Greetings from Your Board of Directors!

February 26, 2025 in Scroll

By Sara Gordon. 

Hello, Beth El! I am excited to share highlights regarding the work your Board is busy doing as well as some of the new initiatives we are launching.

At our February Board meeting, the Board participated in a training conducted by Gather DC on relational engagement. Also participating were members of Team Connect (one of the three “teams” formed at the start of the year to focus on engagement opportunities at Beth El. The other teams are Team Learn and Team Pray.)

Community engagement is a priority for the Beth El community and we were excited to learn more about the techniques Gather DC employs to connect with D.C.-area Jews in their 20s and 30s. Through discussion, role play, and resource sharing, we learned how relational engagement techniques could be applied to the engagement work happening at Beth El. Thank you to Alison Baraf and Ivan Snyder for organizing.

The Beth El Preschool is embarking on an exciting new chapter offering a full-day option to its students. After conducting an intentional process which included assessing need, interest, financial impact, and capacity, BEPS is excited to launch a full-day option this Fall 2025. Applications opting into the full-day program are already coming in and we are excited to see the program unfold this Fall.

The Beth El Gala on January 25 was a wonderful evening and successful at bringing many in the community together to enjoy entertainment and time together, and it was successful at raising much-needed funds for our Annual Campaign. Thank you to co-chairs Jen and Alec Powers and Camilla and Andre Zugman for their leadership in planning the event. This year’s Gala also featured a Silent Auction for the first time, which was also a success. Special thanks goes to Nanci Sundel for all she did to bring the auction to fruition.

Planning is already underway for next year’s Gala (mark your calendars for January 24, 2026). If you are interested in serving on the planning committee or the auction planning committee, please contact Heather Garrett at HGarrett@bethelmc.org.

If you were able to join us for the evening and would like to make an additional contribution, or if you were not able to be there but would like to support the Annual Campaign, please click here. And, thank you for your continued support without which the programming and services we strive to bring our members would not be possible.