May 25, 2022
Dear Temple Aliyah and Shomrei Torah Synagogue Family,
Nearly two years ago, we shared discussions about our communities, Temple Aliyah (“Aliyah”) and Shomrei Torah Synagogue (“STS”), joining together to create a single community. We used the Hebrew word “Chadash” (new) to reflect a new vision of Jewish community. We spent many months working with consultants and during the last year have worked successfully to bring many programs together to enjoy greater success.
The goal has always been to leverage our finances and synergies to bring benefit to both communities.
- This past year we successfully brought our religious schools together providing greater options for learning for our children.
- Recently, we opened The Nook, a joint Infant Care Center housed at STS. Enrollment is close to 100% of capacity, which far exceeded our expectations and demonstrated our success in offering something new to the community beyond our two synagogues.
- As we look to the future, our synagogues are finalizing arrangements to bring our youth groups together. We will be jointly hiring a Youth Director, whose responsibilities will include outreach to middle school and high school students currently uninvolved in our youth activities, as well as outreach to our post-high school students.
- Six adults from Aliyah and STS studied together with clergy from both of our synagogues and recently became B’nai Mitzvah. We held joint services at STS on Friday evening and Aliyah on Shabbat morning, with students and community celebrating together.
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As we have for the many years, we continued to worship together on Passover and other holidays, as well as coming together for programs on Yom HaShoah and Yom Hazikaron, and learning on Shavuot.
We are very proud of these achievements.
The Aliyah/STS Joint Task Force (“JTF”) has made significant progress over the past few months. In meetings facilitated by La Piana Consulting, they have discussed the reasons for coming together, addressed the tough questions of what further integration would look like, including initial recommendations for the facilities, what staff functions are critical to the combined entity, the future roles of our Senior Rabbis, as well as establishing a high-level timeline for moving forward.
Last night, each community’s representatives of the JTF presented the same set of recommendations to their respective Boards of Directors. These recommendations include the following:
- Fully integrating STS and Aliyah to create the foundation for a vibrant, enduring presence in the West Valley.
- Engaging both Rabbi Vogel and Rabbi Camras as co-Senior Rabbis for the foreseeable future.
- A single campus for the integrated community, with STS being the recommended campus, based on the size of its property, its existing buildings, zoning, and opportunities for growth.
Each community’s Board of Directors discussed the recommendations and the rationales behind them and will continue doing so over the next two weeks. On June 9, 2022, each Board will vote on whether to accept the recommendations and continue moving forward with an integration plan.
From the very beginning we conveyed to you that there is no playbook for what Aliyah and STS are attempting to do, and we avoided using the term “merger,” because it implied a scenario where one synagogue is stronger than the other. Rather, we were envisioning a future of a vibrant Jewish community in the West Valley by joining our two synagogues, each of which has its own unique strengths that complement the other.
Two things have changed during the last year. First, we have learned that trying to create a new vision for Jewish life is very difficult when dealing with two synagogues, with different cultures and budgets. It became clear that we really do need to first address the joining of our communities (what people will call a merger) before we can dream about the future. Second, the pandemic has financially impacted our communities quicker than we ever could have imagined. Like many other synagogues across the country, with a trend of declining membership and declining revenues, we are faced with the reality that our synagogue cannot continue to function as it has in the past. Integrating our communities would allow us to share the resources of both synagogues and support future operations.
What are the next steps?
If both Boards approve moving forward with integration, they will engage neutral legal counsel to conduct a due diligence review and make a recommendation as to the specific legal structure for the integration. With the help of third-party consultants, the JTF has been engaged in financial modeling, and will continue to do so throughout the process. This modeling will assist us in making decisions that support financial sustainability.
Similar to the initial phases of our Chadash discussions, we anticipate bringing together staff, board members and congregants in smaller groups. This process has not been fully determined, but would include the goal of carrying forward the rich traditions and histories of both of our communities, in addition to working through the logistics of integration.
We wanted to share this information with you, as much has changed since we began this journey of re-envisioning Jewish life in the West Valley. And we want to hear what you think as we approach these significant decisions about our future. You can share your thoughts and ask questions by emailing Leah Kuluva at [email protected], Debbie Strom at [email protected] or at Chadash Feedback.
We look forward to your comments.
L’Shalom,
