Dear Friends, 

Thank you for your incredible dedication to Temple Beth-El. We are deeply grateful that our community is passionately committed to creating a robust life within our synagogue for the future. We stand on the shoulders of the generations of congregants who came before us, who built and sustained this community for nearly 100 years. Together, we have enabled Temple Beth-El of Great Neck to be the warm, close-knit and inclusive Reform community we are today.

With a strong sense of duty to our proud history, your elected leadership at Temple Beth-El recently began a process to envision our congregation’s future and the role we can play in helping shape the future of pluralistic Judaism in our area. This important work is being led by an incredible team of volunteers, many of whom, like many of you, grew up in Temple Beth-El and/or raised their own families here.

Our vision is for Temple Beth-El to remain a vibrant center of Reform Jewish life in Great Neck for many years to come. 

Your voice in this process is critical. This is your spiritual home and your community’s future. On Monday, May 13, at 7 p.m., we will hold a congregational forum to share what we are working on and to hear your feedback. We hope you will make every effort to attend.

As we prepare to write this next chapter of our exciting story, we know we must proactively address the impact of the shifting demographics in our area. This includes analyzing our annual budget, examining our current building usage along with the amount of space necessary for a congregation of our size and exploring potential partnerships with other local Jewish institutions to ensure that we can thrive for the long-term. In the coming weeks and months, our congregation will have opportunities to get to know our potential partners in worship, educational and social settings, and we encourage you to attend these events. Please watch your email for further information. 

As the visioning process moves forward, we will continue to keep you informed. We have created a new Visioning Updates section on our Temple Beth-El website to share information in real time. Information about our committee, our research and more can be found there. We invite you to check it out here: Visioning Updates page.

Our strength comes from our community working together to meet the challenges of today and identifying the opportunities to build a stronger and greater Jewish community.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to us at visioning@tbegreatneck.org.

Thank you again for choosing Temple Beth-El as your spiritual home. 

L’shalom,

Gary Slobin, President

Jordana Levine, Executive Vice President