TORONTO — Beth Tzedec Congregation is citing budgetary reasons for leaving the Canadian Council of Conservative Synagogues (CCCS), a breakaway group it helped form in 2008.
Norman Kahn
The shul was among four Toronto congregations that were the group’s original constituents. Three of them – Beth Tzedec, Adath Israel Congregation and Beth Emeth Bais Yehuda Synagogue – had recently left the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism (USCJ), the umbrella for Conservative congregations in North America. Beth Sholom Synagogue had not been affiliated.
The group had grown to eight – now seven – Canadian congregations, and held its second annual convention in June.
In October, it launched its Congregational High School with additional funding from UJA Federation of Greater Toronto. The school is an outgrowth of Adath Israel’s congregational high school program. A second location was started at Beth Tzedec, which will henceforth be unafilliated.
In a letter to congregants dated Nov. 5, Beth Tzedec president Norman Kahn said the shul’s board of governors decided at its Nov. 2 meeting to withdraw from the CCCS after weighing the benefits of membership against the cost.
The synagogue will save “a substantial amount of money… at a time when we have no choice but to control all expenses, as we continue to spend where we must on infrastructure and growth,” he wrote in the letter, which is downloadable on the shul’s website.
In a phone interview, Kahn told The CJN that Beth Tzedec, “like other congregations throughout North America, has suffered because of the economic downturn.”
Although membership levels have remained “more or less” steady – the shul has close to 2,700 member families – membership dues haven’t risen significantly, and costs continue to rise, he said. As well, Beth Tzedec’s 55-year-old building requires “constant maintenance and repairs.
“There’s a crunch there,” Kahn said, adding that the board has looked at other expenditures as well, restructuring its afternoon school, for example, “to reduce costs and make a program that would be more appealing” by adding home study and online study and reducing in-class time.
Kahn said board members – and others at the synagogue who have offered input – don’t believe they need the infrastructure offered by the CCCS.
The shul remains committed to collaborating with other Conservative synagogues on educational and youth programming, Kahn wrote in his letter.
“We cannot see the value in continuing to fund the infrastructure of CCCS, or in relying on its paid employees to facilitate programming, conversations and collaborations among Conservative leaders and synagogue professionals which we are already managing successfully on our own,” he wrote.
Among Beth Tzedec’s youth programs is a Paper Clips trip to Whitwell, Tenn., planned for February. It’s open to teens from other synagogues.
The high school program, considered the CCCS’ flagship youth program, offers a Jewish heritage trip to New York in the spring. It is also open to teens who are not in the program.
CCCS president Eric Gossin said Beth Tzedec’s decision came as a surprise, and a disappointment. “It caught us a bit off guard.”
Financially, it means the the organization is losing one of its largest contributors, if not the largest, said Gossin.
The amount Beth Tzedec paid for CCCS membership “was not that different” from the amount it paid in USCJ dues, Kahn said. Although the membership fee typically assessed by the USCJ for a shul Beth Tzedec’s size was significantly higher than what the shul paid to the CCCS, the amount it actually paid the USCJ had been reduced after negotiations, he explained.
The CCCS is now looking at its own financial structure and mission statement, and its national youth director is winding down her duties.
Gossin said that Beth Tzedec is still “absolutely” part of the CCCS high school program. “We’re not going to hurt the kids, first of all… We’re trying to build the community, and make everyone feel welcome.”
He believes the two-year-old organization is still suffering growing pains. “We don’t have a long history.”
Following a regular monthly meeting of representatives of all seven congregations – as well as Beth Tzedec representatives – last Thursday night, Gossin told The CJN that “everybody is still embracing the organization and the notion of continuing on.”
He said that the CCCS is “not trying to replicate USCJ. We want to be something that’s uniquely Canadian.”
