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About Us
OUR BUILDING PROJECT
by Dennis J. LeVine
The Board and Leadership of Rodeph Sholom are committed to maintaining our home—the Synagogue building. Our Synagogue building is 38 years old, and like any other structure it requires periodic maintenance. This maintenance has been put off for some time, resulting in a leaking roof and inadequate air conditioning among other problems. We cannot delay this work any longer. The Board has a plan to do something about this, and we will accomplish this plan! The plans for the building are divided into two parts, known as Essential Rodeph and Enhanced Rodeph. Our priority is to update the infrastructure of the building—Essential Rodeph. We already tented the building for termites, and soon will have the building re-sealed. The major expenditures for Essential Rodeph will be for a new air conditioning system and a new roof. We are in the process of obtaining bids for this work. We hope this work will be completed within the next three months.
As Margot Marcadis explained during her talk on Kol Nidre, we will raise funds to pay for the Essential Rodeph projects by an assessment of each member of the Synagogue. The assessment will be based on the cost of Essential Rodeph. Since every member is an owner of our "house", every member will pay some assessment. In addition, the Board has agreed to my recommendation to set aside a portion of the funds raised by the assessment for the Synagogue's future maintenance needs. Enhanced Rodeph involves structural changes and additions to our Synagogue building.
While fund-raising for prior building project fell short, we believe that many of the renovation and
improvement ideas of the prior building project can and should be done. We believe a tiered, or step-by-step, approach to enhance the Synagogue building will be successful. We call this Enhanced Rodeph. Some of the renovation projects suggested for Enhanced Rodeph include:
• Women's Bathroom
• Men's Bathroom
• Foyer/Entryway
• Sanctuary
• Social Hall
• Administrative offices
We currently are studying the plans and drawings developed during the prior project to
determine the cost for each element of Enhanced Rodeph. We then will prioritize these projects.
Once this process is accomplished, we will hire an architect to make sure the different pieces of
Enhanced Rodeph will fit together.
The Enhanced Rodeph projects will be paid from contributions made by members of the Synagogue (with contributions over and above their assessment). We will accomplish Enhanced Rodeph in steps, according to the success of our fund-raising. We began contacting members of the congregation in August, and have received pledges for Enhanced Rodeph from more than sixty congregants totaling over $600,000. The Board sees this as significant early support which will allow work on the Enhanced Rodeph projects to begin in the spring of 2008.
We want everyone to know that we are dedicated to taking action to both maintain the Synagogue building, and to make visible and functional improvements to the building. We also believe that communication about this project is key. We want every member of the Synagogue to be kept up to date about our plans and how we are progressing – both as to fund raising, and as to the maintenance and building projects themselves. We will accomplish this by sending out a short newsletter periodically to every member of the Synagogue via mail and/or email, together with a short column in the Menorah each month.
We want you to provide us with suggestions and comments about our projects—don’t wait to be contacted. Call me at the Synagogue, (813) 838-1911. Please get involved in these projects for the future of Rodeph Sholom, because it is our house!