Shalom Congregants,
As we continue to celebrate the 100th anniversary of our beloved congregation, our lay leaders in partnership with the clergy, staff and volunteers are hard at work strengthening the foundation of our community and taking necessary steps to ensure that CBI continues to flourish. More about that in a moment.
During the past two years, I have spoken to you openly about the adversity we have faced in recent years due to the pandemic and demographic shifts in our area, as well as the mortgage from our building expansion of the early 2000s. I continue to believe in the future of our Congregation, as I know so many of you do. We are overcoming these challenges together. CBI is an active and vibrant synagogue community with clear strengths and great potential. We have outstanding clergy, an exceptional staff, highly engaged lay leaders, a strongly committed established membership base, and a dedicated and growing cohort of young families. The level of volunteerism in support of programming, operations, and strategy is as strong as ever, and speaks to our shared commitment to this congregation. Equally important, we are committed to understanding the diverse needs of our members and prospective members and implementing necessary changes to meet those needs.
Last October during the High Holidays, we announced the start of our Centennial Campaign to eliminate our debt and invest in our community. We asked you to invest in Rabbi Isenberg, to invest in Cantor Wallach, to invest in the future of our congregation. Many of you have answered the call. We have made excellent progress toward achieving our goal of paying off the mortgage and once that is done, growing our endowment. To date, we have commitments to the campaign of $1.2 million dollars, two-thirds of the way toward paying off the mortgage. We have already reduced the mortgage principal by more than $500,000 and worked with the lender to re-amortize the loan. As a result, our monthly payments have been reduced significantly, helping to close our budget deficit. This is great progress, but we need everyone’s participation to reach our goals [You can click here to see the list of our generous donors and to make your commitment today CBI Centennial Campaign.] Thank you to all who have made their commitment to the Campaign. We are grateful for your generosity.
If you have not yet been contacted by our Campaign Committee, please be patient. They are reaching out to congregants as quickly as possible and intend to speak with everyone. If you are ready to make a commitment to the Campaign, please contact one of our Campaign Co-chairs, David Touger or Mariela Dybner. See information below.
We will provide more details about progress with the campaign and other steps we’re taking to bolster our finances and strengthen the congregation at the Annual Meeting on Tuesday, June 10. We will be reviewing our budget for the new fiscal year and voting to approve a new slate of officers and trustees. All members are invited for dinner at 6:00 p.m. during which we will be recognizing and honoring all our dedicated volunteers. CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE DINNER PRECEDING THE ANNUAL MEETING. The meeting will begin at 7:00 p.m.
We are grateful to all the generations of CBIers who believed in this community and who invested in this community so that we could be here today. Now it is our turn to invest in CBI through our Centennial Campaign. It is our time. There is no one else to do it. Future generations of CBIers are depending on us. I am sure we will not let them down.
Henry Bloom
President
Congregation B’nai Israel
For more information about the Centennial Campaign, or to set up a meeting with one of the Campaign co-chairs, please contact Mariela Dybner mmdybner@gmail.com, or David Touger dtouger@aol.com.
