In August 2022, Norman Cohen became the President of Kane Street Synagogue, which operates in a 170-year-old building in brownstone Brooklyn. Five months later, a section of the ceiling of the historic building’s sanctuary suddenly collapsed.
As Norman says, this wasn’t even the biggest challenge he and his community faced during his 3-year term, but his participation in USCJ’s Sulam for Presidents cohort gave him the tools to rise to each challenge along the way.
The first major challenge was onboarding new clergy following the retirement of their prior rabbi, who had held the pulpit for 25 years. Through a rigorous rabbinic search, Rabbi Michelle Dardashti was hired and very quickly became an innovative voice of the congregation over the three years of Norman’s presidency.
With the new rabbi in place, Norman tackled the next challenge: membership recruitment. Their membership numbers had fallen dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic and something had to be done about it. Their new rabbi was critical in recruiting new members: she continued getting to know the existing membership while courting new members, specifically for the Hebrew School. Norman recalls that their membership recruitment also brought in young couples without children. They were able to grow their membership by a third during his presidency.
Norman attributes this partially to their October 7th programming. “Israel isn’t just a programming niche at Kane Street Synagogue,” said Norman. “It’s part of our rabbi’s everyday presence. Love for Israel is very integrated into everything Rabbi Dardashti brings to Kane Street.”
In January 2023, part of the sanctuary ceiling fell. Norman remembered his network connections from Sulam for Presidents and called upon his peers for advice and insights.
The synagogue had a building fund, but at the time, only new members were being charged the fee. To put more budget into their building, they instituted charging a building fee to all members every year. They also had an existing building committee, but after evaluating it using tools from Sulam for Presidents, Norman recognized that new members would re-energize them and recruited several new volunteers.
The whole endeavor of repairing the ceiling proved extremely challenging and expensive. It ate into the congregation’s slim reserve fund, but after months of meeting in alternate locations, they were able to reopen the sanctuary in time for the High Holidays! Their successful navigation of the renovation proved to members that the synagogue leadership could handle a much-needed larger renovation, which would require restarting a stalled capital campaign. Norman credits his Building Committee with this success.
“Not only did they steer us through repairing our ceiling, but then they took on the revival of our Mikdash Capital Campaign to renovate our sanctuary and making that ceiling repair just the first step in a multi-year renovation of our sanctuary and our education building,” said Norman.
Norman recruited a past president with a history of fundraising at Kane Street to spearhead the new capital campaign. Together, they brought in younger members on the committee. Lastly, they utilized their new rabbi as a fundraiser. Everyone contributed to ensure the capital campaign would be successful. The congregation also felt confident about the campaign after the success of the sanctuary ceiling.
“I think things like [the sanctuary ceiling repair] really boost people’s confidence in leadership, that you can get things done,” he said. “Donors felt we had handled this sanctuary repair pretty well and kept it within costs. And I think that really encouraged people that our leadership was able to take on a big project like this.”
One of Norman’s proudest projects was onboarding Cantor Avital Lazar as Kane Street’s Director of Liturgy and Learning. This year, she will be the Director of Education. Rabbi Beni Summers will be stepping into the new role of Director of Liturgy & Learning. Rather than a traditional cantor role, the Director of Liturgy & Learning role was designed to oversee their b’nai mitzvah program, oversee adult education, and train lay leaders on liturgy and leading.
Kane Street Synagogue is a distinctive congregation that faces a variety of unique challenges. Even the most specialized congregations can benefit from the USCJ’s suite of Sulam programs, particularly Sulam for Presidents. During his extended three-year term, Norman Cohen encountered many unforeseen challenges. However, thanks to Sulam for Presidents, he had access to valuable resources and a supportive network to help him find answers and solutions. USCJ, along with its Sulam programs, offers resources and networks for synagogues of all types and sizes.
