WJC President on Strategic Planning

Dear WJC Friends,

“Olam chesed yibaneh.”

“I will build this world from love.”

A beautiful song written by our own Menachem Creditor. It was sung by the Jerusalem choir in Hebrew and English, then we learned as a group to sing it in Arabic as an emotional way to kick off United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism’s Convening in Baltimore. I will have much to share with you about this conference in coming weeks, but today we have some significant news closer to home to share.

A week ago today, our strategic plan was unveiled, discussed and approved by our trustees. The plan has been in the works for nearly 18 months. So many of you contributed to it through survey responses, community conversations, or by serving on one of the six task forces. I want to thank you all for your input and hard work, and send special thanks to our tireless chairs Joanna Liebman and Jonathan Berg.

Through this process, we learned what WJC is doing well, some things that we are doing very-well, and areas that need more emphasis as we chart a course for the next five years.

We will be rolling the details out to our congregants over the next few months and you will be given a chance to help in the execution. The detailed report is over twenty pages long, but five important objectives emerged that I wanted to share with you now:

• Embrace Diversity, and Foster Inclusivity and Belonging.  Ensure that every individual feels welcome and a part of the WJC community.  Assume no prior knowledge as we plan, promote, and seek to make our services, activities and programs meaningful and accessible to all regardless of their background, experience, or points of view. Foster a sense of inclusivity and belonging for all, and recognize and celebrate our diversity in all its forms.
• Build Energy.  Inject vitality, enthusiasm, spirit, and joy into all community activities and gatherings.
• Promote Engagement and Volunteerism.  Enhance involvement and participation by all members of our community in our activities, programs and services.  Encourage and promote participation in WJC’s various volunteer opportunities, committees and leadership positions.
• 
Revitalize Teen and Youth Experience.  Prioritize high quality teen and youth education and programming.
• Build Bridges to and from the ECC.  Strengthen connections between participants in the Early Childhood Center and the wider community.

You can see that the plan was built from love, and our goal is to continue to build WJC as a community of love. I am very excited to move these goals forward in the coming months.

Thanks for all you do for WJC!

Shalom,

Larry