by Johanna Ginsberg
NJJN Staff Writer

June 18, 2009

After seven years as a full-time program director at Congregation Agudath Israel of West Essex in Caldwell, Randi Brokman learned her hours would be reduced.

“With the change in the economy, they decided they needed to cut back,” she said, referring to the synagogue’s administrators and lay leaders.

With their help, Brokman found a second part-time job working at the Israel Program Center at United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ. She understands the pressures synagogues are feeling during the economic slump, but she knows that her work life is about to get harder.

“As it is, my job is full-time plus. It’s going to be challenging juggling two part-time positions that usually come with more hours than they’re set up for. But we’ll work it out,” she said.

As synagogues across the area confront shrinking budgets caused by dropping dues revenues, diminishing donations, and stagnant investments, administrators and lay leaders are squeezing the bottom line, looking for new ways to lower expenses.

They are negotiating contracts with outside service providers, from landscapers and snow removal teams to office copier stores. They are freezing wages and asking professionals to forgo contractual raises, bonuses, and even professional development opportunities.

Special programs, whether a musical enhancement of High Holy Day services or an outside adult education speaker, are all falling by the wayside. Congregations are renegotiating their dues with denominational umbrella organizations like the Union for Reform Judaism and United Synagogue for Conservative Judaism, even as more of their own members are asking for dues relief. And many have had to let office workers go or cut the hours of staff members, including those already working part-time.

“These are tough times. We have to do things to make ourselves more fiscally responsible,” said Randy Laxer, president of Temple Sholom of West Essex in Cedar Grove.

Of the representative sampling of synagogues NJJN spoke with for this article (a total of 12), only one said it was not really being affected by the economy. And that appears to be a fluke: Mount Freedom Jewish Center in Randolph happened to lose its senior rabbi last year to a Philadelphia-area congregation.

“Not having a rabbi’s salary this year helped in terms of budgeting,” said president Larry Weinstein. “Our shul is doing surprisingly well despite the economy.”

A new, younger rabbi, Menashe East, will be starting in August, but at a lower salary than what the more experienced Pinchas Klein was getting.

Some congregations are feeling the impact more than others. “I must hear about someone losing a job every week,” said Nina Tucker, president of Temple Ner Tamid in Bloomfield. By January, the writing was on the wall. “We realized we’d be in the hole more than $100,000. I sent a letter to the congregation to let them know, and a few people made some donations.”

But it wasn’t enough.

“Lo and behold, in April we were short. We had to dip into our reserves. In May we went into our line of credit,” said Tucker. “We have no problem meeting our payroll, but we’re dipping into things we don’t want to dip into,” she said.

And at Temple Sholom, the leadership is taking the major step of closing its early childhood center. “It’s not self-sustaining, and we needed to make some hard decisions,” said Laxer. “Most of the people in the early childhood center are not our members, and they are not even Jewish. It became evident that we would just take a break for a year.”

And that is just one of many measures already — or about to be — taken. Temple Sholom had already eliminated a part-time office position and will probably cut back the hours of a part-time custodian. Sisterhood has taken over in preparing for kiddushes and the occasional Shabbat dinner served at the temple. The newsletter will become bimonthly and be distributed by e-mail to save on postage and printing, and more meetings are being held in people’s homes. The building will be closed not just one evening a week, as is the case currently, but for a full day each week. But those cutbacks were not cost-effective enough to prevent the closing of the preschool.

By contrast, other synagogues have planned for dire situations that so far have not arrived.

Temple B’nai Or in Morristown sent out dues letters several weeks ago. “Looking at the returns coming back, we’re not seeing an impact that is measurable,” said president Herb Sorkin. But he’s cautious. “Many people have lost jobs and those who are retired have seen their portfolios erode…so we have done things in the budget to reflect the reality that we will probably have less income this year.” For the first time the congregation has formed a fund-raising committee.

Capital improvements have gone on the back burner at Temple Beth Am in Parsippany, and funds raised for such projects were reallocated to operations. The current budget was cut five percent. But president Marc Colton is breathing a sigh of relative relief. “Considering what’s going on in the world, we’re not doing badly,” he said. “Our projections several months ago pointed toward a horrible year end, but the numbers have worked out. With cuts and changes, we’ll come out even, and we did not have to take out a loan.”

Seeking relief

Most synagogues report an increase in requests for dues relief and are responding in a variety of ways.

Pine Brook Jewish Center in Montville is instituting a program that president Randee Fox calls “deferred dues.”

“People are losing their jobs, but rather than reduce their dues, we are deferring them,” she said. “We live in an affluent community. People can usually afford our dues. And when they are up and running again, they’ll be able to pay again.”

How are people responding? So far so good. “People don’t want to leave the synagogue, and they’re thrilled we are willing to work with them,” said Fox. “Look, we want to be with them more for the stressful times. People know we have to work together. So when they hear, ‘We will be here for you, and when you get a job we’ll see how to handle it,’ they are relieved.”

At Temple Sholom members on dues relief are being asked for “sweat equity,” said Laxer. “We’re going to be utilizing volunteers a lot more and this year, we’re asking, based on dues relief, if people are able to give their time, maybe doing mailings or answering the phones instead,” she said.

The poor economy, strangely, has had an ironically positive effect at at least one synagogue, Temple Beth-El Mekor Chayim in Cranford: Membership has grown because new, young families have moved in, and others are not moving away.

“People used to move from Cranford to fancier areas. But that has stopped with the economy. This is a nice middle-class area,” said president Elliott Ballen.

But that doesn’t mean the synagogue isn’t feeling the pinch. “Obviously, some congregants are losing their jobs and they are not paying as much in dues; they need relief. Or they have had cuts in their pay, so their pledges are less.”

Even people who have not been adversely affected by the economic downturn “are worried,” said Ballen. “No one wants to give away what they have.”

He is focusing on creative fund-raising. “People only have a certain amount of money to give. But if we do something fun, like an art auction, for example, people from the town may come too,” he said.

Fund-raising wipeout

This past year has proved a wipeout in terms of fund-raising at some congregations, and many are scaling back general fund-raising.

At Temple Sha’arey Shalom in Springfield, they had to cancel the annual shalah manot Purim fund-raiser “for lack of interest,” said immediate past president Jeri Greenberg. A recent casino night raised far less than in the past — just $2,000-$3,000 compared with a more usual $9,000-$12,000.

“In this economy, the same-old, same-old doesn’t fly,” said Greenberg.

Instead, they will try to rely on individual donors to pick up the cost of adult education speakers and other line items that used to be part of the synagogue budget.

As Fox of Pine Brook Jewish Center said, “People are reticent to do too much fund-raising. We’re extremely sensitive to the economy, and we don’t want to hit people from all directions.”

While all seem nervous about their short-term needs, area synagogues are almost uniformly rosy about the long term.

“I’m not worried. I’d like to get past this, but I think we’ll be fine,” said Tucker of Ner Tamid.

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