow but very positive changes coming to Temple Beth El. There is a book group. There was a workshop on Yom Kippur. There was a special Shabbat service with our Cantor Emerita, Barbara Roberts, and there’s increase in activity with our Hebrew school, which was formerly called Sunday school. We are having people from the community come to some of our events, and when we ask them what interests them the most, it is community activities that we’re doing rather than just our services. Don’t misunderstand me, services have been great with Cantor Green accompanied by Michael Bauer on piano. People love the increased use of music and attendance is greatly increased from the few years before Cantor Green came to join us.
Nevertheless, it’s the additional programming which is helping to grow the congregation. Since the beginning of the year, we’ve had four or five new applications for membership, all of whom have cited something about this year’s programming as being the reason for them joining. In light of this, it has occurred to some to consider re-branding the public name of the congregation. To the public, and most of our members, the official name is Temple Beth El. However, as a religious corporation our legal name is “Oneonta Jewish Community, Inc.”, authorized to do business as (d/b/a) “Temple Beth El”. For years, some of our members have suggested that we consider changing our name to convey all of the activities that we have available.
After much discussion among the board at its November’s meeting several options were brought up: Oneonta Jewish Center, Oneonta JCC, Otsego and Delaware Counties, Jewish Center or JCC, and Congregation Beth El, and any combination of the ones above. The board feels like this is a decision that should be made by the whole congregation and not just by the board. While a plurality of the board preferred Oneonta Jewish Community/Temple Beth El, this is a decision that should be made by the whole congregation and not just by the board. Other options are still being considered. One of the criticisms of calling ourselves the Oneonta JCC, Jewish Community Center, is that we do not have a gym and people seeing that name would expect it. It was also felt that possibly we do not have a big enough footprint for such a grandiose name. This actually gave me the idea of trying to work out an arrangement with the Oneonta Y to see if we can come up with a plan or program specific for our needs. Please give me some feedback.
I am strongly of the opinion that the entire congregation will have to make the decision together. First a decision will be made as to whether to make a change. Then the new branding will be decided. The decision will be made by referendum or by a vote at a community meeting. As of today, I am thinking of having the next community meeting early in the spring rather than later like we did this year. Please forward your ideas and comments to me and use my personal email address, rjs@alum.mit.edu for correspondence. Thank you.
~Richard Sternberg
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