JCV Blog

December 5, 2022

Dear Fellow Congregants,
This letter is a follow up to my message to you in May regarding the development of mission, vision, and value statements for the JCV. Over the past months, the committee charged with this project met on a regular basis, shared their thoughts with the JCV Board of Directors, and made a brief presentation at the recent congregational meeting. In order to ascertain more input from our congregants, two sessions are planned for your input to the final documents prior to them being fully adopted. Your input and comments will be vetted through the committee and, where appropriate, incorporated into the final work. During these past months, significant work has taken place to get to this point. Your attention to this matter will be an important part of shaping the final documents.

The following statements are the draft documents, for your consideration:

DRAFT OF THE MISSION STATEMENT
The Jewish Congregation of Venice, Florida(JCV) serves the Venice and surrounding communities as a welcoming, inclusive, and diverse synagogue that connects Jewish tradition and culture. The JCV is a congregation open to anyone seeking a Jewish identity.

Our congregation embraces lifelong learning, social justice, worship, and interfaith relationships. We share mutual friendships and compassion for the global community.

DRAFT OF VALUES
Our congregants are our most valued asset
Inclusiveness
Growth: personal, spiritual, and emotional
Respect
A caring community
The State of Israel
Worship
Belonging
A Jewish presence in Venice
Tikkun Olam

DRAFT OF THE VISION STATEMENT
The Jewish Congregation of Venice will be the social, spiritual, cultural, and religious center for Jewish life in Venice and the surrounding communities.

The next steps in this process include the following:

• Hearing from the congregation for their input to the draft documents
• Finalizing the documents and adoption by the Board of Directors
• Developing a set of strategic initiatives derived from the mission, vision, and value statements, that put into action those issues of most importance
• Assigning workgroups with congregational expertise to operationalize those selected initiatives
• Using all of this work as a set of guiding principles for the JCV

The in-person sessions are taking place at the JCV on Thursday, Dec 15^th, at 9:30am and 5:00pm. In the event you cannot attend the scheduled sessions, you are encouraged to send your comments to Steve Kleinglass, the committee chair, at SPK25@me.com.

This is an exciting project and hopefully will be the beginning of a piece of work that will evolve over time, be updated on a 3-5 year cycle, and be representative of the essence of the JCV!

All the very best during the upcoming holiday season.
Eli Rapaport
President

Strategic Planning Committee:
Steve Kleinglass, Harry Hertz, Larry Levine, Rod Margolis, Deborah Rosen, Jeff Weisenberg