Dear Members and Friends,

We have received our temporary Certificate of Occupancy and as such, we will be in our new building this coming Shabbat at 510 Claremont Avenue!!

To celebrate this milestone for our community, we will be holding an inaugural Community Kiddush honoring our wonderful contractor, Rafael Minkowitz, and the chairman of the Building Committee, Eli Ehrenfeld. Their dedication to this project has been beyond anything we could have expected and due to their tireless efforts and commitment, our dream of a new building has been realized.

Please help us celebrate this joyous occasion which we have waited so long for. Your sponsorship of this Kiddush will help purchase the tables and chairs for our new social hall, as well as help us honor two very deserving individuals.

As many of you remember, we kicked off our Capital Campaign and this project with a community Kiddush which saw nearly 100% participation from our entire membership. Please join us in coming full circle by contributing to this momentous event. Please visit our website at http://www.shaaretefillah.org/Shul-Events/inaugural-kiddush.html to sponsor this Community Kiddush via credit card or contact our Treasurer, Eric Orgen at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it if you wish to co-sponsor this Kiddush and will be sending a check.

I am excited to report that at last night’s Board of Director’s meeting, the Board unanimously approved awarding a contract to Rafael Minkowitz of Asset Construction for the renovation of our new building. The contract has been duly signed and the work has begun TODAY!! (3/12/12)

SEE THE REMAINING SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES BY CLICKING HERE

As was mentioned in the update sent to the shul Erev Purim, the Building Committee and a sub-committee of the Board spent a significant amount of time over the last few days meeting with Asset Construction to revamp the renovation plans in a manner that was optimal from both a pricing and timing perspective. Mr. Minkowitz has gone out of his way to present a plan which meets those goals.

In summary, the renovation has been broken into two phases. Phase I, which began today, will include the following items:

· Sanctuary
· Bathrooms
· Social Hall
· Kitchen
· New HVAC & Mechanical Systems

Asset Construction has assured us that this work will be completed in June 2012! When the Phase I work is completed, and the Township of Teaneck issues a Certificate of Occupancy, we will be able to move into the building and begin a new chapter for our congregation.

Phase II, which will include the Beit Midrash, the Classrooms / Youth Wing, new HVAC & Mechanical Systems for that portion of the building, as well as many of the finishes, can begin during Phase I, or after Phase I has been completed. At this time, we are not able to commit to beginning Phase II as we have not yet met our fundraising targets and we don’t have the funds available to complete that phase of the project. However, we will insure the classrooms will be “touched up” during Phase I enabling our children to have a makom of their own in our new building.

As of this writing, we are approximately $150,000 short of what we need to complete the project in its entirety. While this sounds like a large number, broken down, it amounts to approximately $1800 per family. I have confidence that if we all push hard, we can all find a way to raise the money either through a direct gift, through fundraising, or through soliciting donations from family and friends. We have received generous Capital Campaign}al Campaign donations from 32 of our Full Member families, 4 of our Associate Member families; as well as from a number of our member’s grandparents and other friends of our shul. This is a major accomplishment to be celebrated; however, we still need 100% participation from our entire membership! We realize that not everyone in our community has the ability to make a monetary gift at this time, but there are other ways to contribute.

Please reach out to me or the Fundraising Committee to let us know how you will help us reach this milestone which benefits our entire community

I would like to thank all of our members and friends who have made donations towards this endeavor. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all of our committee members who continue to work tirelessly towards this milestone for our community. These people, all of whom are volunteers, continue to put in numerous hours above and beyond their everyday responsibilities of work, family, and commitments to other organizations to the benefit of all of us. I ask you to join me in thanking them directly and extending Hakarat HaTov for all of their efforts. This next step for Shaare Tefillah would not be possible without them.

We have much to be thankful for and much to celebrate and I look forward to being able to do so with all of you in our new building in the near future.

Sincerely,

Construction Update 3/12/2012

Thanks to Eli Lansey for the time-lapse video of the chimney removal:

Thanks (again) to Eli Lansey for the time-lapse video of the roof replacement (day 1):

Time-lapse video of the roof replacement (day 2):

Time-lapse video of the roof replacement (day 4):