Development

The meeting was attended by 45 members in-person and over 35 members online. There was a wide-ranging discussion and many people had the chance to voice their concerns. The following updates were shared with the meeting and are now being shared more widely for those who weren’t able to attend.
Engagement Sessions
Our engagement process to consider the next steps for our community is under way. Several engagement sessions are being organised, which will be held in different locations and we will be encouraging all members to attend if they can. These conversations will be a chance for people to discuss their vision for our future and how best to serve the community of Reform Judaism in Greater Manchester and these discussions will help shape a decision about our future. The dates for these engagement sessions will be released later this month. A survey/questionnaire was also suggested.                                             
Establishment of a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO)                         The CIO has now been submitted for registration, and we are now dependent on the Charity Commission’s timescale.  Once established, the CIO will convene its first General Meeting, hopefully to take place alongside our AGM, which will include electing trustees. The CIO will then continue the work of the Synagogue with its new Constitution.
Future Rabbinical Recruitment                                                                         With so many variables still to be sorted, we believe that the time is not quite right to advertise or attract a full-time Rabbi. Therefore, as an interim measure, we have approached Rabbi Lisa Barrett and Rabbi Warren Elf to provide short-term cover from August 2023.
Both Rabbi Lisa and Rabbi Warren are well-known to the membership and will continue to provide us with both pastoral and spiritual support, as they have often done in years previous. Appointing a full-time rabbi will of course include the opportunity for all members to approve the appointment in the usual way.  

The status of the Jackson’s Row Development
For those who have not seen the development recently, the developers are moving apace around Jackson’s Row, and building on the former Bootle Street Police Station site has already begun. The sale contract that we have already signed is still in place, but there have been delays on the side of the developers, and also the City Council, who are one of the parties. The developers hope to complete on our sale contract by end of May, with an interim payment hopefully in the next few weeks.
Merger discussions with Sha’arei Shalom                                          Representatives from both synagogues have been meeting in task groups to look at the issues that would be involved in a merger. The groups are looking at the vision for a merged community; how the individual shul structures may need to change; governance, and communications. A merged membership would potentially be 1,000 strong. There will of course be a meeting of the membership to discuss this and the final decision will remain with all our members.
As you can see, there’s a lot going on! We are hugely optimistic about the future of Reform Judaism in Greater Manchester.

On February 8th, our ark was picked up by Assured Fine Furniture, who are undertaking the process of restoring our ark to its original glory. This wooden ark was first used at our Park Place synagogue, survived the blitz, and made its way across town to Jackson's Row. We are very excited that this will become our ark in our temporary home - allowing us to celebrate our past and weave it into our future. It is expected that the restoration will take about a month to complete and we will use the ark during all of our Shabbat services after that.