02/10/2025
WJCC KOL NIDRE APPEAL 2025
If buildings could talk, our community centre would tell stories of weddings, Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, family simchas, festivals filled with dancing, shows, spring dances, community meals, visits by Chief Rabbis, local politicians, even the Israeli football team. This building reflects a glorious past.
If buildings could talk, our community centre would currently say ‘drip drip drip’, as 50 years of cost-cutting and undermaintenance has finally left our building in need of some well-deserved tender loving care.
A year ago we had hoped that we would be able to sell our building, so that we could move to a new location that better suits the needs and activities of the current community membership, whilst also ensuring financial stability. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to sell the building – a city recession and changes to council zoning laws meant that we only received offers far below acceptable. We will still need to make some hard decisions in order to cover rising maintenance and insurance costs and decreasing income, but we are staying here. And frankly, this decision has allowed me to breathe out and smile a bit. Because even though selling the building was the sensible thing to do in many ways, I also have so many happy memories in 80 Webb St.
So we are staying in this building. It will continue to be the place where we celebrate simchas and support each other in hard times. A building where new immigrants feel welcome. Most importantly, we want to make sure this is the building that our children or grandchildren can have their Bar and Bat Mitzvah in, their Purim parties, their Shabbatons, make Jewish friends and create their own joyful memories. If our building can talk in the future, we want it to be the sound of kids running through the hall, singing in shul, laughing, learning, and belonging. The sounds of kids running through these halls, laughing, learning, and belonging — that is what guarantees our future.
But to stay we need two things from you, so this year we are doing a double appeal.
Firstly, we need you to donate money. For the last few years, we were trying to limit our maintenance to the most essential jobs, not wanting to invest in a building that we then sold to be demolished. Now that we’re staying, we need to fix every leak that is currently dripping or threatening to start dripping soon. We are aiming to raise $250,000 to fix the roof in this building so there are no more leaks. Many communities around the world can raise that kind of money in one appeal, but we know there’s a recession in Wellington and our members aren’t wealthy. We will need to come up with other fundraising and capital generating plans or borrow money in order to pay for some of this, but every dollar you donate as part of this appeal is one dollar that we will have immediately to start using, and won’t need to pay interest on and repay it. I know we ask for money every year at Kol Nidre, but this year the appeal is essential. Please dig a little deeper than you have in past years, and please let your overseas family and friends who still hold our community dear in their hearts about this appeal so that they can contribute too.
Secondly, we need you here. There’s no point investing in a building that people aren’t using. No point fixing the roof of a shul that no one is praying in. This Kol Nidre we are asking you to make a pledge to yourself that you will come to services or events more often than last year. Come help us make a Friday night minyan every week, you could even join the Kupermans for a Friday night dinner afterwards. Come help us get a Shabbat morning minyan at 9.30am rather than us having to wait for people to arrive, let Louise know which week your family would like to host a kiddush. Come to our weekday festival services, coming up next week for Sukkot and the week after for Shmini Atzeret and Simchat Torah. Come to community meals, events, shiurim, working bees, lectures. Make us so pleased that we weren’t able to sell our building because everything is so well attended.
To donate to the Kol Nidre appeal, please click here. https://givealittle.co.nz/org/wjcc
thank you for also sharing with your friends and families around the world
Support the WJCC 2025 Kol Nidre Appeal to revive our beautiful building.
