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.
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An opinion on what has been going on at Kehilat Shalom & an option that may or may not have been discussed - Supporting Masorti Judaism in Israel
ReplyDeleteI’ve been reading the "Someplace to Say It" board with a whole lot of interest lately. Here are our two cents.
We think the shul administration and executive have already made the decision for a merger. For many reasons, we do not support this.
While there are many things that we like about KS, there are things that we do not care for, but with many things you take the good with the bad. The proximity of our house has been the major factor in keeping us at KS, if the shul merges/moves, we have no reason to stay and can join any of the shuls in the County. (If you are going to drive 5 miles, is 10 miles that "much" further?)
Many of the people who have been bemoaning the demise of the shul on the boards rarely, if ever, attend services. Of those who do regularly, I know of one who is somewhat hostile to small children in the sanctuary. With a two year old and no locally based family, you either get all of us or none of us. Sorry.
As to why we are not more active or attend Friday night services on a regular basis, when you wake up at 4 a.m., 8:00 p.m. is late. I get home close to seven and Jacob goes to sleep at 7:30. Friday evenings, I usually get home, we light candles, say kiddush, wash hands, say motzi, eat dinner and crash. Until recently, I worked six days/week. We are a one car family. Put them all together, and there is very little time for socializing, period. We do attend mincha/maariv when called for minyan duty, but will go home if a minyan arrives for reasons I mentioned before.
I truly believe the synagogue model is dead as we know it. Most people, especially those in communities far from the urban core, are too busy and too tired to put shul life into the center of their lives. (Many extracurricular activities are held on Saturday's & it is easier for families to go to a soccer game than to attend services, especially when their goal may have only been to attain a bar/bat mitzvah.) In our case, even if the shul had wonderful non-shabbat programs, evening activities are out, and Sundays (now that I am not longer working Sundays) are the only time we get to spend as a family doing family "stuff." In a perfect world, I would just go to shul to daven and that’s it. With a two year old, even that is difficult. For obvious reasons, I get almost no kavanah from davening. I’m too busy running after the little one.
If one really thinks that KS is on its last legs, (and I'm really not sure that this is the case...I grew up in a shul that was on its last legs 30 years ago yet is still functioning) instead of merging with another struggling shul to create the Jewish equivalent to Sears Holding Corporation, let me offer another solution which will actually do “good.” I call it the “Moreshet Avraham” solution. Moreshet Avraham is a Masorti shul in Jerusalem which has its own building courtesy of a Conservative synagogue in Brooklyn which went under about 30 years ago. Given the struggles the Masorti movement encounters in Israel (due to the lack of recognition from the State) assisting a needy Masorti Congregation acquire proper facilities would be a better resources than giving them to another Conservative shul miles away which may go under as well. (Especially when you realize that many families are already planning on what to do next & joining Shaare Torah is not often the choice being made.)
Michael Sheib
"We" refers to Amy and I.
I support the Board of Directors in their move to maintain a strong, viable Conservative Jewish community in the Gaithersburg region. As members since the period when Gaithersburg Hebrew Congregation met at Stedwick Elementary, we are saddened at the thought of losing a visible Jewish presence in Montgomery Village. But we must learn to expand our sense of community to include ALL of Gaithersburg and to provide for ALL of our community's children an exciting place to maintain their Jewish identity. It would sadden me even more to see Kehilat Shalom limp along as a shell of its former self and then die. We would leave Montgomery Village with nothing and in the process could jeopardize the existence of the only other Conservative congregation in the Gaithersburg community. I praise the Board of Directors for their courage, their wisdom, and their hard work in leading us to the creation of a stronger Conservative Jewish community in Gaithersburg.
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