President's Message

Of Hugs and Vision 

Years ago my wife Dionne and I were avid square dancers – it was energizing, fun… terrific stuff. We danced in squares – four couples. What I liked best was all the hugging! You hug your partner, then you hug the lady on your left. And when the “tip” is over there is a lot of hugging again. Very nurturing and personal.  After a while Dionne had a badge made for me, which I wore for many years. It said “HUG THERAPIST”. 

Well, we don’t square dance any more, but the hugging stayed with me.  

OK, so I’m a hugger. The point is, it’s just one of my passions. There are several other things I’m passionate about – one of which is to serve Congregation Beth HaTephila as its president. 

We are a community of nearly 300 families and singles, around 750 people, every one of us unique, with our own talents, skills and passions.  Many of us are here nearly every Shabbat for services, or in Rabbi Ratner’s Adult Education classes, or we sing with the adult choir, or we serve on the Temple Board; we participate on Temple committees, in Sisterhood and Brotherhood, we help in the kitchen, we organize special programs, we bring our children to Religious School… we participate, each in our own fashion, and help make Beth HaTephila our community. 

We are guided and inspired by Beth HaTephilas’s Vision Statement – it’s on our website and in every issue of the Menorah.  We are a community of tremendous vitality, talent and commitment. There is much that we are accomplishing here. But there is still much that can be accomplished. There are still so many ways that our Temple community can be strengthened and enhanced. And that involves us – all of us. 

I would like to find ways to channel our individual uniqueness into making Beth HaTephila an ever richer and more fulfilling place – where every one of us can feel, year-around, that we are indeed a vibrant part of the Asheville Jewish community. I’d like our idealized future to become a reality. How? By using the talents, skills and passions each of us already has, through the cultivation and nurturing of a partnership between our leadership, our clergy, our staff and every member. 

So I am asking you to do just that: to give of yourself – to share your skills, your talents and what you are passionate about, to help make Beth HaTephila the community that it can be. 

Each of us, and certainly all 750 of us, together, can make a BIG difference! 

Whether you are a congregant, or are contemplating membership, I very much look forward to a personal chat with you! Just send me an email (president@bethhatephila.org) , we’ll figure out a way to get together.  Let’s share and get to know each other better.  Perhaps greet each other with a hug? 

Shalom,

Gil Kempenich