News

Beth El has been a flurry of activity this summer in preparation for breaking ground. In June, the giant task of moving our offices took place, thanks to the efforts of many volunteers and our staff. Ten semi trailers worth of furnishings and furniture were packed and moved. Our coatroom has become our administrative offices and our summer camp has successfully transitioned to B’nai Emet with their tremendous assistance.

In the last 30 days, competitive bids for every aspect of our construction project have been received and reviewed. A line-by-line review of bids has been conducted by members of our construction committee together with our architects and general contractors. That review is complete…though will be ongoing during construction. Bank financing is nearly complete and actual construction should be underway in a matter of weeks. First phase work will include the Aleph School, handicapped accessibility and our offices. You should see construction workers and equipment on site shortly.

FALL PLANS
On the High Holy Days, the Spiegel Sanctuary, the Gruman Social Hall and Fiterman Chapel will be available for services. Our wonderful neighbors Benilde-St. Margaret’s School are making their facilities available to us at no charge to help us accommodate all of our programming needs. We are enormously grateful for their generous act of brotherhood! Specific information on service times and locations will be found in your High Holy Day mailing arriving next week.

We are also blessed to have developed a wonderful partnership with B’nai Emet. Our summer camp has enjoyed sharing space with the program at B’nai Emet. We are pleased that our Aleph School will continue to use space at B’nai Emet for the first part of the school year.

FUNDRAISING EFFORTS
We are far from complete in reaching all of our members for their support to complete the L’dor Vador Campaign. If you have not yet been contacted, please proactively contact Linda Goldberg via e-mail or 952-920-3512 x7302 to learn more.

HOLD THE DATE
Ceremonial ground breaking on August 12 at 5:30…followed by the Beth El Annual Meeting.

There has been great progress in the last few weeks! The City Council of St. Louis Park has approved our project, we are in the final stages of securing bank construction financing, construction diagrams are all but complete and bidding for the job is beginning. Soon we will officially announce our start date for construction.

If you have not had a chance to view plans that were on display in the Ring Lobby, some of them are featured here with brief explanations of the design.

New Entrance
One of the primary features of the renovation is a new 26th street entrance. This new entrance will be brightly lit and will embody Beth El’s Vision Statement to be warm and welcoming. From this safe and secured entry, one immediately enters the hub of the building that leads to the Aleph School, the administration areas as well as the worship, social spaces and new Library.

Aleph School
The new Aleph School will have seven classrooms as well as new teachers’ and director’s offices – all on one floor! These spaces will be bathed in natural lighting and have upgraded fixtures and carpeting. We also will build to accommodate infant care should we decide to offer this in the future. A new entry to the school will include a parents’ lounge for coffee and programs and will be a wonderful, informal gathering space. This space will also be available for gathering on Shabbat and holidays.

Library
An exciting addition to the east of the building will house our new library and education center. This addition will also feature a new covered main front entry way. The dramatic and beautiful structure will symbolically demonstrate the centrality of ongoing learning in our congregation. The space will include areas for reading to children, use of technology, and ability to have classes and discussions. The addition will also include a reconfiguration of our coat room and will include a quiet room adjacent to the main sanctuary, for children or for classes observing how services are conducted. More green spaces in front of our building will also add beauty to our building.

Accessibility/Way Finding
Finally, Beth El will have an elevator! Wherever needed, ramps will be added for those who can not use stairs. Hallways will be widened, confusing corners eliminated, and sightlines opened up. All of these improvements will allow our members and guests to easily navigate their way through our building and find our facility warm and welcoming.

Gift Shop A new gift shop will be located as one comes into the new 26th street entrance. This is the perfect location to take advantage of foot traffic. New display cases will allow passersby to be enticed by products.

Youth Lounge
The new youth lounge will be on the west side of the building. A designated youth entrance will allow easy access for our kids and enable programs to take place during off hours while keeping the building secure.

Administration
For the first time, all our staff will be located together. The new offices will provide places for all of our staff in one central location, where we will operate more efficiently. Also, waiting areas for visitors will be bright and welcoming.

Meeting Rooms
All of the old Aleph School rooms currently upstairs on the west side of the building (once known as the activities building in the 1960’s) will be used for other programs and activities. Such uses will include: classes, meetings, even alternative smaller minyanim or services on a Shabbat morning.

Parking and Outside Spaces
The main parking area will remain largely untouched by renovations. However, we will have some additional green areas with plantings that will enhance our outdoors spaces.

Building Modernization
The new plan will bring the building up to code by abating asbestos, sprinkling the building, making heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) more energy efficient, and upgrading plumbing, bathrooms, lighting and more.

It is with great pleasure and excitement that the search for a new director of the Aleph Preschool has come to an end. Following the recommendation of a search committee chaired by Helen Siegel and Debbie Mann, the position of the Director of Shirley R. Abelson Aleph Preschool has been offered to, and accepted by, Karen Burton.

Karen’s loving nature towards children and parents, her expertise in child development, extensive experience as a pre-school director and her contagious excitement for early childhood programming make her the perfect leader for our school.  For the last five years, Karen has established and directed the Torah Tots program at Torah Academy. Before that, she founded and built a preschool in Florida for sixteen years. We are very fortunate to have her and look forward to her beginning work this summer.

The search for a new director was made with great thoughtfulness and concern. Our national search was carried out by a diverse committee comprised of parents, teachers, and non-Aleph Preschool parents. We sought input from as many constituencies as possible and appreciate the many people who attended interviews, meetings and offered input.

The Aleph Preschool is the gem of our Beth El Synagogue. For this reason, finding the right person was critical. We are confident that Karen will truly lead Beth El forward, “with our young and our old” and we look forward to the congregation meeting her in the coming months.

Q: What do you get when you have 11 meetings with 65 people over the course of 2 days with 2 incredible architects?

A: A plan to renew and reinvigorate our Beth El building!
You know that we have been raising money to renew and reinvigorate our Beth El building.  But did you know that the Building Project Committee has been meeting with volunteers and staff for the last month to capture critical programming information to help design the facility that will be our home for generations to come?

Q: We have heard about this project for years. When will construction start?

A: NOW! The process is currently underway! Three groups are hard at work.
An aggressive timeline has been developed by our architectural firm, Miller Dunwiddie.  Working in collaboration with our Building Project Committee* – Chaired by Ruth Usem, and our Construction Committee** – chaired by Mike Blehert, the coming weeks will bring the review of architectural drawings, and the selection of a general contractor.

Q: When will we break ground?

A: Summer 2010!

Q: What can we expect in our new building?

A: We will…

• SERVE the next generation of Aleph School parents with updated classrooms, a unified school on one floor, a new school entrance, and renovated bathrooms.
• ACCOMMODATE the multitude of social activities with accessible social spaces that allow us to operate multiple events and programs simultaneously.
• TRANSFORM our library into a multi-media center that supports lifelong interactive learning with room to house our outstanding collections.
• CONSERVE energy and be “up-to-code” with updated existing utilities and new fire and security systems.
• WARMLY WELCOME all who come to Beth El through entrances and hallways that are inviting and easy to navigate. New elevator and accessibility to all!

Q: WHAT CAN I DO TO HELP?

A:  Help us complete the campaign and achieve our goals!  If you have not yet made a pledge (payable over 5 years), please contact Linda Goldberg at 952-920-3512, ext. 108. Every gift COUNTS!

Stay tuned for more exciting updates!
TOGETHER, WE ARE BUILDING EXCITEMENT!

*Building Project Committee
Ruth Usem (Chair), Rabbi Alexander Davis, Amy Rotenberg, Anne Hope, Rabbi Avi Olitzky, Art Glassman, Cantor Audrey Abrams, Bonnie Heller, Barbara Parks, Daniel Spiegel, Donna Leviton, Gail Jordani, Gil Mann, Kathy Rendleman, Karen Brodsky, Linda Goldberg, Mary Baumgarten, Mike Blehert, Marilyn Weisberg, Peggy Kerska, Penny Glassman, Ron Ungerman, Sally Forbes Friedman

**Construction Committee
Mike Blehert (Chair), Mark Gittleman, Ron Ungerman, Allen Bernard, Daniel Spiegel, Richard Ozer, Craig Kupritz, Gary Goldish, Ruth Usem

Stay tuned for more Building Excitement ahead. To get the most up-to-date information, check the Beth El website and sign up for Beth El’s Kesher email updates.

After much detailed study and extensive planning, I am delighted to inform you about important changes at our award-winning Aleph School. Beginning this fall, our pre-school program will be redesigned to more effectively accommodate the needs of working parent families. In addition, in response to parental requests, starting in September, the Aleph School will be offering the Twin Cities first Jewish Early Childhood Family Education (J-ECFE) program for infants and their families!

These exciting developments add to our Aleph School’s 70-year-old tradition of providing a loving, nurturing and educational Jewish environment for our pre-schoolers and their parents.

Better serving young families and expanding educational opportunities for our tots – from infancy through pre-kindergarten age – are explicit goals of the synagogue’s strategic plan.

Last winter, an Infant Care Task Force headed by Debbie Mann was convened to determine the feasibility of offering infant care at Beth El. Through online surveys, discussions with parents and staff, interviews with other area synagogues and daycare facilities that offer infant care, the task force evaluated the feasibility of changes at Aleph School and the potential costs and revenues of infant care were studied. Several recommendations were made to better serve our young families.

Those recommendations were approved unanimously by the Board in April and include:

• Rolling admission – allowing children to enter Aleph School anytime during the school year when they are 16 months old.
• Providing year-round programming, including in August.
• Expanding Aleph School hours, now opening at 7:15 a.m. and closing at 5:45 p.m.
• Adding a Jewish early childhood family education experience for parents and their young children, from infancy through 16 months. This is a unique opportunity to engage young children and their parents in parent-child activities, parent discussion to learn about child development and parenting and children’s activity times, all designed to provide a stimulating Jewish setting for a child’s healthy development.

After evaluating costs and other factors, the board decided not to offer infant care at the present time. This decision was made in part because of the prohibitive cost of retrofitting current classrooms to accommodate Minnesota State requirements for infant care. However, the Board endorsed the recommendation that when the Capital Campaign builds new Aleph School classrooms, they should comply with state infant care standards to allow for the option of offering infant care in the future. With these changes, our Aleph School will continue to offer an excellent program that better accommodates the needs of parents who work outside the home as well as all families. Please tell your children, relatives and friends and encourage them to call us. We would love to arrange a visit and discuss ways that Aleph School can meet the needs of parents and children.

Todah rabbah to all Aleph School parents who participated in focus groups and responded to surveys and to members of the Infant Care Task Force and Gail Jordani, Director of Aleph School and staff for their many contributions to adding to our legacy of excellent programming for our tiniest treasures.

To find out more about the Jewish Early Childhood Family Education program and Aleph School, please call Gail Jordani at 952-920-4169.

You can now pay your Beth El statement online with our new “Make a Payment” feature which can be found in the “Online Services” slide-out on our homepage.

Paying your Beth El statement has never been so quick, easy and convenient with many payment options, including Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express, eCheck or your PayPal account.  There is a tax deductible fee added to help defray the cost of credit card processing.  When you receive your Beth El statement each month, visit our website and click the green “Online Services” button and then go to “Make a Payment” to securely pay your bill online.

» Pay your Beth El statement online now

Watch for new features being added under “Online Services” in the future!

Take a look around and check back to this spot for highlights on new features and other areas of interest.