Letters from Our Leaders

Rabbi Ari Averbach rabbiaverbach@templeetzchaim.org

For the past eight months, we have been “making do” in our temporary dwellings. With the overwhelming success of our capital campaign, the building where I used to spend most of my time has been under renovation.

From the pictures, it looks like it is coming along beautifully, to open in just a few days. I am grateful that Rabbi Spiegel is allowing me to use his office, to sit at his desk, to learn from his books, and to eat the candy he has stashed in his drawers!

I am aware of how these past several months have impacted our community. Some have a difficult time finding parking, others don’t feel quite comfortable in our interim prayer space. (Although we have been getting a wonderful turnout at services recently!)

But most of all, I am aware of the incredible work of our maintenance staff. Ricardo and his team seem to be working around the clock to set-up and break-down our limited space.

On a typical day, the Wolfson Auditorium is turned over from an adult-ed classroom to a preschool song area to a gymnastics studio to a sacred prayer space and dessert hall. In the blink of an eye, the coffee maker is gone, tables and chairs go in and out with swift ease, the orientation is turned on its axis.

The constant work of making our sanctuary, chapel, social hall and offices look beautiful and refreshed will all be worth it. But when you see our indefatigable maintenance crew, make sure to thank them for the behind-the-scenes work they are doing to keep us afloat with the Wolfson Auditorium as our only place of communal gathering.