August Executive Director Address
This year’s spectacular Summer Conference is behind us—and what a conference it was. Unfortunately for me, I was holed up in the hotel with COVID—an affliction that raised its head, spread rapidly, and impacted others. I’m sorry I missed so much of it. Rabbi Jude Caracelo reported that we needed to bring out extra chairs to accommodate the crowd on Saturday morning. I loved hearing that and am sure others were pleased to see it.
This year’s conference saw a 25% increase over the previous year’s. The uptick follows a trend.This year’s Winter Leadership Conference, for example, was over 40% higher in attendance than 2023’s. Delegates opted to preliminarily receive eight new full and associate member communities and thirteen affiliate communities at the 2024 convention, and we already have paperwork in hand for nine more to hopefully enter in 2025. We’re growing—and doing so in various ways.
Another positive trend—and perhaps the greatest, in my opinion—was the number of men and women who received rabbinic credentials at convention. Congrats to our new, official UMJC rabbis: Jude Caracelo, Jeff Lerman, Boris Goldin and his wife, Shulamit Goldin, and Matheus Zandona, as well as Adam Landsman, who received ordination earlier this year. In addition to the above, we commended two new, official UMJC chaplains: Susan Forshey and Keith Cawthern.
It was election time, too. Delegates voted Rabbi Barney Kasdan in again as President and Matt Absolon was elected to Secretary, as Scott Moore did not run for re-election.
The conference speakers were top shelf; the Business Meeting was robust and eventful; in all, I think the convention was a big win and I hope you do, too! With this, I’d like to encourage leaders who didn’t come to the Summer Family Conference to mark their calendars and take pains to attend the Winter Leadership Conference on January 19-22, 2025, in San Diego, CA. It will be historic.
Executive Directors, of course, endeavor to gin up enthusiasm for various projects and attendance for various corporate events. (It’s the job and you can probably sense me doing that in this letter.) When I say “historic”, however, I am not being hyperbolic. With thirty new communities having been added, we’re staring at the one-hundred member threshold—a milestone for the Union. Against this backdrop, the Executive Committee is, among other things, wanting to have strategic planning sessions at the January 2025 leadership conference to help the organization further lean forward.
There are certain times in every organization’s life cycle when it’s important to pause, take inventory, analytically reflect, think forward, strengthen core values and jettison perspectives and practices that may be antiquated and no longer useful. With the Executive Committee’s blessing, I’ve had conversations with a consultant, J. R. Klein (from Howard Silverman’s congregation). He is minded to lead us in a SWOT analysis at the 2025 WLC. A SWOT is an examination of an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. He expressed interest in putting together a questionnaire to get the ball rolling on the above and then, with those present at WLC, take your perspectives into account and begin collaboratively sorting through the SWOT with the leaders… The Executive Committee is working on this and more. I’ll keep you updated.
This letter is already a bit too long and so I’ll finish. Normally, I’d post a link to a short video clip but will forgo that now. Lots to talk about… Let me simply close by, again, thanking you for your participation in the miracle that is the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations.
Yours,
Dr. Jeffrey Seif
Executive Director
Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations