Membership Renewal

July 2024

Dear Members of the Beth El Family,

As we enter into summer and take stock of the past year, we have so many reasons to be grateful.  It has been another extraordinary year at Beth El as we have witnessed continued growth in all aspects of temple and school life.  Our capstone weekend kicking off our 75th anniversary celebrations, installing Rabbi Londy as assistant rabbi, marking Rabbi Jaffe’s tenth anniversary as senior rabbi, and thanking Cantor Sternlieb for her many contributions to our temple on her retirement demonstrated that Beth El’s future is bright.

In all, our congregation continues to thrive as a center of Jewish living and learning for Northern Westchester.  We look forward to seeing you in the coming year, beginning with our summer outdoor services in the Klein Courtyard. Please stop by and say hello to your fellow members of the Beth El family and Cantorial Soloist Stark, who officially joins us on July 1.   

Although we had a great amount to celebrate this year, we also had to come together to mourn and comfort each other. The war in Israel continues to impose an emotional strain on everyone and we have had to respond as a community to growing anti-Semitism in our region, across the country, and throughout the world.  The temple’s response to October 7, both in programming and in vastly heightened security, has come at a significant financial cost.  After many years of keeping our security fee at the same rate, this year we have had to increase the fee to cover some, but not all, of the costs the temple is incurring to keep our community, and especially our students, safe.  After careful consideration, the Board of Trustees has adopted a tiered structure for security fees, based on the amount of time members of a family are projected to be in the temple building:  The fee for ECC families will be $695, the fee for Religious School families will be $495, and the fee for all other families will be $395. Even with these increases, the security fees still will cover only a portion of the temple’s security costs.  The balance will be paid from other funds, including dues.

Beth El’s clergy and lay leadership are focused on responsible financial stewardship of the temple, to ensure that the temple thrives for the next 75 years.  Through careful management of costs and prudent management of the temple’s assets, the Board was able to limit increases in dues for the coming year to 4%, in line with inflation and increases in cost of living.  Even with this increase in dues, Beth El will continue to rely on your generosity to the Annual Fund, other gifts and bequests to meet the full costs of operating our synagogue. 

With great excitement and anticipation, we look forward to our 75th year, which starts in the fall with the High Holy Days and the opening of our ECC and religious school. The first step in this process is to ask for your continued partnership by renewing your synagogue membership.

Financial statements will be sent via email in early July, noting our sustaining membership amount along with the security fee.  Members can log onto ShulCloud to see and pay their statement, as well as enroll their children in religious school. Use our website, www.bethelnw.org, to access ShulCloud. Membership is renewed with your first payment which we hope you will make by August 15.  If for any reason your family is considering not renewing your membership this year, please reach out to Gennifer Kelly at GKelly@bethelnw.org.

Thank you for making Beth El a priority in your lives. We look forward to an exciting year ahead, full of opportunities to embrace and live our 75th anniversary motto: Treasure, Build and Engage.  

L'Shalom,

Marc Fried, TBE President
Rabbi Jonathan Jaffe
Gennifer Kelly, Executive Director