Options Kehilat Shalom Considered for the Future

Strategic Options for Kehilat Shalom's Future

Q. Why not stay as we are?
A. When Kehilat Shalom was 300 families we were able to support our infrastructure and program. Our shrinking number of members, Religious School children, and ECC children has created a structural deficit. Even with planned cuts to staff and program our income does not support our operation. The status quo is not sustainable.

Q. Do we really need to sell our Education Center?
A. At this time, the Education Center costs us about $70,000 a year to operate (part of the mortgage, utilities, etc.) The sale of the Rosenberg Center (anticipated to be over $1m) should enable to vastly reduce or pay off our mortgage for both buildings. Sale of the facility would mean the sad loss of our Early Childhood Center. We would need to rent space for our Religious School, if we opt to remain an independent congregation.

Q. Why not sell our present location and move North?
A. Our professional estimate of the value of our combined facility is around $4m+. Paying off our mortgage would leave us, depending on the actual sale amount, with $3m. With the cost of land and the cost of construction, our present numbers would not be able to afford constructing a new facility. At this time with the number of Jews in the Northern Part of the County, this was perceived by the Strategic Planning Committee to be too great a risk.

Q. After we sell our Education Center, could we remain in our present location?
A. With this sale, the influx of cash would enable to pay off our mortgage. With our present number of families, even as membership shrinks and ages, our financial balance sheet would be positive for around another decade.
This is a viable option. The Board, though, looking at the projections strongly felt that in this scenario, as we continue to grow smaller: our programs and activities will become moribund. School classes will become too small to have grade classes. Daily Minyan will become unsustainable. Shabbat & Holiday services will have very small crowds.
Some of our leaders are confident that a new rabbi and a new location with a revitalized Religious School could give us a boost in affiliation to extend the scenario of independence for more years.
If we vote not to create the new community, this option would be fleshed out and implemented.

Q. Why doesn’t Shaare Torah sell their facility and move to Montgomery Village?
A. In our conversations and research, we believe the continued growth/construction in the Lakelands, Route 28 corridor north, Crown Farms and Science Center offers a strong probability of Jewish families seeking to affiliate with a Conservative synagogue in those areas.
The Planning Committee also believes that the Lakelands area can serve as a hub/center for creating a dynamic center to serve all Jews in the Upcounty area.

Q. Can’t we keep both the Lakelands and the Montgomery Campus in a new community?
A. The cost of the mortgages and the operating expenses of two synagogue facilities are not possible within our present combined membership base.

Q. Why not sell both campuses and build a new one in Germantown or Clarksburg?
A. While there is a multi-million dollar equity in the Kehilat Shalom campus, Shaare Torah facility being recently constructed does not have sizable equity.
Also, we are not sure there is critical mass at this time in Clarksburg or Urbana to support a new facility with the probability of present members who would not travel to a northern location.

New Community Part 2 - Communication

Before I write what I had intended at the end of my last blog... I want to remind myself and everyone who reads this ... how important open, honest and heart-felt communication is regarding our future.
There is no one who can look at where Kehilat Shalom is going without pain and sadness. But we can talk about our pain and talk about our options without rancor. That is the central focus of this summer.
We are talking with Shaare Torah about our options for the future, the challenge doing things differently and being two successful separate communities. No one is sure that we can bridge our difference although we are hopefully that people of good faith and intelligence can create a vibrant community together.
We are also talking within Kehilat Shalom and trying to answer everyone's issues and raw feelings.
Change is hard. Losing something beloved is hard. We do have real choices and only together can we make the right choice.
If you contact us and we don't get back to you... PLEASE let someone else know. The most important thing we have to do this summer is listen and answer everyone's concerns.