ATID – The Campaign for our Future
t was a defining moment for Temple Beth Ami when, in September 1998, just days before Rosh Hashanah, we carried our Torahs as a community from Hurley Avenue to our new home on Travilah Road.
Together, we affixed the mezuzah to the doorway and lit the Ner Tamid (Eternal Light). It was extraordinary — a challenge met and a vision realized. Since then, we have celebrated many firsts in a home that embodies our congregation’s vitality, spirit and strength. Within its spaces, we have worshiped, studied, rejoiced and mourned. We have nurtured our children, enriched our Jewish lives, and organized to help those in need locally and around the world.
Our congregation stands at another such defining moment today, and we must once again act with the same purpose and determination. Because our $4 million mortgage has a balloon payment due in 2014, our Temple leadership is asking the Temple Beth Ami community to join together in a campaign to retire or substantially reduce the existing mortgage. Because of the positive impact on our community’s future we have named it The Atid (Future) Campaign.
The Atid Campaign will ask for participation from our entire Temple community. Broad-based support enabled us to succeed in past fundraising campaigns. Broad participation again will make this effort truly successful. Through our work together, Temple Beth Ami can save more than $336,000 annually, helping us to build a future in which our resources remain within the congregation, in which the cost of membership and programs is moderated, and in which the quality of congregational life, in all its aspects, will be enhanced for all our members, for many years to come.
We take great pride in all that has been accomplished within the walls of our congregational home. Our active membership, devoted clergy and staff, and dedicated lay leaders have crafted a model for contemporary congregational life and an inclusive and pluralistic mission, one eagerly replicated by congregations locally and nationally.
We have a unique opportunity to ensure our congregation’s financial stability, gain control over the cost of Temple life for our members, and provide us with necessary resources to meet the needs and interests of our diverse congregation. As we have in the past, let us seize this opportunity and meet our challenge.
Please join your fellow congregants to ensure a strong and vibrant future for Temple Beth Ami!
