A Message from the WJC President

Hello WJC friends,

It has just been two weeks since my last presidential letter to you, but there is so much wonderful activity, that I simply could not wait to share.
Just last week we celebrated Purim and I was amazed by the excitement at the carnival, the Sisterhood hamantsahan baking event, the many costumes at the Megillah readings and the incredible crowd at our first Purimspiel in four years. It was simply great to see the two young Torah Corps participants reading Megillah for the first time and to see so many of our congregants enjoying and participating in these events.

I was excited to meet some of our newest members at the new-member Shabbat. We hosted a wonderful gallery opening “Growing Up Jewish” with artist/storyteller Jacqueline Kott-Wolle, and yesterday was the SOJAC Community Day and criminal justice discussion. A busy March indeed!

Behind the scenes, our nominating committee has been hard at work and has identified a slate of four outstanding new officers and three new trustees to be presented at the trustees meeting on March 27 and then voted on/approved at the Congregational meeting on April 24. For those of you who are not familiar with this process, the nominating committee consists of three trustees and five non-trustee congregants (including an alternate) that was approved by the board of trustees at our meeting in November. For this crucial role, they interviewed dozens of people to find the right mix of those willing to help our community, balancing skills and experience with an effort to represent all of WJC’s demographics.

I am also looking forward to two exceptionally important events. Our annual Scholar-in-Residence Weekend will be held April 28-30, with dynamic speaker Rabbi Ethan Tucker, who is the head of the school at Hadar and a podcast host of Responsa Radio. Ethan will engage with us on a number of topics on the theme of “Connection, Community, Conversation:
 An Exploration of Community and Belonging.”

Also, you will soon see a “save the date” for our annual community celebration. “A Night at the Riviera” will be held on Sunday, June 11. I am excited by a new format and fantastic honorees for this joyful evening.

Lastly, the next edition of the incredible Voices magazine will be hitting your mailbox soon.

Please remember our Strategic Planning process is underway and we have teams forming that can use your help.

L’hitraot,
Larry

PS: A heartfelt yashar co’ach to all the people who made these events and efforts successful. I am specifically not mentioning names in this column, because if I did, there would be no room to write anything else! Thanks again to everyone for all you do for WJC!