Chairs report May 2022
This is the report I presented to the AGM last night
Karen Ackerman May 2022
The last few years have of course been unexpectedly busy and very different to what I imagined I’d be doing when I started 5 years ago as chair. There are many metaphors I could use to describe the experience of being chair of a synagogue through a pandemic and a building project. It’s certainly been a rollercoaster ride at times with ups and downs a plenty, but the analogy I think best describes the experience come from the song we used to sing when I was in the youth movement Habonim Dror.
Kol Ha’olom Kulo Gesher Tzar Ma’od – all the world is a very narrow bridge.
Imagine a very narrow rope bridge, with nothing to hold on to at the edges, no railing, no rope to ensure you don’t fall –if you don’t stay perfectly balanced you’ll plumet over the edge to the water far below – but you can’t stay where you are- you need to cross the bridge to continue your journey. What do you do?
You just have to step out, and as the song continues– to have no fear.. but also to retain your balance.
During Covid it was a constant balancing act between those who wanted us to be more cautious, to keep lots of social distancing and to be careful about reopening and those who felt we needed to stop wearing masks, to just get back to normal. Alongside the rest of the executive team and the Rabbi, we tried to walk a middle ground. We of course ensured that any legal obligations were followed. In the first year of Covid, any public building opening had many laws to follow, risk assessments, rules about spacing, mask wearing and various other legislation. Daniel Shaw took on the role of keeping on top of the constant changes in Government policy and United Synagogue guidelines and making sure we were always up to date. We kept stringent records of each new change of process and the risk assessment for it. We also tried to ensure we kept the balance, between following the rules and keeping members safe and remaining welcoming and a community- whether that was in person or online.
We are now of course in a place where there is no longer any legal restrictions to follow and the US has left it to each community to decide the best approach to Covid for their community. We have tried to ensure coming to services remains comfortable for all whether they are more cautious or more relaxed. Masks are now optional, but we have kept in place our CO2 monitors to ensure there is enough ventilation in the rooms we use.
As we move back to more in person activity we have tried to not just go back to what we did before, but to keep asking ourselves, is there a better, more effective, more inclusive way of doing things? This is also a balancing act, between long term members, who love the shul and want things to always stay the same, how they’ve always been- and newer members with new ideas and new ways of doing things.
We try and keep this balance by being open to new ideas, new initiatives whilst retaining the things we all love about being part of this community. This has resulted in various projects such as our new monthly family services. We have long struggled with what to provide for the welcome amount of children in the community. I spent years running children services, sometimes for only 4 or 5 children. We also struggle to find volunteers to run them. The idea came up from the team of volunteers running events for young people, to run a monthly family service which the Rabbi has been leading, followed by a Kiddush for young families. These have been very well received and should be a core part of our offering for the future.
Beth has done a wonderful job continually generating new ideas for events for all ages within our community, she’ll give her report later and will demonstrate how she has made sure she has worked with members to make sure there are events for all members from those who are retired at Top of the Hill via teenagers and young families. There is definitely a challenge for the new team to face going forward to encourage younger members to come to events which are currently mainly supported by our members in the 60 plus age group.
This attitude to embracing new ideas has also run through our approach to the building as we start to move back into it. A few of us spent a day unpacking and sorting out the new kitchen, we tried to take a fresh approach – not to recreate how the kitchen was laid out before, not to say, what have we always done, but to ask ourselves, what would be the best way to do this- we have a blank canvas, how can we best start again. We then started by using the open shelves nearest the door to put all the items needed most often for kiddush and moved from there, we now have a logically laid out, tidy kitchen , with a place for everything, which will hopefully stay that way.
We’ve all been guilty in the past of letting the building get messy- we now have a chance to start over, with fresh clean areas and lots of new storage spaces. If you use an area please leave it tidy, if you see something out of place please ask Jo or one of the caretakers where it should go. This is our building and it is all of our responsibility to keep it beautiful.
The balancing act continues with our approach generally to the building project. We now have some wonderful new areas, but the whole project had to balance the money we had in our budget with all the many things we wanted to do in the building. We now have this wonderful new space for prayer, learning, meetings and entertainment. Our refurbished hall with modern lighting, Audio Visual and new storage areas, a new security room and security fence, our bright and modern foyer and toilets and a new well equipped kitchen. We have also had a long overdue overhaul of all heating and lighting in the building and now have air conditioning for the first time, We of course had to make some tough decisions, great ideas such as a Shabbat lift were sadly just well beyond our budget. There is still more to be done, and areas that can be tackled at a point in the future but for now I think we have hit the right balance and created the areas we need for the community and our current activities.
One addition that also allows us to think differently is the new door into the shul from the foyer. This will allow us to more easily have men and women sitting together as a community on one level. We did this for the recent Shabbat UK Shabbat of remembrance. This was a lovely event well attended with a thoughtful speech by Mayor Adam Jogee and moving presentations by various community members. When Judith Frosh said the Gomel prayer, I felt very moved that she was leading the community, not standing in the gallery but as a core part of the service, all symbolically and geographically on one level. To me this feels the perfect time to embrace a proper welcoming area for women who want to, to sit on one level with men in a comfortable area that is a permanent fixture whilst still balancing the needs of those who want to sit upstairs and the men who are used to sitting in that area. We can of course also have the whole community on one level now in our bright and modern Beit Hamdirash on non simcha shabbat services where the whole community can easily fit in there.
As Chair, the most important balance I needed to get right is balancing the needs of the role alongside that of the other areas of my life, my work and my family. For those who are able to and want to, being a shul chair can be a full time job, that was never going to be my approach. I like to inspire and enable others, bringing the right people together for the right project. This is also one of the Rabbi’s great skills, identifying a gap of need in the community and then finding and asking the most suitable people to help fill that gap. This has manifested itself through projects such as Top of the Hill, which has now been running for a few years and continues to flourish even through Covid. It also led to the Winter Shelter project, which I set up and then brought in Anna Lawton and then Annette Kurer to ably run and manage it going forward and now our Muswell Hill Welcomes project to support local refugees and asylum seekers. Through this we have run monthly lunches for local people seeking asylum and now have our clothes drop in project in a room upstairs to ensure those who arrive with very little can come here to choose the clothes they would like in a dignified and respectful manner. Both of these projects have engaged members to get involved often meeting other members that they didn’t know before and to make a real difference to others in our community. There are so many people that have made both those projects happen in such a wonderful way so thank you to all of you.
There are also some other thanks I must make, I’ve already mentioned the Rabbi. It has been a pleasure to work with him over the past almost 10 years as both vice and chair. There is nothing he loves more than coming up with new ideas, inviting interesting and informative speakers to come to events and finding new ways to engage the community. I’ve already mentioned his work with young families at the new monthly shabbat services and I know he has lots of other ideas to re-engage the community post covid and moving forward. The job of a rabbi is a tough one, you need to be educator, events planner, religious and spiritual leader and pastoral carer. If my balancing act is tough, his is even tougher, to try and be all things to all people is an impossible task and inevitably not everyone will be happy all of the time. For me personally, I have always been grateful that he is the right Rabbi for our community. Someone who understands and is totally non judgmental whatever your level of observance and who always tries to ensure our community is an inclusive as possible, working this year with our newly formed inclusion committee on looking at how we can ensure to be the most welcome we can to those with disabilities, the LGBTQ community and how we can ensure women’s voices are heard and listened to. As a community we have always pushed the boundaries as much as we can in terms of women being involved in communal and spiritual life and the Rabbi has been at the forefront of that work for us and for the United Synagogue. Thank you Rabbi David for all your work and dedication to this community, I’m sorry that your bid to be a Haringey councillor didn’t work out this time, but I know you will continue to look for other ways to fulfil your desire to not only serve this community but also the wider Haringey community and I for one am proud that we have a Rabbi who genuinely cares about leaving the world a better place in whatever way he can.
There are also a few long standing members of our shul council standing down this year, Linda Cohen has served this community for many years and for over 20 years has managed our Kiddish rotas. This year she has handing over that mantle to Tamar Warshaw. She will be honoured and thanked properly at the Neshei Chayil lunch which has been delayed for over two years now, but is finally being held on July 2nd. But for now, thank you Linda for all your hard work over so many years.
Helen Style has served as a council member, vice chair and most recently as our women’s officer and member of the inclusion committee. She invented the role of women’s officer before it was officially a US role and Helen has done a fantastic job making it her own and really making a difference. Just a few of the things she has done include, making sure it is clear that Muswell Hill shul welcomes breast feeding. Ensuring there is clear signage in the ladies gallery for the Parsha, encouraging women to read explanations about the service on Rosh Hashanah and ensuring family members are involved in Simchas with the prayer for the Royal family and state of Israel. Helen, is one of those people where if you are looking for someone to deliver a purim parcel or call a member in need or to help at one of our events for asylum seekers she will always be one of the first to offer. Helen, I know how much you care and you are dedicated to this community.
Another very long standing member of the council is Irene Mansfield, Irene has been our Board of Deputies rep for many years and has been on the council for even more years. As one of our long standing members, she brings with her a legacy of knowledge about the community, it’s history and members. She has always been one of the first to offer to help with all areas of communal life. The civic service that she initiated and runs with Jo has become a much loved part of our communal calendar and a wonderful way for us to connect with the wider community an area she feels passionately about. Irene is always generous with her time, advice and with charitable causes and for that I thank you.
Thank you to all three of you, I have made a donation on your behalf to My Israel, and World Jewish Relief.
Thanks must go to all of those who have served on the council this year, our meetings are always a pleasure. We are lucky enough that we don’t have disagreements, and each member has always contributed in a positive way.
The other members of our executive team, Marc Rubinstein, Greg Swimer and our wardens Daniel Shaw and Neil Cohen have also all played an incredibly important role over these past years. Greg and Marc have achieved what many thought was impossible, they have driven our building project to almost completion. They have navigated us through years of community consultations, fundraising, negotiations with contractors and the United Synagogue. Then once the project actually started they have dealt continually with architects, builders, It specialists, security, companies, catering and kitchen specialists all around their incredibly demanding jobs. They have dealt patiently with all members comments, questions and ideas and even the small minority of members who have been sometimes challenging. They have been a constant sounding board for me. Any successes of the past years are due to the way we work as a team with our skills complimenting each other. It’s a great asset to the community that they will both continue serving for another 2 years.
Daniel and Neil have been an excellent warden team. They work incredibly hard to make sure services run smoothly and never more so than during Covid. The responsibility for following covid rules and protocols has fallen mainly to them. In the world of constantly changing rules and detailed guidance to follow about spacing, cleaning and all the other rules we have got used to, they were never fazed, but embodied keeping calm and carrying on. Services continued, the community was kept safe and it is them we must thank for that.
Daniel stepped up during covid, leading on the risk assessment process, he will now make an excellent chair who cares deeply about this community, I look forward to seeing what he goes on to achieve.
Thanks must also go to the staff team Jo, Beth, our caretakers, our security team, Harriet our welfare coordinator and our youth director and cheder team. Everyone here has had a very challenging few years with uncertainty and lots of change to deal with. It hasn’t been easy but it is because of our staff that we have managed to not only keep going, but to flourish with a programme of online activity and welfare to ensure no one was alone during the most difficult of times.
Finally I need to thank Warren, he has put up with me dealing with shul business, going to meetings and dealing with emails and calls often in the evening. He has had to listen when I need to talk through challenges or have been upset by an angry or rude email from a member and he has supported me throughout. Thank you.
So finally, as I reach the other side of my narrow bridge and look back from where I came, I can see the difficult journey it has sometimes been, but also the great times there have been along the way. There have been many moments to treasure, the special civic ceremonies and hosting important guests in synagogue services, the Kol Nidre appeals where you have always given so generously, the nights sleeping over in our synagogue at the winter shelter, the lunches for refugees we’ve hosted, the members who were cared for when they were in need during covid, the older members who were helped to get on Zoom for the very first time by our patient tech volunteers.
I look back in gratitude for these many wonderful moments along the journey, I am grateful to be part of a community that stood up to care for others in such a special way during Covid and beyond, I am grateful for the generosity of so many who allowed us to upgrade our building, I am grateful for the many members who have given their time in so many ways and I am grateful to have had this opportunity to grow and learn as a person myself. To learn tolerance of others opinions, and patience with those with whom I may not agree, gratitude to have made friends with people outside of my normal circles, people who are of all ages and backgrounds.
It is these things, these moments that built the rope that allowed me to keep my balance over the narrow bridge and to enjoy the journey along the way. I’m sure you’ll join me in wishing Daniel an enjoyable and rewarding journey of his own, with hopefully not too many wobbles as he navigates his way across his own narrow bridge.
Thank you