Welcome! Bienvenidos! B’ruchim Habaim!

Eric Imley & Gale Swartz, Co-Presidents

eimley@yahoo.com   swartzplace@gmail.com

This summer will prove to be a busy time in our TBE family! On July 1, 2019, we officially welcome Rabbi Cassi Kail, husband Josh, and children Noam and Talia. Our Rabbinic Transition Welcome Sub-Committee, led by Dina Dreizler, has been very busy planning a series of events to envelope the Kail family into the TBE community! These events will be held over the summer, some of them small and intimate and some larger to give everyone the opportunity to interact with this wonderful new addition to our Professional Leadership team. Rabbi Cassi has already been hard at work developing programs and events. Look for announcements in other parts of this Kol Beit El as well as the weekly email. We hope everyone will be able to attend at least one of the occasions. Rabbi Kail and Cantor Davidson will lead their official first Shabbat service together on July 5, 2019.

The other new member(s) of our community have been less publicized, though you may have heard of this new tenant if you are an avid reader of this column. The San Pedro Co-operative Nursery School officially signed a one-year lease with a three-year optional extension at the end of May. There are a few licensing processes that will need to be finalized right after lease signing, but we fully expect the Co-op to take up formal residency at the end of August, as they follow the LAUSD academic calendar.

Welcoming the new preschool into our community completes one of the long-term plans of the TBE Board of Directors, which is to utilize our preschool space during the week. Generously, the San Pedro Co- op has informed us that there are a few open spots still available 2019- 2020 school year and they will be very excited to accept some of the TBE children into the school. If you know anyone who may be interested, please direct them to the Co-op website www.sanpedroco-op.com for more information. Having our members utilize this daycare will be a beautiful integration of both organizations’ mission to serve our respective communities. We are excited to have another generation of kids running (sorry, we meant walking) our halls during the day.

Lastly, we wish to thank everyone who came to this year’s annual meeting. It was an excellent opportunity for TBE leadership to get feedback on our vision for the future through a set of guided discussions on the topics of financial stability, outreach and safety and security. Please contact either of us at any time for details, and we intend to use this column as a platform to share progress towards these goals. Please continue to stay involved; your commitment gives us inspiration.

As is the Temple Beth El way, “May we greet each other with a smile, hug and speak kind words.” —Lailah Gifty Akita