Kol Nidrei Address by Chairman of the Board Mark First
Mark First, Chairman of the Board
September 24, 2023 ~ 10 Tishrei 5784
I am again deeply honored to stand before you, my friends, as Chairman of this inspiring institution and to give my fifth Kol Nidre speech. I thank you for your good wishes, support, and kind words throughout my term, which will end in June. I thank each one of you for being part of the Park Avenue Synagogue community – from members whose families have been affiliated with our community for multiple generations to those of you are here for your first Kol Nidre service.
Thank you, Rabbi Cosgrove, for making your mark on this institution and the wider Jewish community. Your gifts of intellect, warmth, comfort, and your sense of humor are incredible pleasures for our membership, for anyone who visits our community, and for me. Our friendship means the world to me. We have embarked on an ambitious path and I share your desire to make this community a place which leads Jewish life in North America for all ages.
Thank you, Cantor Schwartz, for making Park Avenue Synagogue your home. In a short time you have begun to make this institution the center of Jewish music in North America while honoring the extraordinary musical traditions of this community and always leading services that engage and provide meaning to our members.
Rabbi Rein, we are so proud of your accomplishments. You have become an important part of the fabric of this community. Our members look forward to your words of Torah and leadership whether you are on the bimah, at a life cycle event, or teaching a class. We look forward to your work leading our new initiative – the PAS Caring Network – as you described it on Rosh Hashanah. As Americans, we appreciate your commitment to your chaplaincy in the United States Air Force, with the rank of Captain.
We welcome Cantor Kidron for a second year in our community. Your musical talents and your skill in leading prayer services and teaching classes are evident to all immediately upon hearing you. Your kind demeanor is consistent with our desire to make this community warm and welcoming.
Beryl, it is hard to describe the functions of the Executive Director and I am almost certain I will not do it justice tonight. You have to be nice to everyone, get our members more tickets and better seats, maintain an aging building and oversee its refurbishment, create a dynamic website, balance a budget, install state of the art technology and security, raise funds, and support the clergy and lay leadership. Thank you for all of your efforts.
In fact, Beryl had a new experience this year. The IRS called asking about one of our families, Abe and Esther. The conversation went something like this:
[Beryl picks up his phone.] “Hello?"
"Hello, is this Beryl Chernov, Executive Director of Park Avenue Synagogue?"
"It is."
"This is the IRS, Agent Smith. Can you help us?"
"I'll try."
"Do you know Abe and Esther_____? We are auditing their tax return."
"I do."
"Are they members of your congregation?”
"They are."
"We have a few questions. Did they donate $25,000 to the something called the Kol Nidre appeal last year?"
"They will!"
These years have been a team effort among the lay leadership of the Officers Committee (whom I will list in alphabetical order for Kremlin watchers among you): Marcia Eppler Colvin, Paul Corwin, Rachael First, Brian Lustbader, Marlene Muskin, Art Penn, and Howard Rubin. Their constant devotion to PAS has made these years so special. I am also grateful to everyone who has served on the Board and on the Advisory Council during my tenure.
Our staff is beyond peer, across education, programming, and finance and building operations. Thank you to Beryl Chernov, Rabbi Neil Zuckerman, Liz Offenbach, Rabbi Eve Rudin, Carol Hendin, Caryn Roman, Matt Check, Aliza Cantor, Marga Hirsch, Mark Fraier, Jonathan Schlesinger, John Davis, and Lawrence Conley, who all put immeasurable energy into maintaining and sustaining this institution each and every day.
I would like to especially thank all of the volunteers. Without you, our volunteers, our programs would remain plans on paper but not come to life. Among you are volunteers who organize special events, plan Israel trips, assist with our schools, prepare Rabbi Cosgrove’s sermons for publication, entertain us on Purim, take photographs for our Cantors’ CD, cover library books, send jokes for this speech, pack groceries for those in need of a meal, visit the sick and comfort the bereaved. I thank all of the volunteers who make this community so vital on so many levels.
Thank you, Cheri, for all of your love and support of my efforts to lead this community and thank you to all of the friends we have made and kept these years from the last row of the sanctuary to the front row. I hope you leave a seat for me when I return to the pews next High Holy Days.
On your seats is the newest volume in the series of selected sermons by Rabbi Cosgrove. This year’s collection is called Hineni, meaning “Here I am,” a phrase taken from the fourth parashah of the Torah. I encourage everyone to read the rabbi’s engaging and intellectually challenging words on contemporary Jewish sensibilities, support of Israel, ways of understanding the weekly Torah portion, and the connection of traditional Jewish thought with our experiences as Jewish Americans in the 21st century. As I have said before, Rabbi, it is an extraordinary pleasure and honor to listen to you on the bimah each Shabbat and Festival.
Also on your seats is an extraordinary CD album by Cantor Schwartz and Cantor Kidron, Ahavat Olam: Jewish Romantic Music. You will listen to the music for years to come and be inspired to join our cantors on Shabbat and Festivals and as they re-energize the Friday night Shabbat experience at Park Avenue Synagogue.
As I look ahead to the end of my term as your Chairman on June 30, 2013, I have begun to reflect on the past years. As I do so, I think of the well-known French saying plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose, meaning “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” In the fall of 2008, America was preparing to go to the polls. The economy was the major issue of the day; the Mideast, including Israel, Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan was in the news daily; Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps took home many gold medals that summer; Madonna was on a world tour and the Giants were defending Super Bowl Champions.
While the French expression may describe the world around us, Park Avenue Synagogue is not the same as it was, but a far better place as I hope you agree. Our clergy is world renowned, sought after to represent the Jewish community at the Vatican, at the Capitol in Washington for Holocaust Memorial Day, in thought leadership at JTS, UJA, and other prominent Jewish organizations and in scholarly publications. We have hosted the governor of New York State, the mayor of New York City, cardinals, priests, and an imam, ambassadors and an extraordinary list of scholars.
Our Early Childhood Center continues to be enrolled to capacity, as it has been for many years. Our congregational school has been completely reformulated and has grown from 250 students to almost 400 in two years. We are committed to creating a vibrant high school which speaks to our teenagers.
No synagogue in America demonstrates greater support of a safe, secure, democratic, and Jewish state of Israel than Park Avenue Synagogue. This year we have a Bnei Mitzvah Family trip taking off in December, a Young Family trip planned for June, and I am pleased to announce, a trip in April to celebrate the 65th anniversary of the founding of Israel. Please join Rabbi Cosgrove and me for what will be the trip of a lifetime as we will travel together and for certain moments join with members of the greater Jewish community visiting from New York.
Most importantly, we try always to meet all the needs of PAS members – spiritual, educational, and social – as well as giving complete support at life cycle events. Our new Women’s Network provides a place to connect for women of all ages. On your seats at Rosh Hashanah was a brochure announcing the Park Avenue Synagogue Caring Network, which brings under one umbrella all the services and attention that we offer to members of the community at times of transition, sorrow, and joy. From the companionship of our daily minyanim to the grandeur of our High Holy Day worship, our services offer comfort and inspiration. This year we are particularly committed to creating a Friday evening service that resonates with all our members. Our programming over the last several years has attracted record attendance as we have met the varied interests of our community with festive holiday programs, concerts, the annual Shabbaton, social events including the annual gala, stimulating classes, world-renowned speakers, and participation in social justice projects. On the infrastructure side, our air conditioning systems have been fully upgraded and our redesigned website continues to have increased usage. New on our website is the Cantors’ music (click here to hear it), and a video compilation of highlights from last year’s Park Avenue Synagogue Lecture Series, “Israel in the American Jewish Imagination” (click here to watch it).
We also know how to have a good time together, whether listening to concerts, enjoying Purim in full costume and with fine spirits, riding camels in the Judean desert or dancing at our annual Gala. This year we will experiment with a new format for the Gala – a Thursday evening rather than a Saturday. I hope the new schedule will make it possible for some of you to be there who have not come in the past. The Gala will be on Thursday, March 7. Please watch for details next month.
So with nine months to go, I believe we have all come a long way.
There is a tradition that American presidents give farewell addresses. I have read many of them. Some speak to me; others do not. Several have religious themes, a reminder that while freedom of religion is a basic American tenet, religion is certainly part of the fabric of this great country. I would like share some of these presidential words with you tonight.
President Washington advised in his farewell address that the country needed to move ahead and warned against “ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burden which we ourselves ought to bear.” So I urge my successors to keep building on what has preceded them and meet the ever evolving needs of the Jews of Park Avenue Synagogue.
President Lincoln, who had no opportunity for a farewell address, invoked the Divine in his goodbye speech to his Illinois supporters. He said, in part and with his poetic best, “trusting in Him who can go with me, and remain with you, and be everywhere for good, let us confidently hope that all will yet be well. To His care commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will commend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell.” I thank you for all of the support and kindness you have all extended to me. We will always be connected.
President Eisenhower visited Park Avenue Synagogue at the invitation of Rabbi Nadich of blessed memory. In his farewell address, which is remembered for introducing the term “military industrial complex,” Eisenhower said, “We pray that peoples of all faiths, all races, all nations, may have their great human needs satisfied; ... that, in the goodness of time, all peoples will come to live together in a peace guaranteed by the binding force of mutual respect and love.” I hope that this community continues its focus on its members and shares a common decency and sense of humanity with people of all faiths and backgrounds.
Two recent popular presidents left office with a spirit of optimism and hope which I deeply share for this community. President Reagan said, “But oddly enough it starts with one of the things I'm proudest of in the past 8 years: the resurgence of national pride that I called, ‘The New Patriotism.’ This national feeling is good, but it won't count for much, and it won't last unless it's grounded in thoughtfulness and knowledge.” I am so proud of how everyone feels about PAS and for the commitment each of you demonstrates for this holy place.
President Clinton said goodbye with the following words. “As for me, I'll leave the presidency more idealistic, more full of hope than the day I arrived and more confident than ever that America's best days lie ahead. My days in this office are nearly through, but my days of service, I hope, are not. In the years ahead, I will never hold a position higher or a covenant more sacred than that of president of the United States. But there is no title I will wear more proudly than that of citizen.”
The title of Lou Cannon’s biography of President Reagan says it all for me. It is The Role of A Lifetime, which is how I feel about my role as your Chairman, having the opportunity to get to know so many of you and working with Rabbi Cosgrove and Cantor Schwartz and the entire staff. I will leave the office of Chairman of PAS, my role of a lifetime, knowing that the best days of PAS and the Jewish people lie ahead.
At this season of the Jewish year, we cannot recall farewell speeches without thinking of Moses’ farewell to the Israelites, which we have been reading in the weekly Torah portion every Shabbat for the past weeks. God prohibited Moses from entering the Promised Land, and as Moses said goodbye, he gave the Israelites God’s challenge, “See, I set before you this day life and prosperity, death and adversity … I have put before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose Life.”
We have brought to you, tonight and every day, the best clergy, administrators, and educators in the Jewish community. For me and I hope for you, Park Avenue Synagogue is the promised land. I ask you tonight and in the years ahead, in the words of Moses, “Choose Life for Park Avenue Synagogue” and support the institution and leadership with your resources, volunteerism, and kind words.
We have lived within our means for many years and we will continue to do so. Our expenses are monitored closely, and our endowment assets have been maintained through careful management. The budget designed by the Board last spring reflects the challenging economic times in which we live. Dues represent less than 40% of our budget, and thus we rely on your generosity for financial security and stability.
As Rabbi Cosgrove said on Rosh Hashanah, this is Park Avenue Synagogue’s “Hineni moment.” So I ask you tonight to say “Here I am” by making Park Avenue Synagogue your most important Jewish charity, if not your most important charity. Last year, you answered our call with gifts ranging from $18 to $150,000 and with memorial window purchases ranging from $70,000 to $250,000. There are more window dedications available, as thanks to an extraordinary architectural feat we have created additional prominent memorial windows to remember loved ones and beautify our sanctuary. I hope you will do even more this year and consider “moving up” to the next level of support. Some of you have already answered and I thank you for your early support.
Some of you in addition to your commitments to our annual appeal have made leadership gifts to support programming that our internal budget could not afford. On your seats on Rosh Hashanah was a brochure announcing this year’s Park Avenue Lecture Series, entitled “The Shifting Landscape of American Jewry.” Over the course of the year, this series will feature eight extraordinary events with 16 leaders, scholars and rabbis, as well as our own Rabbi Cosgrove and Cantor Schwartz. The series is entirely underwritten by a family. Another family is supporting the PJ Library program, which sends a Jewish book every month to each child in our community from 6 months to eight years old. Over 100 families have already registered and children in our community are receiving books and CDs every month. Any PAS parent or grandparent can sign up on our website. We thank the families who have made these programs possible.
I hope that we will say “Hineni” as a community, to our rabbis, cantors, administrators and educators to enable them to bring us the finest worship, education, and inspiration our tradition offers. I thank you tonight for being a member and friend of Park Avenue Synagogue. Thank you for helping us with your personal Hineni with whatever gift you decide upon.
On behalf of the Officers and Board of Trustees of your Synagogue, I wish everyone shanah tovah u-metukah, a good and sweet year, and gmar hatimah tovah. I pray that all of our members and their families are inscribed and sealed in the Book of Life for a year of health, happiness, peace, prosperity, and friendship. Thank you again for the role of a lifetime.
Mark First, Chairman of the Board
September 24, 2023 ~ 10 Tishrei 5784
Chairman of the Board Mark First addresses the congregation on Kol Nidrei
Shanah Tovah!
It’s a privilege to be here with you. Whether you’re back with us physically for the first time in almost two years, or one of the tens of thousands of people with us virtually, we should all feel the collective embrace.