Room enough to share
As Managing Editor Leisah Woldoff reports in her May 1 Jewish News story Synagogues deal with recession, http://tinyurl.com/cqsqlm, in this recessionary time, some local congregations are struggling to make institutional ends meet.
So what are they doing? At least two Phoenix-area congregations, while assuring that they’re maintaining “programming” (no details given) are not renewing the contracts of rabbis – the trained, experienced professionals who do the most important programming a synagogue provides: spiritual leadership, teaching and support to individuals and families.
Surely other congregational services are secondary to those that rabbis provide.
Meanwhile, synagogue facilities – except for offices and preschool classrooms -- sit virtually empty much of the time; and steep mortgages and maintenance costs erode the diminished financial resources needed to stay afloat until the economy improves and membership revives.
Are any congregations burdened with overhead inviting other synagogues (across the denominational stream), churches and schools that now lease quarters elsewhere, to rent space in their sanctuaries and classrooms?
For instance, Beth El Congregation rents space to the JFCS Center for Senior Enrichment, an Orthodox minyan, and a charter school.
Sharing facilities not only would consolidate scarce financial resources; it also would create connections between people and organizations too often isolated in their own worlds, building knowledge and understanding, and strengthening our community.
It’s worth trying.
15 May, 2009 >
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great idea! i hope we can turn lemons into lemonade, by coming together as a community to meet all needs, instead of scrapping among ourselves for what is available.
sandy - 10 Aug, 2011 - 19:18:13
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