What makes a house a Jewish home?  The family members themselves.  What makes a congregation a family?  YOU do.  People gathered together with shared values and faith, and most importantly, the people who perpetually care for and respect each other.  Our Jewish faith teaches us to care for each other and for our world. We may disagree, we may argue, but we still remain family.

The last time we talked, I introduced a process that would hopefully lead to a cooperative effort between T.I. and T.B.J. to work out a framework for a new home for both.  We were looking to share one building, maintain both congregations, and move to a new West Des Moines location that would again be a neighborhood institution to serve the needs of our adults, children, and grandchildren for at least the next 50 years. 

To structure this process, we started with a Steering Committee composed of four members from the Temple and four members from Tifereth, all past presidents.  Our representatives were Rosalind Rabinowitz, Arnie Engman, Frank Marcovis, and Alice Friedgood.  The Steering Committee has a framework of respect, cooperation, flexibility and compromise, and listened carefully to the input from the past several years from both congregations.  One of the messages heard loud and clear from Tifereth was that we prefer to move to the west, and many of their key donors would prefer to see if a building could be built that would benefit both the Temple and Tifereth.  One of the messages heard loud and clear from the Temple was that our congregants love our existing building, especially our beautiful main sanctuary.  A message heard from both congregations is that both building’s school wings are in need of major renovations and improvements to help support our children’s Jewish education.  We also heard that the Reform Jewish principles are important to Temple members and Conservative Jewish principles are important to Tifereth members.

As the Steering Committee digested these messages, they worked together with a strong spirit of cooperation to provide an initial direction for further analysis.  Some of the main points of this direction are:

• The continuation of a strong and vibrant Jewish community in the Des Moines area will require critical mass in the long term, supported by a shared facility.
• Both congregations’ buildings are aging and require substantial maintenance. 
• Both congregations strive to create enhanced quality of programming with high levels of performance and attendance, all with changing demographics and changing influencing factors.
• Key to both congregations is an environment where Jewish children and grandchildren can grow and flourish.

Some of the initial strategies identified by the Steering Committee to support this direction include:

• Combining two separate and distinct congregations into a shared facility, with affiliations to both of their respective national organizations, but with a consolidated dues structure and an overall governing Board consisting of equal members from TI and TBJ.
• A new education wing to serve the Jewish community.
• Providing more programming options and choices for reform AND conservative Jews, maximizing the amount of time together in non-worship relative activities.
• Identifying and implementing administrative efficiencies to reduce overhead.
• Mutual respect for religious differences and practices between the two congregations including, but not limited to patrilineal descent, kashrut, and interfaith marriages ceremonies.
• After review of the recent Site committee report with estimates about a possible expansion of the 51^st and Grand location and estimates to build a new facility , the preferred site for the shared facility is at 64^th and Ashworth in West Des Moines.  Additionally maintaining the current Temple sanctuary at 51^st and Grand in Des Moines will also be reviewed for financial feasibility.
• Two kitchens built and maintained, one of which is Kosher.

The next step of analysis includes the development of seven Exploratory Committees for about six weeks of additional research and molding of the direction.  The Exploratory Committees will address the areas of finance, education/youth, rituals, administration/staffing, legal, building/operations, and communications.  Through a generous anonymous donation to support the process of analysis, we have engaged a professional facilitator, who will support all of the Exploratory Committees and help consolidate the research for consumption by both congregations.  We are targeting the middle of November to have a proposal with the top priority issues addressed ready for a congregational meeting at both the Temple and Tifereth.  With the help of our new facilitator and the new communications committee, we will be soliciting your input at many times before the congregational meeting.  We also hope that you will provide written feedback at any time to the email id tbj_ti_feedback@yahoo.com or with a letter mailed to the Synagogue.  This email address will be easily found on our website.