New look, new logo
If you opened your February Beth El Voice, you might have noticed our new Temple Beth El logo.
Last summer, we began the process of redesigning our logo by soliciting from the leadership reflections on the qualities, strengths and personality of our congregational community. Over the coming months, you will see our logo more and more as it is rolled out on the printed and digital materials of our congregation along with being placed on signage.
At an event last Thursday, Rabbi Schindler captured well the meaning behind our Beth El logo. Here are her words:
“There is no place like home. There is no place like our home. Our Beth El building exceeds the expectations of everyone who enters. It is clearly a place that none of us could have built alone. We needed one another to achieve this goal. We needed all of you.
This home of ours exemplifies the three homes a synagogue is meant to be. We are a Beit Knesset – a house of gathering as we have awe-filled and outstanding gathering spaces that have already been filled with celebrations. We are a Beit Midrash – a house of study. Already we have had an abundance of Bnei Mitzvah students and adult learners engaged in study in conversion classes, in Torah study, and in Intro to Judaism classes. Our Beth El University will begin next week. We are a Beit Tefillah – a house of prayer with spectacular sacred space. We have arks with stained glass that inspire and sacred spaces that in three weeks time have already been filled with passionate prayer, thoughtful preaching, and the music of choirs: adult choirs, youth choirs, and the choir of Johnson C. Smith University for MLK Shabbat. Our building connects us to our home of Israel as three shipments from Jerusalem brought over our magnificent stone.
With our new building comes new energy, new passion, new programs, new members, and our old time sense of community, warmth, and inclusion.
With our new building comes a new logo… we are in a time of development as a congregation. The logo reflects that development capturing who we are today as a congregation vs. who were years ago when our last logo and last building were created. We are changing our logo now before we set on signs and set on stone that image that reflects who we are and who we desire to be.
Our new logo is a modern, two toned and bright colored seven branched menorah. It reflects the seven branched menorah we created in the book of Exodus to stand in our ancient sanctuary.
Our ancient menorah brought light into the sanctuar and our ancient menorah brought light into the world. Our leadership selected this image because we, likewise at Beth El, bring light into our sanctuary and we bring light into our world.
The menorah branches at the base of our new logo are intertwined representing our inclusion, our embracing, our compassionate hands and our caring hearts.
Our menorah reflects the seven days of the week… the seventh of which brings us together to create all our homes… our Beit Knesset, our house of gather, our Beit Midrash, our house of study, our Beit Tefillah, our house of prayer… our Beit El… our house of God.
The words capturing who we are meant to be a Beit Knesset, a Beit Midrash, a Beit Tefillah and Beit El all have the word bayit in common, which means home.
May Beth El always be our bayit, our home to which we are drawn… in good times, in hard times, in all time.”
As always, Rabbi Schindler has captured the spirit and the reasons behind our new look and new logo. It represents the best of who and what we are at Temple Beth El. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
