“Generally, unless a Shul is busting at its seams, which BE is not, new members are welcome, unless such new members lessen the sanctity of the Shul and spoil the mood.”
have you not been paying attention? im telling you that there are quite a few mispallelim there who for them it is beth el or nothing. chassidim have their shuls. yeshivish have their shuls. everyone has their shul already! but the people who are committed and dedicated to beth el…THAT is their ONLY shul! i can tell you this for a fact! is it worth it to sacrifice those people just to fill seats?
the problem with gearing the shul toward different demographics is not that the mispallelim and myself are prejudiced or opposed to other types of jews. if chassidim and yeshivish and modern and buchari and sefardi and temani want to daven there fell free! kol hakavod! but if the demographic that the shul focuses on shifts from what it is now which is old boro park (not necessarily geriatric…more the old boro park type) more modern people to chassidish and yeshivish etc…then the focus of the shul shifts off the people who need it the most and on to those who are there to fill seats. i can tell you with absolute certainty that many of them would stop coming…and most of not all of those would not go to shul at all. (or at least not as frequently)
not every shul in boro park has to be cookie cutter. YIBE is different and we NEED a shul thats different to attract people who dont feel comfortable anywhere else. you may not understand this but kiruv and outreach and getting people more interested in torah and yahadus isnt about numbers. getting people involved in a shul, and involved in shiurim etc is not about “oh how many people can i say attended my shiur, or heard my drasha” its about the quality of teh impact and impression on the people you influence.
so 200 chassidim might be inspired once or twice…but do they need it as badly as that young adult who sits in the back of young israel beth el quietly davening and enjoying the shul because it is the only place he feels welcome? is it worth it to shaft that family who is not from around here and doesnt feel welcome anywhere else, but in young israel beth el of boro park feels like part of a larger family? is it fair to alienate the pashutah yid who works in a post office but now knows so much gemara because the only daf yomi shiur he would ever attend is given at beth el?
you dont understand because you onviously arent there as often as i am and you obviously dont see hapening what i see, but there are so many people who daven there, who i have known for 10 years sho have grown tremendously as a direct result of teh shul and especially due to the efforts of Rabbi Snow. and i can guarantee you…that were it not for Young Israel Beth El existing as it does today…those people would never have become what they are today.
i love the shul. ive given a lot to it. time, money, attendance…and i can tell you that numbers are a distant second to what we accomplish at beth el. its true…we can accomplish more. and we can influence and impact more people…but not like you are suggesting.