September 2016

Shalom! I’m writing this article as I just completed my first month as your President. I was humbled by the support and friendly faces I saw at the annual meeting in June. Even though I had the full support of the Nominating Committee to be your next President it’s still a reassuring feeling when the votes are cast and the decision is final. Thank you.

I’m excited to work with my new set of officers; David Krendel, Eric Weinstein, and Dianne Wolpert as Vice Presidents; Dan Mainzer and Marc Shapiro continuing on in their roles as Treasurer and Financial Secretary, respectively and Brett Berkman as our Recording Secretary. A big thank you to John Herrera who now steps into the infamous Immediate Past President role that I will someday look forward to! We presented John with Judaic artwork depicting a quote from the Talmud (Avot 2:21) “You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it”. I’m sure that John will live up to these words!

One of the first tasks as President is to select the committee chairs that will assist in running the day-to-day operations. Once again, I was humbled by the support and energy of the congregants willing to take on leadership roles to help us move forward: Norm Finkelstein (Adult Ed), Evie Shorey (By-Laws and MWJDS), Lee Bauer (Caring Volunteers), Ilana Downes (Education), Dianne Wolpert (Event Planning), Finance (Eric Weinstein), Marc Shapiro (House), Richard Davino (Membership), Norma (Publicity and Ritual) and Sara Kramer (Publicity), Ronnie Pologe (Social Action), Deb Frank (Strategic Planning), Jody Comins (S2S), Mark Granoff (Website), Nurit Lieberman (Young Families), and Gayle Seletz (Youth).

The above list does not include the congregants ON the committees. Thanks to them as well!

The Board of Trustees also grew by a few new members this year. Please welcome Deb Frank, Beth Goldfarb, Jason Lieberman and Doug Robinow.

There are of course people in the background that make all of this possible and I’d like to thank the office staff of Fern Elinoff (Office Manager), Marla Levin (Bookkeeper), and the custodial staff David Bacon and Rob Crowley.

The worst part of being President is dealing with the loss of a member. This past month we lost and will remember Herm Libman. May his memory be for a blessing.

I’m looking forward to lots of simchas and naches during my term. Please join me!

Dave Levinson

President