A question that has long plagued MoTAS leadership is how to get younger men — dads and college-age men — involved and active. We’re not alone in this; the question is regularly raised on Yammer (the URJ discussion board). It’s also not just a MoTAS question; congregations are also faced on how to get young adults involved in congregational life before school draws them in.

We do have some ideas. In the Spring, we’re doing to initiate some activities that are good for the family. We’re going to engage with AEπ at CSUN — they participated in Mitzvah Day, and we’re going to invite them to the MoTAS Shabbat and other events. We’re also open to your suggestions on how to get younger men involved.

We also encourage you to do your part. If you know college age men and men raising families, we encourage you to personally invite them to a MoTAS activity. Everyone benefits from the interchange.

At every membership meeting, I remind the men present that our goal is to be a role model of doing things right. What does this mean? To me, it means that we are exemplar representatives: each of us is representative of how people perceive MoTAS: if we’re welcoming, people perceive MoTAS as welcoming; if we’re ethical, people perceive MoTAS as ethic. This notion isn’t unique to MoTAS: it is true for the Temple Board as Ambassadors for the congregation, and it is true for every member of Temple Ahavat Shalom.

The notion of being a role model is fundamentally Jewish. It is captured in the words of Rabbi Hillel in the Talmud, Shabbat 31a, where he boils down the Torah to the following: “That which is despicable to you, do not do to your fellow, this is the whole Torah, and the rest is commentary, go and learn it.” The way we behave reflects on how newcomers and visitors perceive MoTAS and Temple Ahavat Shalom.

As the Men of Temple Ahavat Shalom and members of Temple Ahavat Shalom, let us strive to be the people we would like to meet and be around. Let us be the person about whom it is said, “I became part of TAS and MoTAS because of him.”.