Temple Ramat Zion (Northridge) Recent Activities/Accomplishments

This the first of my posts to publicize active Western Region clubs that have reported on activities and accomplishments that should be of interest to all of us who are planning club activities.  My thanks to Alberto Hananei, President of TRZ Men's Club in Northridge, CA, for supplying me with the information I present in this post. While TRZ Men's Club has sponsored and is planning events unique to their own club, this post will also demonstrate how TRZ Men's Club took existing activity ideas and successfully applied them to their club.

TRZ Men's Club previously had held "Scotch under the Sukkah" events.  This past year they "upgraded" to "Sukkah, Steaks and Spirits." They saw that other clubs had been holding steak dinner events for a while and felt it would be a good way to bring men together, comply with the mitzvah of  eating under the sukkah and enjoy a good meal.  They attracted 20 men to this event, including a few new members and a few men who had left the Men's Club scene and, by way of this event, returned.

Continuing with the food theme (always a good way to attract men), TRZ Men's Club put on their annual Harvest Dinner, where new temple members are under the spotlight.  With a good support group, they cooked for 120 people. In December, they did additional food preparation events, hosting an Oneg to support their Sisterhood Shabbat service and cooking again for Hanukkah, where around 200 people were in attendance.

TRZ Men's Club also had a  successful High Holiday where their members ushered for the temple.

In response to two members becoming ill, the TRZ Men's Club has decided to put together a first aid and CPR training program for any interested temple members.  They plan to include any interested USY members as well.  This training can be of particular importance to USYers because many of them have babysitting responsibility, either at home or as jobs. The Men's Club hopes  to have this set up by the end of January.

Finally, as part of their effort to attract new members, they plan to institute a "Donuts with Dads" on Sunday mornings when religious school is back in session.  They will be able to meet with the younger dads when they drop off their children.  They can use that interaction time to talk up the TRZ Men's Club.  Many of us will be anxious to find out how this works out for them.

Steven Silverstone discusses the FJMC Leadership Development Institute

One of the FJMC activities that is not well known throughout our membership is the “Leadership Development Institute” (LDI). This article is written to acquaint our Western Region members with LDI.

In 1945, the Jewish Theological Seminary appointed Rabbi Joel S. Geffen as FJMC's spiritual advisor. His initial responsibility was to travel throughout North America to expand the influence of the Seminary and to build future synagogue leadership through Men's Clubs. Rabbi Geffen guided the organization for 40 years, during which he linked FJMC to the rabbis in the field and to Seminary leadership. In 1997, FJMC established the Rabbi Joel S. Geffen Leadership Development Institute dedicated to training lay leaders for the Conservative Movement.

Each year the FJMC conducts an LDI retreat weekend. Each region is asked to identify four (4) regional members to participate in two days of leadership training usually starting about Noon on a Friday and ending at Noon the following Sunday. This year LDI is being held on November 10-12 at the Pearlstone Center in Reisterstown, MD. Some of the training topics for this year, and they can vary from year to year, are: 

• The wonderful world of FJMC
• Doing good for your regional community
• How to make your region and clubs stand out
• Yellow Candle Training
• Effective Oral Communication
• Best Programing in Large and Small Regions
• How to run a Meeting Using Technology
• How to run a Regional Retreat
• What does the FJMC do for clubs?

We also set aside time for all attendees to meet each other. The attendees come from all around the United States and Canada.

The four regional participants are broken up into two groups called “Regional Leaders Track” (Usually the Regional President and Executive Vice President) and “Emerging Leaders Track” (two members either from Regional or Club boards). Some of the training sessions are joint sessions, however many are split session between the two tracks and the training is developed specific for each track.

For 2017 (5778) the Western Region participants are:

• Regional Leader Track;
  • Benny Sommerfeld Regional President , Temple Etz Chaim in Thousand Oaks CA and
  • Gary Katz Regional Executive Vice President, Temple Etz Chaim in Thousand Oaks CA
• Emerging Leaders Track:
  • Jon Medwin Regional Secretary and President of Congregation B’nai Shalom Men’s Club, Walnut Creek CA and
  • Joshua Kaplan Congregation Beth Shalom Club Officer, Santa Clarita CA.

Also participating at LDI this year from our region as staff members are:

• Mitch Ross – Co-Training Leader for the Emerging Leaders Track, Congregation Or Tzion, Scottsdale AZ
• Norm Katz – FJMC Executive Board, Tifereth Israel Synagogue, San Diego CA
• Ken Matlick – FJMC Executive Board, Congregation Or Tzion, Scottsdale AZ
• Steve Silverstone – LDI Co-Leader, Congregation Ner Tamid, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA
• Aren Horowitz – LDI Religious Services Leader, Congregation B’nai Israel, Albuquerque NM

If anyone has any questions or comments please let me know.

Steve Silverstone

Western Region, Immediate Past President

Slvrstn1@gmail.com