Foundation History

In 1965, shortly after the first Shabbat service was celebrated in our new sanctuary, Rabbi Polish and several forward thinking founders of our congregation realized the need to create a mechanism to provide perpetual support for Beth Emet, its facilities and programs. They created the Beth Emet Foundation, Inc. a non-profit corporation, to provide unrestricted funds to endow, and thus to assure, the synagogue’s financial stability and to further its religious, educational, cultural and social programs. In the early 1980’s Rabbi Knobel foresaw the need to grow the foundation through larger philanthropic gifts to relieve the burden of rising synagogue budgets and to offer more exciting ways to finance and enrich programming at Beth Emet. In so doing, Rabbi Knobel not only sought to build upon the existing foundation established through the foresight of Rabbi Polish and others, but also sought to add a link to the continuing chain which strengthens Beth Emet, l’dor v’dor, from one generation to another.

After a successful fundraising campaign in 1986, the Beth Emet Foundation’s unrestricted general fund was significantly enhanced and became known as Assuring our Future, a fitting name for our largest fund. Its steady growth continues to generate income that is used at the direction of Beth Emet’s Board of Trustees for capital improvements and programming. Today, the total value of all of the assets in the foundation is approaching the $2,000,000 mark.