Thursday, June 11, 2009

LLC Members honored

This past Sunday, two member of our Lifelong Learning faculty, Deb Cohen, our Kindergarten (Gan Yeladim) teacher, and our Marci Barnes, Lifelong Learning Director, were honored by the Agency for Jewish Learning in two separate but important communal programs.

Deb was recognized as one of the greater Pittsburgh Jewish community’s “Unsung Heroes” for her tremendous dedication to our youngest religious school students.  Each Sunday during the school year, Deb has offered a welcoming and warm classroom for these students as they continue their Jewish education after attending our pre-school.  Simply, Deb is a magician in the classroom because if you see her students at the beginning of the year and then watch them come the Spring you will be amazed about how confidant and comfortable they already feel about their connection of Judaism and our community.  Thank you Deb for all you do for our temple family and for the Jewish people each Sunday!

Also, last Sunday, Marci Barnes, was honored by the AJL for her efforts to enhance our programming for our Special Needs students.  Marci with the help of our faculty members, especially Cathy Filson, and dedicated parents, has worked during this past year to ensure that all of students have an opportunity to experience a quality Jewish education.  Thank you, Marci for these efforts.  And thank you for all that you began to accomplish this past year. Sadly, because of our difficult financial situation, Marci, as you already have learned, will not be with us next year.  We will miss you and I know, that I speak for our congregation in wishing you only the best in the coming year.

And this week we will also say thank you to Elliot Frank who has served our community as Executive Director for the past year and a half.  Elliot has worn many hats around the temple – treasurer, construction manager, administrator/executive director – and we are grateful for his dedication to the temple.  And we wish him well in his future endeavors.

We like many, many small and medium size congregations around the country are facing very real financial difficulties because of the current state of our nation’s economy and our past deficit budgets.  Our president, Ralph Karsh, and members of the temple’s executive board, are currently preparing a detailed letter explaining our particular situation. This letter will be forthcoming soon, and I urge you to join us for a Congregational Meeting on Sunday, June 28th at 9:30 AM as we seek to move forward in the coming months towards a more secure fiscal future.

B’shalom,

Rabbi Art Donsky