Building for the Future

by Joel Brown, October 22, 2014

As we start another Jewish new year, it is especially appropriate to think about the future. For Solel, that means putting in place the infrastructure and human capital we need to build our collective Jewish home for the next phase of our life as a congregation. There are three particular projects that I want to highlight in this area.
First, I hope you noticed that your High Holidays ticket envelopes contained a flyer in which we thanked over 200 people who volunteer their time and talents to contribute to Solel. We knew when we set out to prepare this thank you letter to Solel volunteers that there would be a lot of people to recognize for their ongoing contributions to our Jewish home. Even so, we have to admit how impressed we were to see how many volunteers we have here at Solel. We also knew that it would impossible to get absolutely everyone included and sure enough, no sooner had we distributed the flyer then even more volunteers were brought to our attention. If you’re one of the people we missed, please accept our apology and our sincere thanks for everything you do for our community!
Second, I want to update you on our search for our new Rabbi. The Transition Team has posted the position over the summer and we’ve been receiving applications from interested candidates. Over the next few months, the Transition Team and others will be speaking and meeting with the best candidates. With more hard work, a little luck and God’s help, by early 2015 we will have chosen our new head Rabbi, who will start in July 2015. You’ll hear much more about this over the next few months.
Third, we are well along the process of making a very important infrastructure investment in our building. Our building is now 37 years old and it still has its original roof. We’ve been very lucky to get this much life out of our roof, but as many of you know, we’ve been getting more and more leaking, especially after the harsh winter we had last year. It has become bad enough that we need to act to prevent serious damage. The time has come to replace our roof. This will be a big project and the Board of Directors is making sure that we do it right. With care and prudent investment, we can get a new roof that will last us for three more decades. Work on replacing the roof will begin after the holiday season, around mid-October. There is no way around the fact that replacing the roof will be an expensive endeavour. However, it is necessary to ensure that we have the sound and safe place we need to meet, pray and learn together. Your continued financial support of the congregation will be especially important as we undertake our most significant building project in over 35 years.
As always, I’m eager to hear from you. You can reach me any time at president@solelweb.azurewebsites.net or (416) 879-2555.

Filed under: President's Message

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