I am Dan Sperling and I am humbled and privileged to be serving as the current president of Congregation B’nai Moshe in this, its hundred and first year. As many of you know, my father was president of this congregation just prior to our immediate past president Kerry Greenhut. (I guess that makes me George W. to my dad’s George H.W.! Hopefully, that’s where THAT comparison ends!)

I’ve taken the reigns of the presidency on the heels of some very exciting times here at B’nai Moshe. We’ve just wrapped up celebrating our 100th anniversary year with multiple dinners, dances, and events. I want to take one last opportunity here to recognize and thank our 100th anniversary “Past, Present, and Future” honorees – Renee Gunsberg, Joel Ungar, Gabe Pachter, Hannah Fine, and my daughter Jenna Sperling. Thanks to each of you for everything you’ve given and continue to give to the Shul… and thank you for allowing us to honor you and celebrate your contributions. With your help, and with the generosity of our entire membership, we managed to raise roughly $75,000 for our congregation. Thank you to everyone that donated to our celebration book, bought a brick at our west entrance, or simply attended one of our events. The year-long celebration was a huge success!... planning has already started for our 200th year celebration!.. stay tuned!

On a more serious note… over the past year, as I was preparing to become president and then, more recently, preparing this talk, I’ve been asking myself one question over and over again… WHY? No… not how you think! Not in a “second thoughts” kind of way. Rather… WHY does B’nai Moshe matter? WHY should I take on this responsibility now? – at a time when the demands on me at work are greater than they’ve ever been. WHY should I want and expect you to listen to me when I ask for your participation, your involvement, and your money? It’s NOT an easy question to answer!

I’m not going to pretend I know how YOU would answer that question. Rather, I’d like to spend a few minutes sharing MY thoughts with you. In a nutshell… it’s because I believe that being Jewish MATTERS… It’s IMPORTANT… and connecting with your synagogue is the best way to preserve it.

First, some background on me…

Frankly, I didn’t grow up in a terribly religious home. I DID attend 5 years of United Hebrew Schools and was Bar Mitzvah’d at Beth Achim in Southfield, but attending Shabbat Services was only something I needed to do for one year as a pre-requisite for completing my Bar Mitzvah. We definitely lit the Chanukah candles each year and attended shul on the high holidays… but Friday night Shabbat dinners and keeping kosher were something only the “religious” families did. It was pretty foreign to me. Not that we were so unique, I don’t think!... In fact, I think it was probably pretty normal. It’s just the way I grew up.

Then, when Lisa and I got married, we were (for the most part) “unaffiliated”. We had a year free membership to both Beth Achim (where my parents still belonged) and Temple Beth El (where we were actually married), but we lived in Ann Arbor at the time and so attended the occasional Shabbat service at Beth Israel Congregation. We celebrated the major holidays with our families and had my parents get us High Holiday tickets at Beth Achim. Beyond that, the synagogue didn’t really play a big role in our lives. That all changed, however, sometime in early 1998… when our son Josh was getting ready to turn 5 and we started “shul shopping” to look for a religious school kindergarten.

I know you’ve heard this part of the story many times before… we visited all the local conservative congregations and easily fell in love with the child friendly, hamisha feel at B’nai Moshe. (Believe it or not, my 6 foot tall son was once one of those cute little kids running up on the bima during Adon Olam to say hello to the Rabbi… and Jenna, who was named right here in this spot by Rabbi Pachter almost 16 years ago, was one of those little babies gingerly learning how to crawl up these steps.) We joined at that time and have been active members ever since!

You see, Lisa and I felt very strongly that we wanted our kids to grow up as observant, “proudly Jewish” kids. We believe that to preserve our religion, we must ensure that our kids are at least as observant, if not more, than we are. Otherwise, within a generation or two, this Jewish religion that we love… will be unrecognizable to us. So, to help protect our religion, we not only joined and became active in B’nai Moshe, but we turned our home into a kosher home, we began sharing formal Shabbat dinners with our friends and family, and became Shabbat morning regulars sitting right over there in the “right wing”.

Of course, we’ve been far from perfect… As the kids have gotten busier, our Shabbat dinners have become a bit less frequent. So too had our Shabbat morning attendance (at least until I moved my seat up here). But one thing that has only strengthened over these past 16 years is our connection with this Shul and the Jewish foundation that it represents.

This topic is especially important for Lisa and me at this time because, as many of you read in my most recent bulletin column, our son Josh started his freshman year at the University of Michigan last month. Our time to help him build his Jewish identity is mostly gone. It’s up to him to take what we’ve given him and determine what being Jewish means to him. I’m confident, though, that his connection with Judiasm and B’nai Moshe will point him in the right direction.

There are some other examples of what a connection to B’nai Moshe can mean that you may not be aware of. I witnessed one of the more moving and heartwarming examples of this early this past spring when long-time member Ilona Goldman passed away. She had outlived her husband, Simon, and her son, Michael… with her remaining family of nieces, nephews, and cousins residing mostly in Israel. With no other family in the local area, her dear friends, Lori and Bruce Epstein were kind enough to open up their home for Shiva following the funeral. It was quite a wonderful site when I went there to attend services that evening and found a house FULL of B’nai Moshe people. Ilona FAR from passed away alone… she was surrounded by and will be remembered by her B’nai Moshe family.

Another wonderful example of this kind of connection actually lies ahead of us… as the members of Beit Kodesh close their doors after more than 50 years in Livonia and come to join our B’nai Moshe family. They too have done a round of Shul shopping, of sorts… and after visiting and talking to a number of Shuls in the area, picked us as the most welcoming and the most similar to their small, friendly congregation. This is a connection story that is only beginning, but that we expect will go on for another 100 and 50 years and longer. Please be sure to “connect” with these new members as they begin joining us after Simchas Torah.

Speaking of new members, we’ve had a number of families connect with B’nai Moshe as part of our new member promotions this year and last. (Last year, we offered a new member promotion of $100 for the first year in honor of our 100th anniversary. This year, it was revamped into a $180 promotion and has been very popular once again.) Truthfully, this idea was rather controversial when it first started coming up at board meetings. After all, what’s to stop these deeply discounted members from attending one year of high-holiday services here and then moving on? The answer is simple… CONNECTIONS!... Connecting with you, with me, with the Rabbi, the Cantor, with our synagogue. I’ve long been a believer that “if you try us… you’ll love us”! Of the 29 families that took advantage of the offer last year, 22 of them rejoined us this year. It’s working! It’s working because we have something special here that people connect with. They’d rather spend these days of awe here with us than somewhere else! So, be sure to “connect” with the people sitting around you… whether you already know them or not. It’s these connections that will help convince the 21 families and individuals that have taken advantage of THIS year’s membership promotion to come back next year as well.

So now the last piece… I wouldn’t want to disappoint you by closing out a President’s Kol Nidre address without bringing up money. What I’m NOT going to do is list all the things that begin to need repair in a building this old… or all the unplanned expenses we’ve had in the past year… or even how hard we’ve worked to control our expenses and reduce our budget. Rather, I’d like to explain that I wish I didn’t have to ask you for money… I wish that we had as a member a wealthy “white knight” that underwrote everything we needed… or that our regular dues covered all the costs of running this place… but I can’t tell you those things. All I can say is PLEASE, if you haven’t already, please contact the office after the holidays and make your annual campaign donation. Help ensure that your kids or grandkids can continue to connect with their friends and their religion via B’nai Moshe… BIG CLOSE!

Shabbat Shalom v’ Gemar Chatimah Tovah

May you all be inscribed in the book of life.