Kol Nidrei Address by Chairman of the Board Mark First
Mark First, Chairman of the Board
September 24, 2023 ~ 10 Tishrei 5784
A Kol Nidre Message from our Chairman, Steven M. Friedman
Yom Kippur 5771
I am once again greatly honored to stand before you and thank you as Chairman of this inspiring institution for the good wishes, support, and kind words throughout my first two years. 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 the Kol Nidre service for the first time.
Thank you, Rabbi Cosgrove, for your dedication to this storied institution. Your gifts of intellect, warmth, comfort, and your sense of humor are an incredible pleasure for our membership and for me. I hope you know that your dreams for this community are my dreams.
Cantor Abramson: thank you for your community involvement, your constant presence in all aspects of synagogue life and your spirited voice on the Bimah. It’s a pleasure to welcome back to the Bimah Rabbi Rein, Cantor Rozenfeld, and Cantor Schwartz. Last year was everything we hoped for and more. We expect another wonderful year with all of you.
Cheri, thanks for your love and support in my efforts to lead this Board. I ask for the congregation’s indulgence as Cheri and I welcome our mothers in joining us for this Yom Kippur. Ruthie and mom, thanks for traveling up to spend Yom Kippur with us and to sit with and meet our friends of 25 years.
While the world around us remains buffeted by economic, geopolitical, social and environmental challenges, your clergy and lay leadership try their best to make Park Avenue Synagogue a source of peace and solace, a source of intellectual and spiritual splendor, a source of community and friendship. We strive to make this a place where you can experience the joy of dancing at a Gala and the comfort of saying Kaddish in a warm daily minyan; where you can wrestle with challenging texts, hear music that touches your soul, make connections to Israeli culture and politics and, of course, do it all in the company of friends with whom you like to spend time.
I hope some aspect of synagogue life has helped each one of you this past year and continues to inspire you to be active in this community. The clergy and other professionals work tirelessly to provide diverse programming, learning and social experiences, trips to as far away as Israel or to museums around the corner-something for every age group and interest. While we are here to celebrate joyous life cycle events and provide comfort to those who are ill or families whose loved ones pass on, we hope you will, in the New Year, make your synagogue part of your life on the ordinary days that come between the momentous ones.
Tonight I wish to ask you the first question God asks in the Torah.
After Adam eats the forbidden fruit God asks a question “Ayekah?”-“Where are you?” Adam answers, using his newly attained awareness “I am hiding because I am naked.” Of course God knows physically where Adam is and his condition. Many rabbis and scholars reflect upon this exchange, to explain why God asks a question to which God knows the answer. The explanations are numerous and metaphorical. Several suggest God is asking where Adam is morally and spiritually, now that he has disobeyed the only rule in the Garden of Eden-as if to say “what are you going to do next with your life and to what ends are your directing your efforts?”
On this Kol Nidre night as we begin the most solemn day of the Jewish year and as we enter a new year full of possibilities, I ask everyone tonight to ask themselves Ayekah-Where are you in your relationship with Park Avenue Synagogue? Are you aware of the lifelong learning opportunities available, are you connected with the many social groups, do you attend Shabbat dinners with world class scholars, do you enter this sanctuary on Shabbat, Festivals or for daily minyan for peace, solitude, the celebration of the many gifts of life or to seek comfort? Do you support this institution financially to your capacity?
It is also more than fair for you to ask me tonight-metaphorically tonight- but live and in person on other occasions- Ayekah- Where are you? What is Park Avenue Synagogue doing to be the center of Jewish life for this community? What are the priorities and what can we do better?
I believe we have a clergy with no peers, who provide leadership, inspiration, and comfort to a filled sanctuary, or to a house of joy or a house of mourning. We continue to examine ways to make the sanctuary experience more participatory and engaging for members across a wide spectrum of familiarity with Hebrew and with the prayer service itself.
While we have made much progress in lifelong learning lectures, courses, visiting speakers and connections to Israel, we are deeply aware of the challenges in contemporary supplementary education. To meet this challenge, Rabbi Neil Zuckerman joined us in July to coordinate all educational activities. His first and probably most important task is to once and for all make supplementary Jewish education for our youth engaging, purposeful, providing a meaningful Jewish educational experience while recognizing and balancing the time constraints or burdens on our children.
We are expanding efforts to connect with the broader Jewish community and strengthen relationships with Jewish organizations that have had an important bond to Park Avenue Synagogue- such as JTS and UJA. We will also continue to extend our connection to the greater New York community and to people of all faiths.
As magnificent as this sanctuary is, our physical facilities are aging and need major renovations for comfort and safety, and to manage the ever increasing enrollment in our schools and various events and functions. So our capital budget will necessarily be high for the next few years.
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. And so I ask you Ayekah? Where are you in support of your synagogue? Last year, you answered our call with gifts ranging from $150,000 to $18 and with memorial window purchases ranging from $70,000 to $200,000. I hope you will do even more this year. Please answer my question -“Ayekah?”-with “Hineni”- Here I am.”
On your seats you will find two gifts; a book: "An Everlasting Covenant: Selected Sermons by Rabbi Elliot J. Cosgrove" and a music CD entitled “A Season in Song” with a wide range of soulful, moving, and uplifting selections chosen and performed by our three Cantors. Each has been produced for you to inspire you to read or to listen to what many of you have heard from this Bimah on each Shabbat and Festival and to bring a small part of this home into your home. For me, it has been the greatest of pleasures listening to these words from Rabbi Cosgrove and the prayers and music from each of our Cantors.
The spirit of volunteerism and dedication to Park Avenue Synagogue is extraordinary. Thank all of you who volunteer time to so much of synagogue life-ranging from our Shabbaton, Purim Spiel, and Cantors Concerts, to the food pantry, schools, Galas, fundraising, and so many other worthy activities and endeavors. Tonight I want to express my sincerest thanks to Jeanie Rosensaft and Marga Hirsch for coordinating, proofreading, and getting the book ready for this evening. Your work is once again simply outstanding. The CD collection has been made possible as a result of the volunteer leadership, advice, and dedicated efforts of Mickey Schulhof, Joan Schreiber, Karen Smul, and the PAS Youth Choir. I also want to acknowledge the professional assistance of Lawrence Conley for graphic design and Gil Smuskowitz for music production.
In a sermon last spring, Rabbi Cosgrove wrote about the measurement and meaning of success and failure in reference to Parashat Korah and the passing at the time of famed basketball coach John Wooden. I think this sermon sets the tone for his rabbinate and illustrates the deep commitment of Rabbi Cosgrove, his fellow clergy, and the leadership to this community, to the larger Jewish community, and to Israel. He wrote, "I, like many in this room, have experienced a few setbacks and thankfully enjoyed much for which I am deeply grateful. And I have come to know, as we all do, there are times when we are recipients of misplaced criticism and times when we are granted undeserving praise. Which is why I am grateful for Wooden's definition of success. Only I know if I gave it my all, only I know if I was true to my ideals, only I know if I did everything to become the best that I am capable of becoming."
You, our members, are our ultimate judge, but in my heart, I believe we are indeed giving it our all.
So tonight I thank you for being a member and friend of Park Avenue Synagogue. Thank you for answering the question Ayekah? with Hineni and whatever gift you decide upon. On behalf of the Officers and Board of Trustees of your Synagogue, I wish everyone a shanah tovah u-metukah—a good and sweet year- and pray that all of our members and their families are written and sealed in the Book of Life for a year and life of health, happiness, peace, prosperity, and friendship.
The ushers will now pass through aisles for those of you who wish to show your answer to Ayekah? tonight.
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.