Culture of Belonging

What is a Culture of Belonging? 

Temple Sinai is engaged in a congregation-wide initiative that invites our entire membership to participate in a deep, and fascinating, exploration of what we are calling our Culture of Belonging (CoB).  Together we are seeking to understand what makes people feel connected to our synagogue community today and how we can evolve to sustain and deepen that connection in the years ahead. 

Why?

It was nearly a decade ago, after numerous listening and learning sessions with a significant portion of our membership, that we developed a strategic plan for the congregation, Imagine Sinai; it has served as an impactful blueprint for our community and helped bring us to our current place of strength.  Ten years later, it is once again time to seriously explore our future and delve into the significant question of “what’s next?” for Temple Sinai, and we need your voice in this critical effort!    

CoB Lab Team

We have engaged the consulting firm Insyte Partners to facilitate a bold, year-long exploration.  With their guidance, we will imagine, define, and act on ways we at Temple Sinai want to adapt in order to thrive in a constantly changing Jewish world.  A broad, representative cross-section of our diverse congregational family has been formed (aka the CoBLab team) and will partner closely with Insyte to guide this process.

Your Involvement!

This congregation-wide initiative invites our entire membership to engage in a deep exploration of belonging through a variety of conversational settings, both individual and communal, and we want to hear from you! Your voice is imperative and will help to inform and shape the ultimate outcomes of our CoB initiative. 

Rather than running it like a town hall, where attendees approach a microphone and share thoughts, questions, and impressions, Listening Forums use an “Open Space” format. Open Space is a structured approach to deeply listening to each other’s perspectives on the topics that matter most to the individuals in the room. During Open Space, anyone will be able to convene a small-group conversation around the intersection of the topic and our personal sense of belonging at Sinai.