Dear Hevreh,

Over the past few years, our congregation has made some great strides in building the bonds and relationships that form the foundation of our tight knit Jewish Home for the Soul. Yet, as it has often been mentioned, if we’re going to continue to thrive then we need to grow as a congregation. If we’re going to continue to prosper, then we need to reach out to attract more people to be a part of our congregation.

So what does our approach to outreach look like? It looks like what’s happening this week…

• This past Saturday morning, we welcomed the Levy family, who are affiliated with Cantor Avima Darnov’s hebrew school called “The Hebrew Corner,” and their guests into our sanctuary for the bat mitzvah of Jordan Levy. Not many congregations would welcome an unaffiliated family to celebrate a bat mitzvah in their sacred space but by opening our space to be their Jewish home for the day we gave their family and their extended network of friends and family an extended taste of our brand of Jewish life which they can share with others.

• On Sunday, one of our members (Joan Shkedi) volunteered with Jewish Outreach Institute’s (JOI) Big Tent Judaism Project to reach out to passerby at Menlo Park Mall as part of a fun event for kids and adults called “The Frozen Chosen.” These events, which are co-sponsored by JOI and Jewish Federation of Greater Middlesex, target unaffiliated Jews in Middlesex County and by volunteering and participating in these programs (both now and in the future) we are positioning ourselves to take full advantage of the network they are building.

• On Friday night we will host our first Shabbat by the Sea of the summer. Already, I have received reports of members bringing friends and family to this wonderful event in our community. It is through word of mouth and personal invitation by our own members to bring people to engaging and highlight events in our community — like Shabbat by the Sea and the Cantor Showcase — that does the most to bring new people into our synagogue network.

These are just a few examples of how we’re attempting to grow our congregation, and there are many more programs and projects we are running or are planning on running, including invitations to young people to spend Shabbat in our community in order to see if Perth Amboy is a potential home for them.

Our goal is not just to survive, but to thrive and if this week is any indication then we are on our way to achieving that goal.

Kol Tuv,

Rabbi Ari Saks

P.S. If you have any thoughts or ideas on how to expand the reach of our congregation, please reply by email or share on our Facebook page “We Are Beth Mordecai.”

Category : Ari-archive
Tag : bar and bat mitzvah big tent judaism Cantorial Showcase hebrew corner Jewish Federation jewish outreach institute joi outreach rabbi rabbi's journal shabbat by the sea unaffiliated young people