Reply to Do you love your NWDC or NWDC-adjacent temple? Do you feel the dues are manageable?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We do not love our NWDC temple, and at nearly $5000 per year in dues + religious school tuition, we’re struggling with the payments. They use a sliding scale and we’re at the appropriate level for our income, but it still feels like a lot. It doesn’t help that we’re not taking to this particular temple, though we do really love the religious school. Given all that, we’re looking to maybe make a change. We’ve visited a few others we haven’t really felt were a good fit either, so we’re looking for more ideas. [/quote]

The temple we're looking to join (Shaare Torah in Gaithersburg) does not have a sliding scale and family dues are $4000/year (including the building fund and, I believe, religious school). They do have 50% off for your first year. However, the dues are a big reason we're waiting to join a temple until DD is old enough to start Hebrew school (5 years old, so we have 2 more years). Until then, we're doing informal holiday traditions at home.

We're not that religious and DH and I are seriously conflicted about it. We want DD to have some sort of exposure to Jewish traditions (go through her Bat Mitzvah) but these dues are insane. [/quote]

Whoa - I’m on the board of my temple in another city and we never turn away anyone who cannot afford the dues. Many people just tell us what they can pay and that is fine (our dues are not income based). Of course, there are likely people who can afford the full dues and choose to pay a lower amount but we do not audit them (years ago, there was a humiliating form one had to complete to request an adjustment in dues but we no longer use that - it’s on the honor system - if you say you need an adjustment, we believe you). It’s also all done through our executive director so fellow members do not know who is on adjusted dues. I cannot imagine a synagogue turning anyone away who wants to join but who truly cannot pay full dues. [/quote]

PP here. To be clear, Shaare Torah has not turned us away. We can afford the dues, but just feel they're extremely high. We will probably end up just gritting our teeth and paying, to be honest. [/quote]

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