Here is my AGM report of July 2007 - reporting back on the last year:
Chair's AGM Report - 2007 
Another year, another AGM – and the completion of my 4th year as Chair of the Congregation. I know I’ve said it before (and later been persuaded otherwise), but I truly believe that the coming year will really be my last as Chair of the Congregation. So one of my tasks during this coming year, as well as trying to persuade other members to join our Committee – or help us organise one or more events as a non-committee member (an equally valuable role) – will be to persuade someone else to take over this role next year. If you might be interested, please come and talk to me!
The Committee has had another busy year since the last AGM, continuing to run our services and other synagogue facilities – with some developments during the year, and admittedly some disappointments too.
Yomim Tovim – HHD Services
The Yomim Tovim (High Holy Days) were - as always - busy occasions. We were really pleased that Student Rabbi David Mitchell was able to join us again - for both Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur – especially as sadly he is unlikely to be able to in future years, due to his recent appointment at Radlett & Bushey Synagogue. Apart from running and assisting with our services, David ran a thought-provoking study session on Rosh Hashanah called ‘Love thy Neighbour’ - and a Children’s service on Yom Kippur. He also encouraged us to adapt some of the services on Yom Kippur to suit our Congregation – which was a new challenge for our members. All these services were held at a location close to the City Centre, and were generally well supported. We again arranged meals after the RH morning and YK concluding service – which were - as always - very popular with our members.
Other Services & Events
Our pattern of Friday night and Shabbat morning services has varied a bit this year, but most have included impromptu discussions on the week’s Torah and Haftarah readings. The new Draft Siddur was piloted at many of these services, with a somewhat mixed response. Student Rabbi Nathan Alfred joined us for a couple of services – where members particularly enjoyed his cantorial style of singing and leading services. Also Rabbi Brian Fox – from Menorah Synagogue – came across to run a Havdalah session for us in January.
Sederim were again popular – with a Tu Bishvat seder and communal lunch, held in February – and of course our very popular Communal Seder – with over 65 participants held in April.
A Special event of Jewish, Hebrew and Yiddish song and dance was held in February to celebrate our 18th year. Arrangements for this started slowly, but the event proved to be a runaway success – which many members and non-members attended. Our thanks go to David Hayes for leading on the organisation of this event.
Adult Education and other Activities
The book club, although still small, has continued successfully into its 4th year of operation, with an interesting and varied selection of books by Jewish authors such as Primo Levi, A B Yehoshua, Cynthia Ozick, Sam Bourne (Jonathan Friedland) and Louis Golding.
Sadly although interest was expressed in starting a new Adult Education programme, we were unable to find people to investigate and progress a suitable programme this year.
A pilot for a Congregation Jewish Film club generated lots of interest, although unfortunately the first film (One of the Hollywood Ten) was almost cancelled due to heavy snowfalls, and we haven’t been able to organise any further films recently.
Communications
Our newsletter, Omer, can be rather time-consuming to pull together, and we have struggled to produce this as regularly as we would like. Nevertheless, there have been some very interesting contributions from members throughout the year, which I’m sure will continue – so please keep sending them in. The SDRJC web site, now more than 2 years old, continues to be updated with information about Jewish events and activities both in Sheffield and elsewhere. We try to carry out updates about every month. The web site continues to be our main initial enquiry point for many people coming to Sheffield – either to visit or to live here, and we still regularly receive phone calls and e-mails from people for a whole range of reasons – conversion, circumcision, Bar Mitzvah teachers – or just to make contact to come and see us.
Consultation and Focus Groups
Sadly, although a number of these groups took place last year, we have been unable to run any further sessions to complete this work. The Committee therefore decided to issue a questionnaire survey form to members, and this will be followed up with a discussion at the 2007 AGM concerning our ‘Vision for the Future’ of our Congregation.
Scrolls
Our beautiful new Torah Mantle – designed and produced by Gillian Kempner, a design artist from Leeds is now more than a year old. We now have a small group investigating the commissioning the design and production of some new silverware for this scroll from a local artist. We have also returned to Gillian for the design of a second scroll mantle for the High Holy days – based on the theme of community circles.
Cheder and Pre-Cheder
Penny Kay has continued her role of coordinating the Cheder this year, with all the organisation that this involves. Our single class has mainly been taught by Miriam Saffer.
The Pre-Cheder for younger children (mainly without their parents) has continued throughout this year, run by Abigail Blumsohn, supported by Barbara Blumsohn.
Youth Activities
Unfortunately our youth group is currently not running, mainly due to our inability to find a Jewish student to run this. However several of our teenagers have joined a leadership training programme with RSY which has run occasional activities in Manchester, Leeds and London.
Social Action Group
This group was started this year by some of our members. The group decided to arrange a dinner party in aid of the ASSIST organisation - which supports asylum seekers located in Sheffield. Some members of ASSIST and some locally housed asylum seekers also attended the party.
Cemetery
This year a member kindly donated an inscribed bench in our area of the cemetery where members can sit if they wish to stay a while.
Movement for Reform Judaism – (MRJ) - National and Regional Reform Activities
During the year we continued to participate in MRJ events and meetings including - the Northern Advisory Group, Northern Network, Synagogue Chairs - and the MRJ Council in London. We also attended the MRJ National Conference in Leicester.
And ….
My thanks go to members of the Committee, and our various non-committee organisers – who have continued to support the work we do throughout the year. Thanks also go to Penny, Miriam, Abbie and Barbara for their work with the Cheder and Pre-Cheder. As I said last year, if we could only obtain the assistance of a few additional people to take on some small tasks, we would be capable of doing so much more – so I hope that some of you will come forward to help us to support existing activities and develop new ones in the coming year.
Howard
Chair - SDRJC
July 2007
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