Our needs are becoming clearer. We must move toward additional building – a larger structure for worship and education. If we don’t enlarge our physical space, we will have to limit activities and goals. We would like to not limit our students to the first fifty that sign up. We would like to educate all of our students – of whatever age or curriculum at the synagogue. If we wish to expand Jewish education and Jewish spirituality in our region, we will have to expand our useable space. That means capital campaigns; that means volunteers raising money; that means digging in to our own pockets; that means seeking grants; that means more of what we spent many years doing to have a synagogue of our own. But is also will mean that we will be able to educate more of our community, adult and child, in more diverse ways. We will be able to celebrate more life cycle events together as a community. We can also be a Jewish Community Center, less constrained by physical space problems. As Jim noted, the limits of physical space is only one facet relating to education and BAJC. Another is the growing number of people who have been touched and are being touched by our educational efforts. We need to apply the experience of many to plan and implement a vision of how BAJC education is to develop. We need to address questions of curriculum; how can we interact with other Jewish educational programs; how we can make use of organizations such as the Grinspoon Foundation to assess our needs and support our growth; and how can we structure an Education Committee so that it can fully reflect the needs of students, parents and educators? Finally, how can we create processes and methods so that our adults, young and old have a meaningful path into the continuing life of our Congregation and our community? I am most appreciative of parents of Hebrew School kids as well as the young adults and the teachers and the volunteers who contribute their wisdom, talents and energy to our educational journey. If you have been or are a participant in any of our educational programs, please consider adding your energy at this time, as we solve the challenges of the present and implement our dreams for the future.
B'Shalom,
Paul
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