I decided to have the substance of my High Holiday Address printed in this Shofar because I believe it contains an important message which many of our congregants did not have an opportunity to hear. We have been working hard since the High Holidays to prepare for the Visioning Workshop and I hope this will reach you before the Workshop and encourage you to participate in the Workshop.

 

“I do want to take this rare opportunity that I have to speak to our membership generally to discuss our upcoming visioning process. All of you have hopes and dreams for your families and your careers. Happiness and success are likely the words that are most readily evoked. However, there are many important factors that contribute to happiness and success, and an important factor is community. We hear a great deal about what needs to be done to make Winnipeg a better community. We often hear about the shortcomings of our city. However, most of us are here because Winnipeg has provided us with a good life. We truly want it to be a great city, a vibrant city, a city that can attract new businesses and people and also retain and sustain the existing businesses and people, particularly our young people.

 

However, besides our concerns about the general community, I believe we all have a very particular interest in the smaller community which we all belong to, our Jewish community. At a recent workshop sponsored by the Federation to help it in its planning and priority process, there was a strong message from the participants that one of the five essential services for a vibrant Jewish community is religion, which translates to the need for both religious education and strong synagogues. I think it has become clearer and clearer that Judaism cannot survive in a purely secular form. What has kept Judaism alive and strong throughout the ages (l d’or va d’or) is the commitment to and understanding of the importance of Torah in our lives as Jews, or as one of our recent Bar Mitzvah put it, tradition. If there is to be continuity, if we are to have a vibrant Jewish community for our children and grandchildren, or if we are to have any Jewish community at all, we must keep our synagogues strong, we must be able to pass on the traditions.

 

And this leads me to our community of Shaarey Zedek, a community that your board, your executive and your staff and clergy are committed to keeping strong, as we believe we have a very important role to play in keeping our Jewish community vibrant.

 

In order to do, this we recognize that we must engage more of our congregants. We need to provide different opportunities for engagement to recognize individual differences, but maintain the core values of the religious traditions that have been passed down through the generations. We really need to find ways to engage our youth and the younger members of our congregation in a way that extends well before and beyond b’nai mitzvah.

 

We are very proud of many successes over the last few years in providing more programming and involving more of our community in the life of our synagogue. New ways of coming together in fellowship and prayer such as our Kabbalat Shabbat boat cruises should certainly be celebrated. We are so lucky to have such an exceptional team of clergy and professional staff, as well as a committed core of volunteer leadership.

 

But we need to refresh our vision for the future, reexamine our mission statement, and collectively work on a roadmap that will ensure that the magnificent long and winding road called Judaism does not end at this generation or the next.

 

You can help us not only keep the road going, but also to pave it, by participating in the visioning process. There are a number of ways for you to participate. You can answer the four questions* that will be sent to you shortly and send them in or drop them off at the office. You can advise the office if you would like to participate in a parlour meeting to discuss your vision for the future of the synagogue with our leadership, or you can participate in the congregational workshop which will be held in early December where we will be led through a process by a team of experienced facilitators.

 

You can expand your Jewish education by taking the world renowned Florence Melton course of religious studies which will be offered in co-operation with the Rady Centre right here at Shaarey Zedek over the course of the next year.

 

You can participate in one of our many Tikun Olam projects, enjoy a Movie Night or Cantor of the Opera program, or come to services and stay for Kiddush, and find out why more and more of you have come to agree with us that Shaarey Zedek is the place to be.

 

If each of you attends just one extra service or one extra program this coming year, that will represent about 2,000 to 3,000 additional acts of Judaism. And that is how we pave the road for the future, by our actions, one paving stone at a time. And to make sure the road is taking the best route for our community, I ask you to please help make the visioning process a strong and successful one. To do this we need your participation.”

 

I would like to close my message by wishing all of you and your families a Happy Chanukah!

 

* Five questions were actually sent out.