By Gary Rotto
SAN DIEGO — Some believe that there are two types of congregations: destination congregations and neighborhood congregations. A destination congregation is so compelling, so well known for its theology, programming, school or rabbinical leadership that people will travel from anywhere in the region to attend or become a member. A neighborhood congregation attracts people from the immediate area because of its convenience.
Congregation Dor Hadash viewed itself as a destination congregation. As the only Reconstructionist congregation in the region, people would come from anywhere to participate and join. A little over 20 years ago, when it came time to secure its own facility, CDH moved into leased space in Kearny Mesa. The theory was that it was conveniently located near the 163, 805, 8 and 52. Travel would be easy from La Jolla, Del Cerro, the beaches and Mid City.
The congregation grew at a pace and to a size that the members desired. Some of the key principles underlying the philosophy of the congregation were to be the “Cheers” of Jewish congregations – small congregation of between 100-200 families, where everyone knows your name, donation and memorial plaques eschewed in favor of a wall of photos of our ancestors, money/fundraising were appreciated but deemphasized and to focus on modernity rather than being constricted by history.
For about 15 years, all was good. But over that time, the Jewish community continued to migrate north to Carmel Valley and beyond. There were pockets of Jewish families in Mid City and a dynamic core in Del Cerro, but the pool of Jewish families from these areas who wished to affiliate was only large enough to support the institutions that already existed. Others did not wish to be bound to any Jewish institution. The pool of would-be members shrank considerably, For those who moved north, the hectic pace of daily family life increased with traffic and the stress of multiple places to be at the same time for active young families. Families were just not willing to travel past the 805-5 merge, especially on Friday nights. While many in the community appreciated the Reconstructionist philosophy, convenience won out. The congregation shrunk to a point that the religious school had the minimum for conducting classes and the revenue from membership was insufficient to meet the annual budget.
Picking up on the groundwork laid by my predecessor as president, I needed to help the congregation to look for a new home where we would be able to attract younger families with children as well as change our financial course. As a congregation, we had decided that we did not want to sail off into the sunset. We wanted to continue to have a religious school and have a future. We also realized that having a space that is occupied for only 15 hours a week (other than the office) is expensive. And in a small congregation that did not have mega donors, it just was not financially feasible to conduct our congregation in that way. We were paying for space and hours – some 70-100 hours – that were unused. Instead of being convenient to all, be became inconvenient to most.
We decided that if we wanted to continue to exist as a multi-generational congregation with a thriving school that we would move north. Our solution was to move our offices and our Sunday school onto the campus of the San Diego Jewish Academy. As suitable space was not available at SDJA for Shabbat, we moved our Shabbat experience to Congregation Beth El (CBE). While our preference was to have everything about us in one place, we could not find a suitable site at a reasonable rate.
The split personality of our congregation worked in some respects and didn’t in others. We rented the Minyan Room at CBE for most Shabbats and the social hall for large events such as a Bar Mitzvah or Bat Mitzvah. We collaborated with CBE for several haggim celebrations. But we felt a bit bifurcated by being in both places. My two year term as president was focused on helping us to move, to adapt, to experiment with a new congregational design and to grow. But my hope was always that we would reunite all facets of our congregation in one place, convenient to a new generation of Jewish families.
For this coming year, the opportunity has arisen to have our Shabbat and Haggim experience at SDJA. Our religious side will be reunited with our school and business side of our operations. My successor has placed us on a path to make this vision a reality. It is a dream that will come true this summer!
We are one of several Jewish organizations that will use the SDJA campus. As our needs are mainly outside of school hours, it makes sense for SDJA to find tenants to rent its facilities during those off hours. Beside Dor Hadash, the Ken Jewish Community also is housed at SDJA. This is a relatively new concept in Jewish life: a true Jewish community campus in which several organizations share space and have the possibility to create synergies in many ways. It’s also quite efficient.
I am grateful to our brethren at CBE for the opportunity to share their wonderful facilities on Shabbat and haggim. But I am excited about this next phase of our congregation’s life.
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Rotto is a freelance writer based in San Diego. You may comment to him at gary.rotto@sdjewishworld.com, or post your comment on this website provided that the rules below are observed.
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