Masechet Fort Tryon

What's This All About?

At the June 2, 2019, Annual Congregational Meeting, we participated in this exercise. Each clause of Section 1 of the FTJC’s historic “Objects & Purposes” (from our By-Laws) was put on big paper like a statement from the Mishnah. FTJC members—like later generations of Rabbis studying the Mishnah—wrote their questions, comments, challenges, and anecdotes, and responded to each other.

Why Did We Do This?  The Board and Rabbi wanted an opportunity for our community to get more accustomed to listening and talking with each other about our values and reasons for being here – both to strengthen our shared purpose, and to foster understanding and respect where we differ.

Will We Do This Again? Maybe! This exercise was just one step, one mode, one opportunity. We understand that not everyone could be present, and that writing is not everyone’s best mode for engaging. We may revisit this particular exercise. We certainly will create more opportunities for conversation, listening, and sharing.

Was This the Whole Text? Not quite. There are two more sections to the “Objects & Purposes.” Though important, they are written in a different mode. We stuck to Section 1 to keep the exercise manageable.

Is This FTJC’s Mission Statement? Not really. The “Objects & Purposes” is a legacy, both profound and expansive, from our founding generations. But FTJC doesn’t have a modern, concise Mission Statement the way many organizations do today.

Will We Revise the “Objects and Purposes”? Maybe! We aren’t sure yet whether a new articulation is necessary or worthwhile; and if so, whether we would revise these statements and/or create a new concise Mission Statement.

What Will Happen to These Sheets?  A design team of members hopes to preserve these comments in a format like a Talmud page – with the original statement in the middle, and commentary below and around it. This format could be shared, revisited, and added to in future conversations.

We are actively seeking your participation in this conversation. Please view the packet of all of the Objects & Purposes. Each is titled and has most of the raw comments gathered from the meeting and exercise. As you read and react to these, send us your comments. The form below will allow you to enter the comment on each page individually or as a whole. Please be specific as possible with how your comment can add to or augment the statements and discussions on the page.

This round of feedback and comments closes on Monday, January 20th, 2020.