Rabbi Marc Boone Fitzerman
May 2009
AT THE SYNAGOGUE 2008-2009
There was a remarkable moment this year at the Synagogue that came to us unbidden and unexpected. The scene was Kids’ Shabbat in April, right after the tumult and exhaustion of Passover. Whenever the crowd is spirited but small, we move to concentric circles in the Atrium. Jon is at the grand piano in the center, flanked by Greg on the mandolin and Eliyahu on djembe. Because of the shape and size of the room, and the fact that it’s a highly reverberant box, everything sounds better, brighter and more rousing. It’s a little like singing—le-havdil—in the shower.
But it wasn’t the singing this time that left the deepest impression. We finished the last lines of Adon Olam—or as Greg codes it: Adon Olam / Israeli Version—and by rights the service should have ended there, with some incidental music to get us out of the room. But suddenly we were dancing at the Synagogue. Hand-in-hand, men and women, older, younger, and in-betweeners, shedding the inhibitions that regularly interfere with our deepest yearnings for ecstasy and communion. The hard shell of habit fell away, and we were suddenly moving as wheels within wheels, joined to each other in an explosion of spirit. I’m sure that it only lasted for a while, but it seemed to go on for a very long time. I know that this moment had not been planned for, but I felt that we had received it in readiness. A synagogue that is not afraid of the body, a synagogue that is not afraid of the spirit, and can imagine a world outside the lines of conventional patterns of study and worship, will sometimes achieve moments of genuine rapture. Our challenge is to achieve them with both frequency and force.
This was a very good year at B’nai Emunah. When we gathered last year, we were making excited announcements about the imminent arrival of our new Education Director. Eliyahu Krigel is now here with Shanti, and two marvelous children, Isaiah and Kayla. We saw; he came; and Eliyahu conquered. Building on the successes of his predecessor, Helen Winoker, Eliyahu turned in a remarkable performance of effective teaching, staff and community building, and a charming presentation of a richly Jewish self. He is a fountain of ideas, fresh and propulsive, not tethered to the world of the tried and untrue. Eliyahu thinks in an array of possibilities, and works to shorten the distance between idea and execution.
And in addition to that, he is hugely successful with our kids. Education Chair Alex Goldberg and I sat recently at graduation and saw a picture of Eliyahu in Washington, D.C., with our young people. He was at an event called Panim el Panim, a seminar on political activism for Jewish teens. Kids were clustered naturally around him as a trusted, important Jewish adult. I will speak for both of us when I say that we kvelled.
But our successes in Jewish education go deeper than that. Numbers are important: we added twenty-plus children to our roster this year of children attending Religious and Hebrew School. Fully two-thirds of the children ages 0 to 4 in our community belong to families associated with the Synagogue. That’s 44 out of 66. When Eliyahu arrived, we began programming in earnest in informal and Jewishly experiential ways. That means two teen overnights at B’nai Emunah. Our bar and bat mitzvah candidates went on retreat to Turner Falls. In August of this year many more kids will do the same.
Equally important was a decision of the Synagogue to associate itself with the Institute for Southern Jewish life, a regional powerhouse based in Jackson, which has attracted the attention of family foundations and is deservedly a favorite of the philanthropic world. Here’s one of the things the Institute does: for schools large and small, professional or volunteer, it operates a curriculum writing unit that scripts every session of a full-year program. It’s rich and sophisticated and deeply empowering. It means that a layperson who has little experience in Judaica, but might well have smarts and a demeanor of leadership, can take the ISJL material in hand and teach at a high level of spirit and expertise. I have been looking at curricular materials for a very long time, and this is one of the best educational developments in American Jewish life. It’s a curriculum that actually takes into account the fact that most instructors are energetic congregants whose careers lie outside Jewish education. At B’nai Emunah, this is a work in progress. Ten of our faculty will be going to Jackson this summer to train in the curriculum, thanks to an anonymous donor. Great things will come from this involvement, including a school that continues to rise with a sense of connectedness to other congregations nearby.
Elsewhere in education we did equally well. Shelli Wright, our Preschool Director, is that entrepreneurial dynamo who sees opportunities for expansion and improvement where others are drowning in logistics and arrangements. Our school deserves its impressive accreditations. It continues to refine its program and approach. The word on the street (and I’m in full accord) is that we have the very best program in the city of Tulsa. And it makes friends for B’nai Emunah in the neighborhood and the community. I should not neglect to say that it is fully self-sufficient and brings us opportunities we wouldn’t have otherwise. Since our last Annual Meeting, Shelli and her staff have opened two new rooms, enrolled 16 new students, and continue to preside over a lengthy waiting list. In a down economy, that is no small matter; and it is clear that people are voting for our success as an independent, full-service, not-for-profit Jewish preschool.
The down economy is a source of concern. Our Board of Directors, led by David Charney, decided this year that we are in the midst of special circumstances. Despite the fact that our local situation is stronger than it is in other parts of the country, many of our members are anxious about the future. Some have been directly affected by the contraction and are looking for work in their own fields and others. On balance, our members are calm, optimistic and philosophical. This wrinkle in time will not endure forever, and opportunities will not be long in coming. At the same time, the losses have been real and substantial. It’s crucial that we pay close attention to the people who make up the family of the congregation, and to everyone who is moving through choppy water.
For that reason, our Board decided that there would be no dues increases this year. It’s a demonstration of care; of setting aside some important goals in the name of meeting people where they feel most deeply. This was not the time to ask for long-term commitments, for pledges that stretch beyond the immediate present. The reassuring fact is that many generous people have responded to the Synagogue despite the downturn. Let me remind you that “Sound and Spirit,” our interfaith concert, was a success on many levels. Hundreds in the audience. Spectacular performances, including the debut of Kolot Emunah, the first adult ensemble at B’nai Emunah in many years. A spirit of accord and community cohesiveness. And tens of thousands of dollars raised for the purpose of feeding hungry schoolchildren with nothing in the cupboard to last the weekend. Thank you, Howard Wolf, and the committee you led. Here is help at its most elemental: a commitment to meeting the most basic needs in straightforward acts of chesed and tzedek.
And people were equally generous with “Talking Heads,” the appearance by Ira Glass at the end of May. Early contributions pointed in the right direction; we hope that many people will continue to contribute through the summer. We’ll need to do much more to make our budget and ensure that we can last until the end of the year. But along with everyone involved in this effort, I am deeply grateful. If you have made a contribution, thanks for your help. If you’re on this side of a donation, please know how much it matters. We’ll publish the final list of contributors in the August Messenger. Our ability to stand with our neediest members depends on the generosity of the congregation as a whole.
On another level, we have also sought to bring a hand of comfort into the lives of our members. Once again, I’d like to credit the vision of Dr. Jamie Cash who, during his presidency, suggested that we generate a robust effort to deal with the issues of illness and loss. Thanks to energetic leadership by Terry Marcum, Kay Oleinick, Jackie Lasky, and many others, we have shortened the distance between the Synagogue kitchens and households in need of a healing hand. The tangible gift of a member-made lasagna is love in the form of a nourishing main course. The same is true of “Elijah’s Cloak.” In a chance encounter at the home of mourners, Harriet Dunitz said that we needed to form a guild of knitters, sewists, and other needleworkers to fashion shawls, lap quilts, afghans, and sofa blankets to bring a caressing warmth to people who are ill or in recovery.
Response to this project has been overwhelming. Beautiful handwork comes in every week. The recipients are touched and overjoyed with their gifts. Love in the abstract is good and important. Love that takes a tangible form is the way you build a coherent community. I think of this project as an act of sukkah building, of erecting a colorful canopy over the lives of people who have been forced to confront their own vulnerability. It’s exactly what we need to do in order to merit the name of a kehillah kedosha.
And we need to continue to work beyond our own walls. Tonight I’m delighted to say with great excitement that there is a new institution in Jewish Tulsa. With thanks to our partners at Temple Israel and the Jewish Federation of Tulsa, and the strong support of Jewish family foundations, we can now claim a Hillel at the University of Tulsa. No one could overstate the importance of this development. Eric Cohn, our new Hillel Director, is off to a strong and engaging start. Students and faculty members have affirmed his rightness for the work, and he has enlisted substantial support from University of Tulsa administrators. The same is now in process elsewhere as we bring to life “Hillel of Northeastern Oklahoma.” There are implications here, both for individual campuses and for the continuity of the Jewish community itself. As we build a real student community in this part of the state, there is a chance that we’ll be able to persuade many of those same students to make their adult lives in this part of Oklahoma. Think of the possibilities if only five students a year take jobs, buy homes, build families in our community. It’s that kind of development that changes the game. Lucky us if it comes to pass. I ask you to join me in saluting Eric, and conveying the blessings of our assembly.
A second new professional brings us back to the Synagogue and our project at McClure Elementary School. In addition to Sally Donaldson, our Director of Community Development, we can now officially welcome Elida Yeahquo, who has been at McClure for the past six months. A grant from the Irv and Sharna Frank Family Foundation allowed us to engage her as Director of Parent Services. She is especially committed to the large number of Spanish-speaking families who are now connected in new ways to the community of the school. Susan Baston, our principal, would say that she is the envy of her peers. Our project at McClure is important in itself, but on the larger level, it serves as a model of what can be accomplished by lay/professional partnerships when congregations are willing to dream in Technicolor. There is nothing small about our work at McClure. It’s a best practices program that takes itself seriously and has produced measurable results in the important area of student mobility. If you’re a kid in our program, there’s a very good chance that you will remain at McClure for an entire academic year, because your parents see the school as a desirable place where children get attention, support, and love. Thank you, Sally; thank you, Elida, and all of the volunteers you have enlisted in this effort.
And thanks to everyone else in our system. Volunteer leaders working side by side with our effervescent Program Director, Greg Raskin, move the ball forward with skill and spirit. Look for more and different music in services; more programming; more drumming; more kosher ribs from Elmer’s; more everything. Next up, as I’ve said, is Talking Heads. After Talking Heads, it’s Rise Up Singing. Greg is now working on a special project, involving the voices of our Religious School students. You’ll see the fruits of his labors as school begins next fall.
Betty has been enormously productive, as well, although you’d have to go to the roof to see many of her accomplishments in the form of AC units and other bits and pieces of necessary infrastructure and deep-building systems. If you see a floor or a countertop or a paint color or a sukkah with tie-dyed banners that pleases you, there’s a good chance that Betty had something to do with it.
It is my duty and pleasure to recognize our staff—my own professional family—and I take joy in telling you that we are powerfully strengthened by Didi Ralph, Suzanne D’Eath, Keith Palmer and his staff, and Nancy Wilk. Those good people are the Synagogue regulars, and their expertise, sensitivity, and devotion are the very signature of life at the Synagogue. They are respectful of individuals, graceful in their dealings with others, and important contributors to our success. Many outstanding para-professionals round out the picture, including Nancy Cohen, Colin Moser, Jefferey Bonem, Ann Hipfner, Rita Zeff, Isrella Taxon, and the staff of those who conduct weekday services.
I offer final thanks to my friend and partner, David Charney. As all of you know, David is closing out his term as president of the congregation. This is the second time David has been president, and each of his terms has been marked by the same essential qualities that evoke the affection and respect of everyone in his orbit. David is a man of humming energy, matched by tact, flexibility, and nuanced intelligence. Because he always understands the issue of systems and context, we never bog down in fretful smallness. He’s a big picture thinker who values fundamental relationships. David is fresh and gentle and invested fully in his work, which means benefits to the citizens of northeastern Oklahoma. We are lucky to be at the center of his commitments, where David carves out time for the work he loves and makes a place for all of us in his understanding of family.
David, I ask you please now to rise. We present this gift to you at the close of your term in recognition of your gifts, your wisdom, your demeanor, and sterling character that bring worth and dignity to the life of the Synagogue. It’s a cup for Kiddush, which we hope you will use with pleasure; a cup of abundance and a cup of joy. Would all of you please rise for a salute to David Charney.
Let me close with my thanks to one and all: president, officers, board members, and volunteers. I’m grateful for the enthusiasm of our nominees and excited by what Dr. Leor Roubein and the members who are slated to serve with him will bring to the Synagogue. Blessings to all of us as we come to this milestone of another year of effort and joy at B’nai Emunah!
