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PRESIDENT’S COLUMN
by Jeff Jackson
What’s in a name? When Beth Tikvah was established way back when, it was given the name Beth Tikvah, House of Hope rather than House of (choose one of) Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, David, Truth, Prayer, etc. Granted, many of these names were already taken by other synagogues in Toronto, but I believe that our founding members truly looked at Beth Tikvah as being their House of Hope. Among the many definitions listed in the dictionary for “hope,” is the verb meaning “to look forward to with desire and reasonable confidence”. The founding members had the expectation that Beth Tikvah would be a success and through their hard work and effort they made it so.
When I was thinking about this month’s article, I happened to read about Ehrich Weiss who is better known as Harry Houdini and whose father incidentally was a Rabbi. Houdini, you will recall was the famous magician who always managed to escape from handcuffs and shackles, or from behind bars or when confined to various sizes of boxes, or when buried or under water. No matter how difficult the situation, Houdini always managed to succeed and to delight his audiences. It struck me that in many ways Beth Tikvah is much like Houdini. Like his audiences, we start out hoping for success. Each program or event that we tackle at Beth Tikvah requires much effort but we do achieve that success. We build upon those successes by taking on harder and more difficult projects. We ultimately achieve our successes through the confidence that we had in the endeavour. However, there does come a point where the act seems old or where the audience changes in their interests. Houdini experienced this phenomenon in the later part of his life.
Over the past several years, your Board has been working to avoid the problem of the old and familiar. Significant efforts have been taken to further develop our Youth and Young Family programming to attract and retain younger members. Our fundraising efforts will ensure that we can maintain these programs. Renovations have refreshed our sanctuary, social hall, main foyer and office area. Continuation of our fundraising will also allow us to renew our entrance way and to build a new Boardroom downstairs. We have commenced a search for an Assistant Rabbi. We are confident that these efforts will result in the renewal and the continuation of the hope that is Beth Tikvah.
While we are making great progress we are also experiencing lower levels of volunteerism compared to the past. Beth Tikvah was built upon volunteerism. Our volunteers supplement our professional staff, they develop and implement our programs, assist in the administration of the Synagogue and help to lead our prayer services. We need more volunteers and we especially need new volunteers. Without sufficient assistance on our various committees, programming, fundraising and prayer services we could become the House of Hope Against Hope which that same dictionary defines as “to continue to hope, although the outlook does not warrant it”. It does not take much to be a volunteer, just a willingness to be involved and to commit some time. I appreciate that it is difficult to do so these days with our long commutes, family scheduling and vast number of ways to occupy our time but Beth Tikvah cannot continue to grow and prosper without a renewed sense of volunteerism. Our hope starts with you. Like Houdini we can bounce back and amaze. Please help.
*** Last Updated 2008/11/03 ***
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