Alec Harris, President – June 3, 2022

“First, welcome. Thank you all for being here, in person and on-line. Thank you for all you do to support Sinai.

I’d like to say a few words about our outgoing President and Sinai Board members and officers. This past year has been challenging to be sure and certainly not the year you thought you’d be signing up for. You have all worked thoughtfully, putting in hours and hours wrestling with the most difficult decision any congregation’s Board could ever make. 

Alison, the sacrifices of time and emotion that you personally have put into this community have been awe-inspiring. I know this past year has been difficult, and yet you’ve stepped up with grace, poise, and resolve. Your family has been understanding as you’ve engaged with countless members and staff, attended hundreds of meetings, and borne the weight of the past year. We are all moved and quite grateful for your dedication to Sinai. On behalf of our congregation, please accept these candlesticks as a gift from all of us to you. May the candles you light bring warmth to your home, bright light to your family, and Shabbat peace.

Rabbi Greene and Rabbi Zinn, thank you as well for your dedication to Sinai, to this beloved and diverse community. Rabbi Zinn, we will be celebrating your time at Sinai a little bit later this evening, and I’m so appreciative of your willingness to continue to be present in the days ahead. We plan to welcome you back from time to time—including for the High Holy Days—and for that I’m deeply appreciative.

Rabbi Greene, it has been a blessing to know you during these past seven years at Sinai. When you started, you were newly ordained. You have grown into an experienced and dedicated professional. I have witnessed first-hand your warmth, your intelligence, and your care. You are thoughtful and observant and have not been afraid to do the hard work of holding Chicago Sinai together—and of holding lay leaders accountable when we make mistakes. You have superhuman pastoral gifts, and I look forward to working with you over this coming programmatic year. You have put our Sinai community first, ahead of yourself, during a very difficult time. Thank you. 

Jan Kaufman, you keep the trains running on time, always calmly as our Executive Director. I’m so grateful as well for the rest of our professional staff: Scott Kumer as Music Director, Toby Pechner as song leader, and Fern Katz as Preschool Director.

And I also need to acknowledge Rabbi Limmer, who was our Senior Rabbi for eight years until one month ago. So much happened during his tenure: a deepened commitment to social justice, a robust intellectual rigor to teaching, and strengthened ties to our broader Reform movement through his work at the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, at our Biennial, with the broader Chicago religious community, and more. 

We can acknowledge these accomplishments even as we work through the pain posed by the difficulties of these past months.

I respect the Board’s decision—a heart-wrenching decision I both witnessed, participated in, and supported. 

It is an honor to stand before you today as the incoming President of Chicago Sinai Congregation, for a second time. Who am I? I’m a father of two young adults. My daughter Lindy graduated NYU in May. Her major concentration was “Narratives of Mental Difference: The Experience of Suffering and the Healing Nature of Art.” My son Gabriel graduated from Tulane one year ago, as a finance and computer science double major. His company is moving him into Manhattan next month. 

I run my family business, a music publishing company called GIA Publications, with seventy-five employees, that is my real full-time job. I’m in an interfaith marriage…my wife Carollina and I have been married for twenty-eight years. I’m the child of a Holocaust survivor; my mother has an understandably fraught relationship with organized religion. 

Carollina also has a fraud relationship, but I doubt I would be here if not for her. She asked me early in our relationship if I cared whether our children had a religious upbringing. I said yes, and it should be Judaism. She encouraged that choice but challenged me to engage and learn more and be responsible since I was the Jewish partner. 

I agreed and that set me on a path. In addition to being a past president at Sinai, I serve on the Board of Advisors of Hebrew Union College—the seminary of the Reform movement, and I serve on the North American Board of our movement, the Union for Reform Judaism. I was a Vice Chair of the Board for two years, and for the past two years I’ve had the honor as serving as co-Treasurer of the URJ. Through this work I have developed deep friendships with many in our movement. As you can see, I’m a bit of a workaholic and I like to get things done. But I also can’t do it alone. I know and value collaboration and inclusiveness. And I plan to spend a great deal of time simply listening. 

My first term as Sinai’s president ended fifteen years ago. We were just about to open our new building addition, we were about to hire our first Assistant rabbi, and we were in a growth mentality. But as much as we have changed since then, some things never have: Our desire to focus on member engagement and to double down on our core values: commitment to social justice, interfaith inclusion, and a progressive vision of Reform Judaism that at the time still felt like an outlier within the broader Movement. We had our challenges as well. We had sunk into some complacency. We had the challenge of how to best articulate our values to a new generation of Sinai members. But our vision then is what guides us today. Sinai has been and will continue to be a beacon for our community and for our movement. 

And Sinai is also a place where many of us have made deep and lifelong friendships with others who share our core values. We make friends who care for one another and who strive for a better world. Our friendships are deeper because together we bring a shared purpose and meaning to our endeavors.

It is my dream to take full advantage as a congregation of the opportunities that are presented to us. We need to heal. We need community. We need to build a future for ourselves, together. Neither our clergy, nor our Board, nor I, can do this alone. We need to revitalize many of the committees that have been less active, and rejuvenate our work with a sense of purpose and mission. Many members have approached me recently and have told me they want to be more involved. Well, there is no shortage of important work to get done.

We have experienced the impact of covid—when many have moved away from the city. Our finances need to be stabilized. Our adult programs, preschool, religious school, and music programs are an amazing part of the fabric of this community, and each needs our full energy and support. 

When congregations go through significant transition, it is considered best practice to welcome an Interim Rabbi to help us. 

A couple of weeks ago, we were at the beginning of discerning next steps, it was clear that we were late in a search, and I was worried. I had heard that no interim rabbi would be better than an ineffective one. But so many wonderful rabbis have been in touch and offered support. I’m confident we will be announcing our interim rabbi—or rabbis—very soon. 

Together with Rabbi Greene, our interim will help us to understand how to go about the work of rebuilding our community, and also together with all of you help us discern the qualities we want in a future Senior Rabbi. I’m excited that we will have the opportunity to benefit from their decades of experience and from their mentorship. I see an exciting path forward for us. I’m committed to helping us to get there. As I said, I can’t do this alone, as much of a workaholic as I am. But I know this amazing community as well stands ready, and we together can roll up our sleeves and get the hard work done. Nothing excites me more.

Thank you again for coming and I think I will call for a motion to adjourn this meeting.”

 

Please Note: You may watch the recording of the Annual Meeting below, the password to access this video can be found in the This Week at Sinai email.