Welcome to Temple Beth Shalom!
***Non-members who wish to attend High Holy Day services at Temple Beth Shalom***
You can purchase guest tickets. To request tickets, please contact Amy McCormick, ticket coordinator, at e-mail: membership@tbshudson.org. In your e-mail, please leave your full name (first and last) as well as your phone number and best contact e-mail so Amy can get back to you.
Temple Beth Shalom is a dynamic congregation of about 100 families, under the leadership of Rabbi Michael Ross. Known as the Synagogue of the Western Reserve, we are a Reform Jewish congregation, affiliated with the national organizations of that movement.
Although the Temple has grown over the years, it endeavors to maintain a warm and welcoming atmosphere. Please come join us so we can share who we are today and our vision for the future.
The Temple is located in a beautiful, historic building at 50 Division Street in Hudson. Friday night services are held twice a month at 7:30 p.m. For a schedule of services and other activities, see our Calendar page.
Address: 50 Division Street, Hudson, OH 44236
P.O. Box 2230, Hudson, OH 44236
330-656-1800, Please Note: there is no on-site staff and there may be a delay in retrieving and returning messages left at this number.
Office hours vary; please email for appointment.
Rabbi: rabbimichaelross@gmail.com
Education Director: education@tbshudson.org
President: president@tbshudson.org
Membership: membership@tbshudson.org
Accounting: accounting@tbshudson.org
e-Megillah
October 31, 2024
Issue #690
Letter from Rabbi Ross
Dear TBS Friends and Family,
This Saturday we start our Adult Bnai mitzvah sessions, Prayer Essentials, before Torah Study at 9 a.m. (Details are below.) Each session is independent and can be attended separately or together with the others. Torah Study and bagel brunch will move to 9:45 – 11:00, with a short prayer service to follow. Join us for these wonderful gatherings.
I am looking forward to seeing many of you this Saturday!
Election Thoughts
On this Shabbat before election day, I have two pieces of election advice:
1 – It’s a mitzvah to vote: it’s an obligation, a spiritual commandment. It’s not optional. Too much is at stake this year. Vote.
2 – I can’t tell you who to vote for, but I encourage all of us to use the Jewish values we studied together at the High Holidays to guide our selections: we focused on compassion for self and for others, we focused on lifting the voices of Israelis to understand the world from their perspective, we explored the sense of Jewish peoplehood that has emerged the past year, we explored our sense of awe and love of nature as we deepen our relationship with the natural world, we lifted up the voices of women, like Hannah and Hagar, as we pay attention to the role of hearing the voices of women, we experienced holiness in community, we explored humility in speech
So here are the Jewish values to take into the ballot box with you:
– Chesed – loving kindness or compassion
– Ahavat Yisrael – love of the people of Israel
– Amiut – Jewish peoplehood
– Shalom – peace, wholeness equality
– Tikkun Olam – Repairing the World
– Kehillah – community
– Anavah – humility
Exciting News – TBS’ Adult B’nai Mitzvah Class Starting this fall!
Have you wanted to transform your adult understanding of Judaism into a meaningful ritual? We are forming an adult b’nai mitzvah class this fall. We will spend the next 18 months studying together. Each student will read from the Torah, lead part of a group prayer service, and deliver a D’var Torah.
Rabbi Michael Ross and Jean Beasley will be the instructors. Costs will be determined by enrollment.
CLASSES:
– Jewish Prayer Essentials – structure & meaning of prayers (Fall ’24: Saturday mornings before Torah Study, from 9:00 – 9:45 am)
– Making Prayer Real – the art of prayer (Spring ’25, Saturdays before Torah Study, from 9:00 – 9:45 am)
– Basic Hebrew (Winter and Spring ’25, class time to be determined)
– Torah Reading & Chanting (Fall ’25)
– Spiritual Autobiography writing (Fall ’25 or Spring ’26)
Zoom link for Torah Study Classes:
This is the same link for each class. TORAH STUDY LINK
Meeting ID: 844 3145 6155. Please contact the temple or join our Facebook group for the passcode.
From the President
In case you did not attend the adult High Holiday services, I took the opportunity to introduce our TBS Legacy Fund Drive. Please know, raising money at the holidays, which is normal for many temples, is not normal for us. In fact, our last major fundraiser was twenty years ago, when we bought our building.
The most immediate reason for this drive now is that our mortgage is due early next year. We need to either pay the roughly $80,000 balloon payment or re-negotiate new terms at a higher interest rate than before. Your board would like nothing more than to pay it off.
The goals and the plan we passed out over the holidays follow this letter. We have formed a fund-raising committee, with initial names and emails included at the bottom of the plan. If you have questions or would like to join our committee, please feel free to contact one of us.
In the coming weeks we will be reaching out to each of you to offer you the mitzvah of contributing. I will keep you up to date here as we go along in our attempt to reach our goal.
Hey, we can do this! We can both ensure our Jewish presence here in the Western Reserve as well as cement our legacy through permanent ownership of the building we love.
Thank you to all who have already pledged and to everyone else, please join us.
And a sweet year to all.
Larry Terkel
Announcing the TBS Legacy Fund Drive
As members of Temple Beth Shalom, we have a unique opportunity to insure the legacy of our temple here in the Western Reserve. While we are a religious minority in our area, TBS stands as a shining example of the survival of the Jewish people and the role Judaism offers to a challenging world. That TBS is here, that we have survived for decades, that we have grown when other temples have struggled or, proves that we offer a meaningful contribution to our society and culture.
And now, we can ensure that legacy in a number of ways:
• The most immediate and visible way is to pay off and burn our mortgage. We are faced with a balloon payment, due early next year, in an environment of higher interest rates than we had before. Hey, let’s just pay it off! Let’s truly own our historic and loveable building here in Hudson, and let’s never let anyone take it away!
• But let’s not stop there. We know our building needs tender-loving care so let’s build a legacy fund that insures that care. Whether we need a new roof, fresh paint, a new boiler or unforeseen repairs, let’s make sure we have the means to handle it.
• Not only that, instead of paying interest we’ll be making interest, which will really help our bottom line.
• Also, let’s be clear about two principles TBS has held firm. One is that unlike almost every other temple we know, TBS has never imposed a building fund. In many temples that cost can be as much as their dues. For many that has been an attractive incentive to join TBS, so let’s try to keep it that way!
• The other principle is we do not turn people away who can’t afford our full dues. Everyone, and we mean everyone, is welcome to seek solace, spirit, community and peace within our doors so let’s pass that on to future generations.
• Finally, we have never been a temple constantly pushing fund-raising campaigns. Unlike some temples, where there is on-going pressure, this is our first capital campaign in 20 years. (That’s when we raised the money to buy the building.) Yes, we know many of you have responded to our suggestion to voluntarily add a donation to your dues. Those donations have helped us balance our budgets and to help fund those who can’t afford to pay our full dues. Let’s do this so we can try and keep the pressure low for the next 20 years as well.
What is our goal and how can we reach it?
Your board has set a goal of $200,000. That will pay off our approximately $80,000 mortgage and give us about a full year of revenue to have in reserve, a number we feel will insure our future for the next 20 years.
We are asking everyone able to first consider donating the equivalent of one year’s dues. (Note: we did not raise dues or school fees this year.) The problem is that will not even get us halfway to our goal. So, we are asking those with available resources to dig deeper. To those of you already planning on leaving a legacy to your future generations, we are asking you to make this contribution part of that legacy. You will be insuring a Jewish presence here for future generations as well. That is why we are calling it the TBS Legacy Fund.
We are also asking for volunteers to join our Legacy Fund-Raising Committee. You will not have to apply pressure to anyone. We simply want to make sure everyone has the opportunity to participate in this mitzvah. All contributions, no matter how small, will be greatly appreciated and acknowledged. Please direct your questions to any of our board members:
Larry Terkel Larry @ LarryTerkel.com 330-714-6346
Wendy Hess wendykhess @ hotmail.com 330-666-1944
Laurie Frankino lfrankino @ gmail.com 330-620-2020
Mark Schildhouse markschildhouse @ gmail.com 330-342-1146
You can view upcoming services and events on the Calendar page:
CALENDAR PAGE
Donations to support Israel can be made at
Cleveland Federation:
Temple Beth Shalom can now use Zeffy for donations, membership dues or other payments. On the Dues/Fees/Donations tab on tbshudson.org is the option Zeffy, which works like PayPal except Temple Beth Shalom does not pay a fee.
Dues/Fees/Donations Link
