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As the floor plans depict, the first floor of the house
consists of a large living room (labeled “RM 102”),
good sized dining room (“RM 101”), small kitchen, and
bath. We envision using the living room as our sanctuary for regular
Friday evening and Shabbat morning services. This room, which will
be the home of our Torah, can comfortably accommodate about 35 – 40
people, which will meet our needs for regular services.
The dining room will be used for meetings, adult education classes,
and potlucks. It may also be used for Hebrew school classes, depending
on enrollment in any given year. The kitchen will be quite basic,
but it will have facilities adequate for heating and serving food
for potlucks and other social events, and for preparing Hebrew
school snacks.
Upstairs there is a bathroom and four bedrooms (labeled “RM
201” – “RM204”), three of which are good-sized,
and one of which is quite small. These will be Hebrew school classrooms
to use as needed for Hebrew school enrollment, which fluctuates
from year to year. As the demographics change, so the use of the
rooms can change from year to year. This year, for example, we
have 37 students in four classes, plus a newly formed group of
teenagers meeting regularly on Hebrew school afternoons to discuss
Jewish topics and books. If this pattern of classes continues next
year, I would envision three classes in the large rooms upstairs,
one class downstairs in the dining room, with the teens meeting
in the small upstairs room. The second floor of the guest cottage
will also be available as classroom space if needed.
The guest cottage
has a small kitchen, bath, and living room on the first floor,
with an open loft space. The cottage living room will be used
for office space, while the upstairs will house our library and
offer extra classroom space.
Getting from Here to There
To move into the house we will need
to install a sprinkler system, remodel the downstairs bathroom
for handicapped accessibility, widen several doorways for handicapped
accessibility, install handrails, replace the exterior door,
upgrade the plumbing for the bathrooms and kitchen, install smoke
detectors and emergency lighting, remove asbestos from the basement,
upgrade the electrical service, repair the windows, make several
improvements to the kitchen, paint all the walls, and clean EVERYTHING.
Of course, there is always more we can do, such as fixing the shutters
and improving the light fixtures. How far we go will depend on
how much money we raise and how much time, energy and attention
we put into the project. We will be planning several painting and
cleaning parties over the summer and early fall, and all willing
to lend a hand with this, as well as with light carpentry,
will be gratefully pressed into service.
What Will We Have When the Work is Done?
So, what will we have
when we’ve done all the painting,
carpentry, plumbing, and electrical work? Will we have a gorgeous
new facility that will meet all our needs, for now and the foreseeable
future? No. The answer, plain and simple, is No. We will have an
old house, which we will have made beautiful through our spirit
and the sweat of our brows. It will serve us for regular Shabbat
services and Hebrew school but will be cramped for larger events.
It will not serve for High Holy Day services, some holiday celebrations,
and large special events. Whenever we’re expecting more than
50 people, we’ll need to rent space elsewhere, perhaps at
West Village. I should note, though, that in the warmer months
we will be able to hold up to six services and events in tents
outside, which might work for some Bar and Bat Mitzvahs or other
life-cycle events.
I can hear many of you asking, “Why are we putting so much
time, energy, and money into a project that, when complete, may
not serve us as well as renting space from West Village?” I
can provide several answers to this question.
- It is true that the
Greenleaf Street house will not accommodate our large services
and special events. However, I believe that for our regular services
and Hebrew school, the Greenleaf Street house will be a better
home for us than West Village, where we do not have enough classroom
space for our Hebrew school and we are always “camping
out” in
the space we do use. We cannot decorate the classroom walls with
appropriate educational materials and we cannot leave projects
from one week to the next. Likewise, we are camping out in the
sanctuary for services, needing eachtime to roll out the ark
and set it up. At Greenleaf, the sanctuary will be ours, dedicated
as specifically Jewish sacred space.
- The big, beautiful synagogue
facility Michael Singer designed would, as I understand it, meet
all our needs for spiritual, social, and educational programs
for the foreseeable future. However, we cannot afford to build
it NOW. We have been struggling mightily to raise the $150,000
needed to complete the site work and renovations for the project
as described here and in last month’s newsletter.
Despite the enthusiasm of most of the congregation, the fundraising
has been extremely difficult. At this time, our congregation simply
does not have the wherewithal to build a $1.3 million facility.
- In
spending money here and now to renovate the Greenleaf Street
house, we will not simply be throwing money away on a diversionary
side project. More than half of the estimated costs are for site
work is for work that would need to be done if we did have in
hand the funds necessary to build a new synagogue. It makes sense
to spend a relatively small amount of money to renovate the house
so that we can have a home of our own now while we work on fundraising
for the new synagogue. The renovated house and cabin will always
remain usable for us.
What Does the Timeline Look Like?
With luck, we will obtain the
last of the necessary permits within the next six weeks. We will
then spend the spring and summer working to complete the site work
and interior renovations. We’ll
be working with contractors, but also with our own hands, paintbrushes,
scrubbing brushes, rakes, and pruning shears. In the early fall
we should be able to dedicate our synagogue. But then—no
rest for the weary! We’ll need to jump into fundraising
for the new synagogue building. We’ll need to approach
foundations and major donors. My best guess is that this fundraising
effort will take a period of some years. We will also have to
go back to the town and state for more permits; however, the
permitting process will be significantly simpler the next time
around. We have already obtained the Change of Use permit enabling
us to use the site as a religious institution, and will not need
to obtain this permit again. We would hope to be in a position
to move into a new synagogue building in five to seven years—but
of course, this depends on hard work and support from all of
us.
B’shalom,
- Rachel
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