Kol Nidrei Address by Chairman of the Board Mark First
Mark First, Chairman of the Board
September 24, 2023 ~ 10 Tishrei 5784
Address to the 134th Annual Meeting
Arthur Penn, Chairman of the Board
May 18, 2016
Murray ordered a pair of pants from a local tailor. When they were not ready in two weeks as promised, Murray agreed to wait another two weeks . . . and then another two weeks . . . until finally, after six months, the tailor presented him with his new pants and displayed them proudly for everyone to see.
“I want to ask you a question,” Murray said to the tailor. “How come God Almighty was able to create the world – the entire universe! – in only six days, and it took you six months to make a pair of pants?”
“Ah,” replied the tailor. “Look at the condition of the world – and look at this gorgeous pair of pants!”
I am thrilled to open the 134th Annual Congregational Meeting of Park Avenue Synagogue. After 134 years, look at the condition of the world, and look at this fantastic Synagogue community! As our Officers and I conclude our third year, it gives me great pleasure to update you on the progress our community is making 134 years and running.
To start, the other officers – Paul Corwin, Natalie Barth, Marc Becker, Andrea Baumann Lustig, Jeanie Rosensaft, Mel Schweitzer, and Heidi Silverstone – and I continue to feel blessed to serve such a vibrant, thriving, and warm community. We are grateful to be partners with outstanding clergy and professionals, and we feel rewarded that Park Avenue Synagogue members are continually deepening and broadening their engagement with Judaism and with their synagogue community.
When we started three years ago we said that our three primary goals were the 3 S’s: Services, Space, and Searches. How we could make our services even more engaging? How could we address the reality that we are bursting at the seams from a space perspective? And how would we search to fill important staff positions? Three years later, we’re now focused on the 4 S’s: Services, Space, Staff and leadership development, and Seeding new initiatives.
With regard to the first S, services, thanks to hard work of our clergy, educators and Sanctuary Task Force, led by Paul Corwin, our services continue to evolve. Our lively musical Friday night services attract more and more people into the building. We are pleased that the spirit of experimentation inspired by our Friday night and experimental TGIS services has resulted in innovations in music, Torah discussion, and prayer in our regular Shabbat morning services to help make them even more engaging. The TGIS experiment has inspired us to develop multiple gateways into Shabbat on a regular basis. Torah study, Window on Israel, and guest speakers appeal to many congregants. We encourage you to join us for worship experiences every Friday night and Shabbat morning.
Our High Holiday services last fall set records for attendance and engaged prayer at Park Avenue Synagogue. Just two years ago, the addition of our Fifth Avenue service allowed us to offer all of our members a seat on the High Holidays. About 1000 of our members who worshiped there last year found a beautiful, comfortable space where families could sit together.
We are thrilled to be able to offer all of our members a seat on the High Holidays again this fall. We are also proud of the High Holiday experiences the younger members of our congregation have elsewhere in the 87th Street building, the Liederkranz facility down the street, and the Dalton School. With multiple comfortable venues and an excellent, deep clergy and educational team, we are sure that wherever members are, they will enjoy a fulfilling and uplifting experience.
On the holidays next fall we will experiment for the first time with a family service geared to families with children from kindergarten through 7th grade. These services, which will be held at Dalton, will be an opportunity for families to be at services together prior to the regular drop-off programs at the Congregational School. We are hoping that, like the Fifth Avenue service, this innovation becomes a tradition in the years ahead.
Speaking of experiments, this past year we started livestreaming our services. Our livestreaming of services and major events like the Purim Spiel continues as a successful vehicle to serve our members better and to expand the awareness of all of our activities. Over 2700 viewers have watched our livestreaming during the past year. On a typical Saturday we have hundreds of viewers. Anecdotally, we hear that people who are watching range from our college students to the homebound; from remote guests of the Bar/Bat Mitzvah families to out-of-town relatives of members who have become regular attendees to our livestream. Next year, we hope to better publicize events and services that are being livestreamed, and to enhance collaboration between Adult Learning and our livestreaming capacity.
Lastly, with regard to services, we are extremely excited to be introducing a new siddur, Siddur Lev Shalem. This new siddur should help make services even more accessible to our members with its multiple pathways into prayer. The more contemporary language is inclusive. Transliterations make it possible for everyone to participate. We start using the new siddur this Shabbat.
The Rabbinical Assembly invites our entire congregation to the dedication of the new siddur this Sunday at 5:30 pm in the Sanctuary.
Whether you come to Park Avenue Synagogue to worship, to study, to socialize, or to bring your children to school, you know that we are bursting at the seams. Space, the second S, remains one of our key priorities. At Kol Nidrei only two and half years ago I outlined the vision for a new lifelong learning center on 89th Street and a revitalized 87th Street building that together will create a center for prayer, learning, and community.
I am pleased to report that we continue to take significant strides forward. In March, we started construction of the 89th Street building, which will be our Lifelong Learning Center. We are scheduling completion of that building by the High Holidays 2017. After that, the revitalization of our 87th Street building will commence and is scheduled to be completed in 2020. To facilitate this exciting work, we have continued our once-in-a-generation capital campaign, A Synagogue in Action: Building the Future. Over $62 million has already been raised from about 250 families. We are engaging all parts of our congregation, with people from every part of the community coming together to turn vision into reality. Our goal is that every member participate in a way that is meaningful to them and their families.
Speaking of every part of the community, we once again raised a record amount in our annual Kol Nidrei Appeal. We ask our leaders, many of you in this room, to make Park Avenue Synagogue one of their most important philanthropies, and interestingly this year we had the broadest participation in our history. We raised over $2.8 million from over 1100 families. If done right, our Kol Nidrei appeal and capital campaign can help build community by bringing everyone together to focus on a common goal.
This year’s Gala theme was “making music and memories,” which honored our Cantor Azi Schwartz. March 10 was a tremendous success as we came together to celebrate with warmth and fun all the accomplishments of Azi and our Music Center.
The third S, staff and leadership development, is an increasing priority. We have been able to attract and retain the best talent in Judaism. Our goal remains to have exceptional staff and to provide them with a long-term, fulfilling career opportunity.
Rabbis Cosgrove, Zuckerman, and Witkovsky, and Cantors Schwartz and Lissek remain the preeminent clergy team. The “three Rabbi model” continues to allow us to engage our members more deeply with each passing day. Our music team continues to reach new musical heights every Shabbat. We thank all of our clergy for all that you do for our community.
In education, under the leadership of Rabbi Charlie Savenor, our team continues to provide excellence across all ages and demographics. Pamela Schwartz, Jen Stern Granowitz, Malka Lowenstein, Hallie Chandler, Eliana Light, and Marga Hirsch are partnering seamlessly in educating our members and their children. We are pleased to announce that Beth Levick has been promoted to be Manager of Synagogue Programming, which includes programming, classes, and lectures in the Adult Learning Department.
We say good bye and thank you to Aliza Cinamon for her service to our community over the last 20 years! Aliza started as a student teacher here and has been Assistant Director of the ECC and Director of our summer camp, Camp Keshet. On a personal note, Aliza, thank you for teaching my son, Andrew, when he was in the Blue Room. He is now off to college!
As we focus on serving our members and making customer service a priority, we thank our Administrative team, led by Beryl Chernov, our Executive Director. We thank Liz Offenbach, who is completing her rookie year as Assistant Executive Director. Also thanks to Geet Engel in Finance, Laura Yamner in Development, John Davis in Facilities, and we welcome Rachel Benichak in Membership. We thank Lawrence Conley for his work in design and website management and Ira Krawitz for his work as our communications director for the past year. We wish Ira the best in his future endeavors.
I am thrilled that for our entire professional staff, we are instituting annual evaluations which will help determine aspirational goals for our professional team. These evaluations will also create a forum for constructive feedback in order to continuously improve. This is an important organizational initiative that most members will not see directly but will hopefully see the results in a continually improving team.
With regard to our lay leadership, no words can express my gratitude. Our Officers, my partners, give up big pieces of their daily lives for our community. Paul, Natalie, Marc, Andrea, Jeanie, Mel and Heidi, you are truly amazing!
We encourage members to own their synagogue experience. Thank you to those who do: our Board, Advisory Council, heads of Arms, those who lead Parent Associations, committees, task forces, and all of our volunteers. We are thrilled to honor you tonight!
Speaking of honors and development of lay leadership, I’m pleased to announce our Simhat Torah honorees for this year. These honors are given to longstanding members who do much for our community over a long period of time. Our Hatan Torah will be Lou Bernstein and our Kallat B’reishit will be Suzanne Aisenberg. Mazal tov to Lou and Suzanne! Simhat Torah will be on Tuesday, October 25.
The fourth S is Seeding new initiatives. Ultimately we are in the business of creating and nurturing Jewish souls. We are at a generational pivot point to vision how to sustain vibrant Jewish life in the coming decades. As we respect tradition, we are embracing innovation and have a variety of new initiatives around the institution. I’m only going to mention a few.
Our immersive travel education program has been a powerful tool in deepening relationships and building community. Since 2004 there have been over 1000 participants on our trips, and participation is accelerating. In just this synagogue year there was a Young Family Trip to Israel, an Adult trip to Poland and Germany, an Adult Study Mission to Israel, teen travel to Charleston, South Carolina and a Birthright trip to Israel later this month. Next year we are looking forward to an adult trip to Prague and Budapest, a Bnei Mitzvah Family Israel Trip, and a Young Family Israel Trip. Thank you Charlie Savenor for all your efforts driving Travel Education to new heights.
Another special initiative that has taken off this year is Inclusion. Our Inclusion Committee, led by Lisa Grinberg along with Rabbi Savenor, has accomplished much in the past year starting with a thorough evaluation of our practices, culture, and facilities. As a result of that evaluation, changes have been made in our services, our physical plant, and our culture. Mezuzzot have been placed at different heights to make them more accessible. Jewish Disabilities Awareness and Inclusion Month included having members share their stories at Friday night services. We are looking forward to more progress in building a completely inclusive and welcoming community.
There are a myriad of other new special initiatives that are injecting new life and connectivity into our community including the Archives, outreach to millenials, Congregational School visioning, the Shabbat Supper Club, the Interfaith committee, Jewish Camping Initiative, Baby Brigade, the Rooftop Garden, Day School Community and others. There is a chart, administered by Heidi Silverstone, outlining the 48 committees, task forces and Arms that we have at Park Avenue Synagogue! I leave each of our Board meetings with my head literally spinning with all the activity and vibrancy of our community.
In all that we do – and above all else – our focus remains on the Park Avenue Synagogue culture of one-on-one connection, caring, kindness, and warmth that has been our hallmark for so long. We strive to provide a warm and welcoming entry to our community, meet people where they are, and assist them in their Jewish journey.
Although God was able to create the universe in six days, and Murray’s tailor needed six months to make a gorgeous pair of pants, I can honestly state that at 134 years old and running, Park Avenue Synagogue is doing extraordinarily well. We know that the relationship we each have with our synagogue, with this community, and with each other remains and grows with us as we move through the many phases of life. It is a bond we must nurture and a relationship that our members continue to strongly support. The other Officers and I look forward to continuing to serve as all of us – lay leaders, clergy, staff, and members together – strive to enhance Park Avenue Synagogue’s unique position in our lives as a Kehillah Kedoshah, a sacred community.