Beth El

President's Message

by Gary Kell

I am pleased to bring greetings from the Beth El Men's Club. First and foremost I would like to thank our dedicated Officers and Board of Directors who work so hard throughout the year to ensure the success of our club.

At the bi-annual Federation of Jewish Men’s Club (FJMC) Seaboard Region retreat in Reisterstown, MD June 25th-27th, it was announced that the Beth El Men's Club was awarded a Quality Club Award. The FJMC Quality Club Award was developed to strengthen and encourage member clubs to offer a variety of activities at the local level and to participate in regional and FJMC programs. The FJMC Quality Club Award is given each year to member clubs who meet established criteria at the international, regional, and local levels. The criteria also are a blueprint for a club to follow in planning its yearly programming. The award, an engraved 15 year perpetual plaque, is presented in even numbered years at a regional event and in odd numbered years at the FJMC Biennial Convention. Mazel Tov to everyone for this outstanding achievement. We will now be looking to apply for a Torch Award and take our club to even greater heights.

The Beth El Men's Club had another great year of programming and community involvement. The following is a list of some of the programs we were involved in.

1. We hosted the Blue Yarmulke Man-of-the-Year brunch in January. We were thrilled to honor our own Marc Davis as this year's recipient from Beth El.
2. Our Shomrim Committee, led by Norman Soroko, continued to perform the mitzvah of sitting with the deceased and reading psalms before burial. A special thanks to all who have helped with this important task.
3. We had our annual Tides game event in August, which is always a great success.
4. We had our annual ODU Basketball night.
5. We led Friday Night services at Beth Sholom twice this year.
6. We had another huge crowd out for Bingo night (about 250 people) which raised enough funds for our club to once again increase our financial assistance to the Religious school and the Camp Scholarship fund.
7. We contributed to the Religious School Day of Chesed in April. We helped the kindergarten, 1st grade and 3rd grade by going around the outside of Beth El, picking up trash, cleaning up the flower beds and planting some flowers.
8. We helped the JCC with their Yom Ha'atzmaut day by manning the interactive map of Israel.
9. We passed out candles to the Religious school, Hebrew Academy and Beth El members for Yom Hashoah and sponsored the reading of the names on Yom Hashoah.
10. We held our annual Men's Club Shabbat in April, during which the entire service was led by the Men's Club.
11. We held a Mother's Day brunch in May and had as our speaker Mary Reid Barrow, nature columnist for The Virginian-Pilot, who spoke on "Weird and Wonderful Wildlife in Your Yard."
12. On July 11th, 20 of us went up to Colonial Downs to watch the races from an indoor viewing area. This was a nice family event.
13. We continued to coordinate the weekly Shabbat greeter list. These are just the highlights; so as you can see, we had a very busy and successful year.

At this time, we are still putting together our plan for the New Year. We will continue our annual traditions such as Bingo, The Tides and ODU games, leading services at Beth Sholom, helping with Yom Hashoah and Yom Ha'atzmaut, contributing to the Religious School and Camp Scholarship Fund and bringing in great speakers throughout the year. I am also working with Rabbi Ruberg, Rabbi Tendler, and Cantor Piltch on how the Men's Club can enhance Jewish life in our shul.

To keep up with all the latest Men's Club news, please e-mail Noelle at noelle@bethelnorfolk.com and ask to be added to our weekly e-mail list.

If you are not currently a member of the Men's Club, we invite you to join. Board meetings are open to all and usually have some great nosh, so come on by.

On behalf of all the Officers and Board of Directors, I want to wish you and your families a very happy and healthy New Year.

Gary Kell
Men's Club President

Men's Club Officers

Men's Club Board of Directors