May 31, 2011 Update
Having reached the 9 month anniversary of Temple Beth El welcoming members of Congregation Eilat last August, we (the members of the steering committee charged with overseeing the transition) wanted to provide you with another update on the progress that has been made.
Clergy Search
The 11-member search committee, under the leadership of Jeff Greer, Executive Vice President, reviewed 69 applications for the position and brought in a number of candidates for on-site interviews. This thorough and at times exhausting process has successfully resulted in the selection of Kvod Wieder to join the Temple Beth El clergy team.
His responsibilities will be to lead Conservative services and observances (Shabbat and all Chaggim, including the High Holy Days) and to be an advocate for the Conservative members of the Temple; to direct all of the Temple’s post b'nai mitzvah programming; and to serve the needs of the entire Temple community, especially with regard to pastoral matters.
Kvod is a native of Orange County and will be moving from Tustin to Aliso Viejo. He received his BA in psychology from UC Santa Cruz in 1993 and his MA in Transpersonal Psychology (counseling) from the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in 1996. He will be completing his rabbinic studies at the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies in Los Angeles in the coming year, with his ordination as a Conservative rabbi in May 2012.
Kvod will bring a broad range of experience to his duties at the Temple. He strives to bring joy and authenticity to his conduct of traditional Jewish prayer and also seeks to enable people to find meaning through creative and contemplative forms of prayers. He has taught hundreds of classes on Jewish spirituality to adults and youth in synagogues, camp settings, retreats, college campuses, etc. For the past few years he has served as prayer leader and rabbi for High Holy Day services and various shabbatonim at a Conservative synagogue. Over a period of years he also led a weekly Shabbat meditation minyan.
On the teen front, Kvod created and implemented the first county-wide post-bnai mitzvah program in Sonoma County, successfully getting several different synagogues (Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist) to work cooperatively on the program. He also worked for a few years for the Harold Grinspoon Foundation as the director of the B’nai Tzedek Teen Philanthropy Program. In that capacity he worked with 36 communities around the country to set up local teen philanthropy programs.
With regard to pastoral matters, Kvod has previously had a private spiritual counseling practice and has worked in residential treatment facilities with severely emotionally disturbed teens.
This summer Kvod will be working with us full-time. When he resumes coursework in September until his ordination on May 15 of 2012, he will work about 3/4s time which will mainly have some impact on his availability for pastoral matters. Because he has this remaining coursework, he will technically be an intern until his ordination. We anticipate entering into a regular assistant rabbi contract in December or January when that becomes permissible with students in their final year of rabbinical school; we do not intend to conduct another search. In sum, we have found our rabbi: the adjustments we will have to make for the nine months until his coursework is completed should be well worth the prospect of many years having such an outstanding person helping to lead our community.
Kvod will begin leading the Conservative services on June 11th. There will be opportunities to meet him in informal settings after that date, so look for announcements about these in the near future.
We extend our thanks to all the members of the search committee who worked so hard to find the right person for our community: Jeff Greer, Chair; Steve Birch, Max DeLiema, Beth Faskowitz, Alan Fenning, Wendy Levin, Wendy Lupul, Brian Selvan, Leslie Tatel, Evan Wohl, and Charlene Zuckerman.
Chapel Design
The first phase of the Chapel renovation is almost complete and has transformed the Chapel into a beautiful worship space. This phase includes the following:
- Construction of a new ark and podium
- Purchase of new chairs that have book storage under each seat
- Installation of new light fixtures
- Display of the memorial boards and the ark stained-glass doors from the Eilat facility on Hidalgo
- Installation of new carpet on the bimah
Please stop by the Chapel to see the new look; better yet, join us for services to enjoy the benefits of the remodeling.
Once this first phase is completed, we will address other elements, including storage for books, tallitot and other artifacts, the sound system, ventilation, and incorporating the Tree of Life from Congregation Eilat into Temple Beth El’s existing one (or perhaps to maintain it separately).
Youth Group
The teens continue to participate in a variety of Youth Group activities, and the USYers have introduced several traditional USY events to the group. Since our last update, our teens (both USYers and longtime Temple Beth El teens) participated in a Conservative Shabbat Morning Service in the Eisenberg Chapel. They have had two Shabbat Club events at members’ home, and they added at bit of “USY flavor” to the Shabbat dinners at the synagogue. Lounge nights began in February, and they have been well attended. In addition, they helped at the Purim Carnival and had an event at Color Me Mine. Since January, USYers have also attended regional events, including a SATO (Social Action/Tikkun Olam) event, a dance at Temple Aliyah, and the SATO kinnus in March. For the remainder of this school year, they are planning an end of the year beach party, and organizing for the Temple’s youth group elections. Many of the Temple’s youth group board positions will be co-positions to ensure a board that represents the diversity of the group’s constituency and will allow USYers to remain active participants in regional USY leadership.
Since a large part of the new clergy position is to direct all of the teen programming, the teens were an integral part of the clergy search process, meeting with each of the candidates.
There is still more we hope to accomplish in establishing USY at Temple Beth El, and we look forward to the arrival of our new clergy and the leadership he will provide for the teen programming overall, including USY.
Education
The Chai curriculum used by Temple Beth El has been reviewed by a Conservative congregation in Michigan that combined their school with that of a Reform congregation. They realized that there were a few places where there were clear differences, such as in the liturgy, the number of days one celebrates holidays, differing observance of mitzvot such as kashrut, and various points of theology. They decided to teach both approaches, giving precedence to neither.
Rabbi Kort has been working with the Temple Beth El educators to adopt this review as a guide. When Kvod joins us, he will be available to support Rabbi Kort with this work. Meanwhile, if you are interested in reading about the recommendations that were published, you can do so at this link.
Conservative Ritual Task Force
A Conservative Ritual Task Force has been established which is serving on an interim basis. The Task Force is chaired by Brad Shapero and will focus on ensuring the smooth operation of the Conservative worship services. Kvod will help define the role for the task force for the future.
USCJ Affiliation
Temple Beth El’s application to join United Synagogue for Conservative Judiasm was accepted at the Regional Level in March. National USCJ is reviewing the application and approval is expected when the National committee convenes in June. Once our application is approved, we will then need to work out the dues structure for the USCJ affiliation as well as the URJ affiliation. The dues for the dual affiliation will be addressed together.
Marketing
Our plan to conduct focus group research in support of marketing the multi-denominational offerings available at Temple Beth El has been delayed by the resignation of the original marketing partner. Potential new partners were identified for this work and a competitive proposal process completed. We have met with a new marketing firm and are preceeding.
In view of these delays, the Board of Trustees has approved a 6-month extension of the building fund discount for former Congregation Eilat members to the end of October 2011. Anyone who left Congregation Eilat since October, 2007 will have a financial incentive in place to join Temple Beth El until after the High Holidays.
Nominating Committee
Temple Beth El recently went through the annual process of slating the next Board of Directors. You might want to know that our incoming community from Congregation Eilat was represented in this process, too. Our thanks go to Marty Stein for his participation on the Nominating Committee.
The Steering Committee continues to meet regularly to address issues related to the transition. We encourage you to contact one of the members of the Steering Committee, should you have questions or concerns about the transition. Or you can call the Temple office at 949-362-3999.
L’Shalom,
Temple Beth El Steering Committee
Alan Fenning, President
Jeff Greer, Executive Vice President
Charlie Lupul, Trustee at Large
Leslie Tatel, Trustee at Large
Al Welland, Executive Director |
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