From The President

"President of Congregation Beth Shalom".

That was never a title I thought would be adding to my resume. When Lara and I moved to Modesto in 1988, we quickly joined what we thought was the only shul in town (yes there actually were two then). We were one of the younger families in the congregation, with four-month-old Avi in tow. There were a considerable number of other families with small children. CBS leadership was made up of long-time veteran and well-respected members like Harry Drabkin (z"l), Joan Gesson, Alan Strauss, Manny Trauring, and Evelyn Heilbronn. Fast forward 22 years later, and we are still one of the younger families in the congregation. No, CBS is not exactly the fountain of youth. The demographics of our congregation have changed. We have a higher proportion of seniors and empty-nesters. When we first joined, CBS was "thriving", except no one realized it at the time. The membership rolls peaked at about 200 families in the early 1990's, today we are just 130. Certainly growth and attracting younger members will be a central theme to the coming years.

So why then did I acquiesce to become President? One could certainly argue that I must have a loose screw somewhere. I certainly did not accept the post to further my everyday career or use this as a stepping-stone to higher office within the Conservative movement. I have no hidden agenda to try to change CBS. Simply put, I felt it was my turn to step up and serve our shul. Hopefully, I will not disappoint you or the legacy of my predecessors.

I look forward to working with a complete slate of Directors, which has not happened for the last few years. I will be ably assisted by our Executive Committee consisting of Immediate Past President Joyce Gandelman, Vice-President Anthony Gonsalves, Treasurer Liz Trauring, and Secretary Pat Hall. Next time you see one of them, please take a moment and thank them for their service to our congregation.

B'shalom,

Religious School News

To all of our congregants:

I hope all of you are having a wonderful summer together with your families. As of July 1st, I have volunteered to become the chairperson of the Religious Education Committee. We are in the process of re-organizing our Religious School program because of budgetary issues. We can no longer afford a Principal to handle the administrative responsibilities of our program, so the Religious Education Committee has taken over those responsibilities. As you will read in our President's message, we want to thank Todd Aaronson for all of the time and effort he has put in over the last two years as Religious School Director.

Many positive changes have occurred over the last two years, and the students are learning in a warm and caring environment. It is our hope that this will continue under our direction, with the help of our "lead" teacher, Nir Vegvizer, and our other very competent teaching staff. We are thrilled to have David Herrera as an assistant/tutor for our Thursday Hebrew School.

If you do not receive a Religious School registration packet by the end of the first week in July, please call the Office to request one. Although there is no tuition for our parent participation preschool, we will be requiring students to register, so that all emergency information is on file. Please let anyone you know with children under kindergarten age that this program is available, whether members or not. Also encourage any families with school age children that our Religious School program is a wonderful, enriching, and fun way to interact with our Jewish community. The 10th grade confirmands will be expanding their preparation and our confirmation service in June will be a wonderful simcha for all congregants to attend!

There will be some minor changes in our program, which those of you who receive a Religious School packet will review. The most important of which is that Religious School will begin on Sunday, August 15th this year, following the regular school year start dates.

If anyone has any questions please don't hesitate to call me, or any member of our Religious Education Committee:

Thank you in advance to all our committee members for their time and dedication to making our Religious School program a success!

Remember, half of every subscription to J- will go to Congregation Beth Shalom.  See your Bulletin for details.