2007 - United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism

We had been hit with potentially devastating news a couple of years ago when it was discovered by our then
president that the synagogue had not paid payroll taxes to the IRS for our small staff for a number of years. It was a total
shock to the president and the Board of Trustees.
It took a year for various IRS hearing officers to conclude what we owed. It ultimately amounted to almost half
of our annual budget.
There were no heroes in how we managed to overcome such a crushing financial and emotional blow. There
were just a bunch of selfless hard workers.
We had to borrow the money to pay our back taxes and interest (penalties were waived). We found an “angel,”
an anonymous benefactor who has donated sums of money every six months with the potential goal of retiring our debt.
We revamped our Kol Nidre appeal by finding someone in each of the last two years to offer a challenge grant so that
for every dollar spent over the last year’s pledge, the donor would match dollar for dollar. That resulted in a tripling of
the Kol Nidre pledges from the previous year (phone calls and thank you notes have kept our rate of collection at over
90 per cent).
We took a new look at collecting past dues (whether from full paying or reduced dues members). Firm but
compassionate phone calls and letters resulted in some checks immediately being received, while others agreed to
payment plans. Several others frankly, never responded even to certified letters, thereby removing themselves from our
membership rolls.
Our beloved rabbi at the time had informed us in the year prior to this situation coming to light that she wanted
to seek opportunities outside congregational life (it was an amicable and mutually heartfelt parting), so in the winter of
2006 we registered with United Synagogue to fmd a replacement. There was honest disagreement in the congregation
about how we could afford a full-time rabbi, so a donor was found to cover a portion of the salary in each of the two
years of the new rabbi’s contract. We successfully went through that process and hired a newly ordained dynamic young
scholar, Rabbi Nelly Altenburger.
Since the future rabbi’s house next to the synagogue needed repairs, as well as the synagogue and parking lot
themselves, we found another anonymous donor to kick-off an SOS (Save our Synagogue) drive which paid for a new
roof on the house, the synagogue being repainted a noticeable blue (it was remarked that, “Now we’re not only Jewish,
but bluish!”) and a resurfaced parking lot. Nearly two dozen synagogue volunteers repaired and completely repainted
the interior of the rabbi’s new home and did yard work.
Though we have fewer than 80 families, we are a full service synagogue with the religious, educational, social
service programs of a much larger institution. We are most proud that even with our diminutive size, we consistently
average between 25-3 5 adults at our Shabbat morning services, even reaching close to those numbers on the first two
days of Passover this year, which fell on weekdays.
We are not out of danger yet, but neither are we in danger. So far our books are balanced and our bills are
being paid. We have innovative plans to market membership and to grow our religious school. We are committing
funding to send our rabbi to a national outreach conference in Washington this October. We are participating in Shabbat
Across America. We are sponsoring eight youngsters at the Emunah Home for Children, a residence for abused children
in our “sister city” of Afula and continue pen pal correspondence with them. This summer we are again sponsoring a
free “Jewish SummerFest” which in our initial year last year brought nearly 300 people to our synagogue for a day of
Jewish music, children’s activities and what else, food!
We consider ourselves “The Little Synagogue That Could.” And we are proud that we have made it to 110 and
God-willing, still counting. To see some of what our congregation does, please refer to the attached bulletins: October
2006, March 2007, and April 2007.
SOCIAL ACTION PUBLIC POLICY