From the Founders to the Builders…
..a campaign for Bet Haverim’s next 50 years
Rabbi Wolfe initiated a Tree of Life Committee nearly a year ago to begin to envision & plan for this special 50th year, & for the Torah project specifically.
Why a new Torah? There is a practical reason & there is an inspirational reason. The oldest of our two Torahs has passed its 80th birthday. Those who read from it know that it is difficult to see & chant the sacred letters in many portions. However, the creation of a new Torah also is a metaphor for the experience of building & sustaining a community such as ours at CBH. It honors the past & present that have been made possible by our Founding generation, partners still active & vital to our congregation, who gave life to an organized Jewish community in Davis & Yolo County, & who provided for its continuity by ensuring a presence first on Oak Avenue, & later our beautiful current home here on Anderson Road. Furthermore, the metaphor of Torah, as a Tree of Life & a source of sustenance for the Jewish people, gives rise to the “Builders’ Generation” here at CBH, those who’ve come after the Founders, & those who will follow in the years to come. It is the Builders’ turn to maintain & enhance the gifts of Community, Home, Education & Spirit that the Founding generation has provided. And, just as they have done for us, it is our turn to prepare, nurture & provide for CBH’s next 50 years.
As the Founders have demonstrated, it takes investments of time, of faith, of devotion & of dollars to grow a community. We are fortunate to have the Founders as models for our own journey on which many of us are embarking as Builders. Like the Builders’, they had families to raise, careers to cultivate & elders to look after. Yet they never lost sight of the importance of CBH in their lives, & over time realized that their desire for a Jewish life in Davis for their own families had enabled future generations of Jews in Yolo County also to have a place to daven, to learn & to socialize. This moment of our 50th anniversary & writing a new Torah together in celebration, is the moment when the Builders’ realize their responsibility toward the time, faith, devotion & dollars needed to ensure CBH’s future.
The Tree of Life Committee & the CBH Board of Directors have started the work of the Builders’ Generation over the past year. It is the goal of CBH leadership that this Torah provide not only for the spiritual & educational sustenance of our community over the next 50 years, but that the personal experiences of its creation motivate all of us, especially the Builders Generation, to provide, too, for the financial well-being of our community of friends. The Board has identified needs for the upkeep of our campus & facilities, projects that will enhance our use & enjoyment of our buildings & spaces & opportunities for our educational programs for kids & adults alike that require the commitment of our partners, just as ten years ago we launched an incredibly successful campaign to raise funds to make the dream of a new home for CBH a reality. The goal of that campaign was $1 million. Thanks to the passion of this congregation to provide for the needs of the community, $2.3 million was raised.
In 2011, we embark together upon the Tree of Life Campaign. The goal is to raise $500,000 for the 50th over the coming year to care for our building, to care for our partners & to provide for the next 50 years. In the spirit of our Founders, CBH leaders know that they can count upon the Builders’ Generation to lead the way to reach this goal. We all have commitments & responsibilities to our own homes, our children, our educations, our parents & so much more that must also be honored. But, if we each can look in our hearts & consider how much our relationship with CBH has influenced our home life, our children’s lives, our Jewish knowledge & our respect for the generations before us, we’ll find the confidence to stretch to provide for this rich gift of community that the Builders’ have inherited from the Founders.
CBH remains today, as it was 50 years ago when it began as the Jewish Fellowship of Davis, the only synagogue in Yolo County. There is no one but each of us to turn to who will care to preserve, nurture & grow our house of friends as we do. L’dor v’dor.
