From the outside you can’t tell the building housing the Lawrence Jewish Community Congregation is a synagogue. Its board of directors wants to change that.
But this is just one reason the LJCC has started the Campaign for Community Vitality.
“It does not look very inviting, and that’s an issue because we certainly assume and have reason to believe that people don’t come to us because they don’t realize what it is or are perhaps put off by the esthetics of it,” said Liz Kundin, campaign chair.
“We know the Jewish community in Lawrence is substantially larger than our dues-paying members,” she continued. “There are a lot of Jews that we are not currently serving. If we have a more functioning building, a more accessible building, a more attractive building, both exterior and interior, we’d like to think that would help us in reaching out to the greater Jewish community in Lawrence.”
About the LJCC
The LJCC, located at 917 Highland Drive, was founded in 1954 as the Lawrence Jewish Community Center to create a place of religious, cultural and social functions for the Jewish community. The name was changed to the Lawrence Jewish Community Congregation about four years ago to let people know it is also a synagogue.
LJCC is non-affiliated, so services are an eclectic mix using Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist prayer books. It has a part-time rabbi, Moti Rieber; a cantorial soloist, Rachel Black, who does some of the services; and a singing group called Shiray Shabbat, which leads one service a month. Services are occasionally led by lay leaders. It also has a religious school. The president of the congregation is Jonathan Paretsky.
“We can’t afford a paid executive director. There is an office manager and paid Sunday school teachers, but the organization is essentially run by volunteers,” Kundin said.
The building is very much the same as when built, except for an expansion that was added sometime in the 1970s or ’80s. Both the original building and the expansion are very utilitarian, Kundin said, so whatever funds were available were used carefully and economically.
As a small congregation, Kundin said the budget has only allowed for necessities. Fewer than 100 families are dues-paying members, although there are substantially more who participate in activities or provide financial support.
“Our budget struggles to just manage what we need to manage and the result is that there hasn’t been any systematic way to create funds available to do the kind of upgrades and maintenance that any physical plant needs, such as redoing carpeting on a regular basis, furnaces break, painting needs to be redone as things start to look old and tired,” Kundin said. “There are things that are just crucial and then there are things like the fact that ceiling tile is old and stained and not very attractive anymore. There’s never been any way to build up funds to keep that kind of thing fresh.”
At the moment, a leaky, unsafe furnace needs to be replaced, as well as lighting and wiring.
While the LJCC has a building fund, Kundin said there has never been an official assessment of dues to go into that fund.
“Sometimes members make contributions into the fund, but the result is that after all these years, we have some very fundamental repairs that need to happen.”
Campaign for Community Vitality
Kundin said the name “Campaign for Community Vitality” came about in hopes that by addressing some of the issues of the LJCC they will be able to move forward in a more encompassing and vital way to the community.
The campaign began under the radar right after High Holidays when the LJCC went to a number of individuals before officially announcing it to the public. This phase raised $86,000.
The campaign was officially launched at the 50th annual Blintz Brunch on Nov. 3, with an ultimate goal of $150,000. The committee sent out mailings to members and “interested” non-members — people on the mailing list who have some connection or had expressed an interest in the congregation at some point in time. Kundin said the committee followed up with phone calls and meetings, and money is coming in.
“We are also accepting pledges over three years because we can’t do all the work right away and it enables people to make larger commitments as opposed to how much of a check they could write out of their checkbook,” she explained.
“The other challenge we face is that this is not a business community; this is an academic and service community. So we don’t have the kinds of members that we enviously assume some of our sister congregations, let’s say in greater Kansas City, have who have substantial wealth, who have a culture of making substantial gifts.”
Although the LJCC’s social hall is not particularly attractive, Kundin said it does have great acoustics. So the congregation sometimes makes extra money by opening up that space to outsiders for a fee. However improvements to the social hall will increase revenue she added.
“We’ve had concerts in our facility where the artists are really, really pleased at how well they sound,” she said. “They’re very displeased by the fact that it’s not very comfortable or attractive to the audience. So to the extent that we can improve this kind of thing, we’re increasing both our ability to bring in the community, which would be a good thing, as well as our ability to increase our rental income, which obviously puts us in better stead moving forward.”
The LJCC board is currently in the process of hiring a project manager to prioritize the various interior and exterior improvements. Of the $86,000 initially raised, Kundin said it’s not all in-hand because some of the pledges are over a two-year period. She anticipates that when the board is satisfied “they’re making smart decisions and using the money just as absolutely carefully as possible,” improvements should begin in early 2014.
To make a contribution or pledge, make your check payable to the Lawrence Jewish Community Congregation or LJCC and send it to them at 917 Highland Drive, Lawrence, KS 66044, along with your name, address, telephone number and email address. Be sure to write Campaign for Community Vitality in the memo line.
