President's Message
Size Does Matter.
We at Tikvoh have pointed with some pride at the fact that
we are a small congregation living in a land of rather larger cousins. We
comfortably get together for services, social events and celebrations and have
the potential of knowing most of the people in the room as well as their
families. It is that “feel” I believe that draws us to a synagogue such as this
and away from larger institutions. Many of those larger institutions provide
services that we cannot, given budgetary constraints. Most of us have chosen to
forego many of these niceties in favor of our smaller home in Bloomfield and its
relative simplicity.
We have in essence traded some of the bells and whistles of a larger
congregation for a heightened sense of community and familiarity. If there is
anything unique about Tikvoh, it is this. (And of course a heating system which
fries people in the vestibule and refrigerates them in the sanctuary). If
community is what defines us and nurtures us, then it is the responsibility of
the leadership as well as the congregation to sustain it.
How many times have you walked into synagogue and seen someone you think you
should know but can’t remember a name? Or can’t remember their children’s names,
or if they have children? Perhaps you wanted to find out the name of the guy who
was rude enough to take the last gefilte fish ball at Kiddush right while you
were reaching for it? Your toothpick was within three inches of it and HE TOOK
IT! As things are currently configured, you could ask someone the name of the
gefilte goniff but that might be embarrassing. After all, you had already eaten
at least a dozen. However, we have no way of easily identifying our fellow
synagogue members independently and no way of fostering communication with
others in the synagogue whom we might only know peripherally.
If we are truly going to identify ourselves as the synagogue with the warm and
fuzzy community then that community needs to be able to interact with itself
seamlessly and effortlessly. We cannot legitimately portray ourselves as Hamish
when it is an effort to socialize with your fellow congregants due to a lack of
available information.
Over the years, we have talked about creating a synagogue wide directory to
provide the basic demographics that would allow for free and easy communication
within the congregation. Such a directory would allow us to enlarge our social
circles, find others with similar interests, and generally permit the very
interactions that we claim are our underpinning as a synagogue. Having such a
document would facilitate event planning and minimize expenses for the office.
If we had email addresses for everyone with an email account, we could send out
the TC News and other correspondence over the internet and avoid the postage
expense.
I therefore propose that we seriously think about creating such a directory at
this time. My initial thought is that it would contain information including
names, addresses, phone numbers, occupation, and email address. For some,
perhaps many, privacy will be an issue. I suspect however that there are other
directories through work, volunteer positions, or other endeavors that create
booklets with the same or more material. Nevertheless, you would be free to “opt
out” of publishing anything you do not want in the directory.
Before embarking on this, I’d like your input which you can send to the office
via letter or email (Tikvoh@comcast.net). Based on that input, I plan to place a
form in next month’s TC News which you can return with the information that will
ultimately become part of the directory. Despite our small size, we should still
make the effort to get to know one another a bit better.