Our AGM on 21st March was a momentous occasion. This was the moment at which we had to face up to the ending of the affiliation with GNS, and what to decide where we would go next. After an exhaustive discussion, covering many points, we were able to reach near-unanimous agreement about short-term goals at least. The main results were the following. We passed this resolution overwhelmingly:
This meeting agrees that we are committed to being a fully independent progressive Jewish Community, providing as many Jewish facilities - life cycle events, services and the like - as we possibly can. At this stage we do not know the details or timescales involved, but we are committed to developing these Jewish facilities to the best of our abilities.
We committed ourselves to buying the scroll that has been so long under discussion. The timescale still has to be decided - the sofer has other scrolls in the queue before ours, and we still have fund-raising to do. But we are definitely well on the way.
We formed a steering group to consider all the many issues that face us as a newly-independent community. We have many volunteers for this group, but more would be welcome - it is open to all full members of the community.
Overall, the meeting had a very positive atmosphere. There was a strong sense of community and mutual trust, notwithstanding the inevitable uncertainty of the situation. We all feel that we have taken significant first steps in building an independent progressive Jewish community in Edinburgh.
The steering group has now had four meetings. It is working on the following areas:
You can read reports on progress on all these issues
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