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Dear Shir Tikvah,
My name is Abbie (she/her) and I’m honored to be writing my first presidential message to this community.
A little bit about me - I grew up in New Jersey in the Reconstructionist movement in an 80 family congregation where everyone had a key. The first one there turned up the heat and on the coffee. I moved to Minnesota to go to college and fell in love with the progressive politics, the bodies of water, and the bike paths and made Minneapolis my permanent home. We (spouse Joe Mitchell, baby Gabriel, and dog Julian) live in the Cedar Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis.
I got connected to Shir Tikvah through Jewish Community Action when Dave Synder, Rabbi Arielle, and I were organizing with the Poor People’s Campaign. At the same time, I was in social work school and met MJ who invited me to join a committee at Shir Tikvah and … the rest is history? I joined the Board of Trustees 3 years ago and have served as the Secretary and Vice President of the Board. Now, when I introduce myself as a community organizer turned clinical social worker, you all know how Shir Tikvah weaves through and around those stories in a very intimate way.
At Shir Tikvah I have found family, meaning, purpose, connection, and struggle. I have wrestled with many of you about the big decisions that we have faced as a congregation in the past three years. I’ve gotten married and had a baby during my time in leadership at Shir Tikvah too, attended shivas, graduations, and countless shabbatot where I’ve davvened in person and online. I could not do what I do in the world if I didn’t have Jewish tradition and this community holding me with time and tradition, nurturing and challenging me, and making me laugh.
My hopes for the year - I am so inspired by Rabbi Arielle and Jess’ vision of enlivening Shir Tikvah with purpose in our 36th year with our 5 kavanot that Rabbi Arielle shared at the Annual Meeting. I am excited to lead the Board to engage with and support this vision. Continuing in the leadership legacy of Amy Funk and Ben Goldfarb is formidable and I am glad to be able to lean on them as friends and mentors as I make this transition. To be honest, I’ve never done this whole president thing before and I know I won’t do it perfectly. But here are my commitments to you and to us:
- Transparency: Starting now, we will be posting the Board of Trustees agenda and a follow up summary of our meetings in the e-News and on the Shir Tikvah website. We’re going to be honest and upfront about raising our budget, where we are with finances throughout the year, and how you can help. Additionally, when I make mistakes, I’ll come back to the community with humility and accountability.
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Weaving: I am committed to weaving our community closer together. I want to support Great Gatherings, continue to clarify our committee structure and leadership development, amplify our multimodal context, support our havurot, and connect members to each other in small and large ways. I want everyone to be able to bring their gifts to Shir Tikvah and to feel a sense of belonging, connection, and purpose at our kehilla kedosha.
- Curiosity and compassion: I will approach Board meetings, congregational gatherings. and communications with curiosity and compassion. Guided by our Core Commitments about Israel/Palestine, I will approach disagreement with openness. I’ll want to get to know your kid, dog, job, mom, and special interests and hobby! I’ll also be attending to Shir Tikvah in the hard times with compassion as we face an election season, continued heartbreaking violence in Israel and Gaza, and the ups and downs of our daily lives.
- Fun: Let’s not take ourselves tooooo seriously! After all, our tradition asks us to turn the world upside down at least every Purim. Let’s have fun together creating and living in the community we want and need.
- Shleimut/Wholeness: I will bring my whole self to this work, and I hope that you will bring your family, your questions, your hopes, your contributions, and your voice to our practice of being in community together.
Stay tuned for an invitation for a gathering to meet me and launch this year~
Abbie Shain (she/her)
President, Shir Tikvah Board of Trustees
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