Renew Your Commitment to the Covenant of Membership”

A teenage member of the congregation and his mother recently met with me in my office. When we had completed the business of the visit, the young man's mother asked me if I had a few more minutes. "Sure," I replied, wondering what was on her mind. She continued, telling me that she had just received the April edition of our Temple Beth El "Voice" and had seen the cover photo and article mentioning the generosity of Carol and the late Joe Voynow towards the Temple.

"I wish there was some way that you could let people like them know how much their support of the Temple matters," she said. I wondered for a moment where this was headed, and then she continued. "You know that my husband and I have had our financial problems over the years, and we have not been able to be as generous to the Temple as we would have liked to be. We have always known that we could count on the Temple to be there for us, and we have been grateful for the scholarships and help you have given us. Our children have gotten so much from their involvement here at Temple, and are still involved in so many ways. Being Jewish and being part of Temple Beth El is so important to them, and I just hope that people who have the means to support the Temple so generously know that their contribution really matters."

Listening to this sincere testimony, I was truly moved! In the midst of our recent budget discussions, the Board of Directors has been struggling to find the way to motivate members of the congregation to be as generous as possible in supporting the Temple through the annual renewal campaign. This family, in their unsolicited and sincere way, had summarized the entire message.

Supporting the Temple to the fullest of our ability is important because of people like this. We are not a particularly wealthy congregation. Our endowment funds have not yet reached our goal. The individual generosity of each member family is the only way that we will be able to continue to provide the wonderful worship services, educational programs, and the myriad of other activities which meet the needs of the community in so many ways. Synagogues, like churches and other not-for-profit organizations, are dependent upon the giving of our members. We cannot count on outside sources of funds to help us reach our budget, nor should we. Instead, members of the congregation must realize that each of our pledges matters.

It is time to begin to renew your annual commitment to the covenant of membership in the Temple. We call this relationship a covenant for a reason. There is a sanctity to the relationship between congregant and congregation. Our commitment is to provide a synagogue that will be there for you when you need us -- to provide for your spiritual needs, to offer you opportunities to learn and grow as members of the Jewish community, to share with you as you encounter the joys and sorrows of life. We ask you to make the commitment to give as generously as you possibly can to support our Temple's budget.

We are grateful to every member for your contributions in the past. However, as you renew your commitment for the coming year, please consider a generous increase of your support. Please reach to make your commitment a stretch to a new level of giving.

It is the season of Shavuot -- the festival which recalls the giving of Torah. As we retell the story of our people's commitment to God, may we renew our commitment as well.

James M. Bennett