Community

Extreme Makeover – Synagogue Edition

in

Synagogues looking to makeover the “atmosphere” of their sacred space would do well to take note of how The Gap recently transformed their stores from “institutional” to “homey.” In an effort to woo back customers, the retailer has devised a radical plan to remodel their outlets.

Building A Gateway for the Next Generation: Next Dor DC at Temple Micah

in
Recommended (97)

Synagogue 3000 advisor and consultant Rabbi Rami Arian wrote this case study on Temple Micah and Next Dor DC for Faith Communities Today's (FACT) 2012 annual meeting.

In the report, Arian gives a brief history of the Next Dor initiative at Micah and chronicles its evolution as a catalyst for young Jewish adult engagement as well as Next Dor's effect on Micah's culture, membership, and future.

Recommend this article

ADL publishes online security guidelines for Jewish institutions

in

Following the hacking of a number of synagogue websites, the ADL has prepared a document entitled, "Considerations for Digital and Online Security at Jewish Institutions." The ADL also makes available an online security manual Protecting Your Jewish Institution

Download the document

And now the rest of the story...

in

bjpa

jdbSynagogue 3000's Synagogue Studies Institute in collaboration with the

Berman Jewish Policy Archive and North American Jewish Data Bank is proud to release the report, Conservative & Reform Congregations in the United States: The FACT-Synagogue 3000 Survey, 2010

 

Reform and Conservative Congregations: Different Strengths, Different Challenges

in

U.S. Jewish congregational life is showing signs of stagnation, with few young adults, many older members and more than adequate sanctuary space, according to a new survey of Jewish congregational life. The survey, which included responses from leaders in 1,215 synagogues, offers the most comprehensive view of Reform and Conservative movement congregations to date. Conducted by sociologist Steven M. Cohen for the Synagogue Studies Institute of Synagogue 3000, the survey is part of the larger Faith Communities Today (FACT), a national data set of American religious congregations.

So Near And Yet So Far

in
Recommended (489)

Passover 5771 may be past, but its lessons return in last week’s parashah (B’ha’alot’kha). Of all our holidays, Passover ranks supreme in that we were delivered from Egypt specifically with Passover in mind. Whatever else we do as Jews follows from this singular event in our past. In Temple days, therefore, the Passover sacrifice was the sole calendrical obligation whose purposeful neglect merited a form of capital punishment called karet – the divine sentence of being “cut off” from family ties after we die.

Recommend this article

Debbie Friedman... our colleague, friend and teacher

in
Recommended (602)

The Synagogue 3000 family joins the community in mourning the death of our friend and teacher Debbie Friedman.

Debbie loved teaching and she loved people. She had the gift of creating an instant bond with her "students." Once her music became so universally recognized, her appearances became more like folk rock concerts, everyone singing along on every song. Except one. When Debbie began singing her Mi Shebeirach and the crowd began to sing, Debbie would gently hush them. "Don't sing," she would whisper. "This is for you." What a gift she gave us in that moment.

Debbie Friedman

Recommend this article

Tikkun Olam: Jewish Sacred Repair, Secular Action or both?

in

In an attempt to address the well-documented and growing gulf between the economic fortunes of the rich and poor--and almost in tandem with the onset of the recession and the collapse of the housing market--Rabbi Jill Jacobs published a book on the Jewish imperative to practice tikkun olam, or repairing the world, as seen through both rabbinic and contemporary activist perspectives.

Sacred Strategies: Transforming Synagogues from Functional to Visionary

in

S3K team members Larry Hoffman and Steven Cohen, along with Isa Aron and Ari Y. Kelman have authored Sacred Strategies, about eight synagogues that reached out and helped people connect to Jewish life in a new way-congregations that had gone from commonplace to extraordinary.

A Passover Question That Keeps Us Up All Night

in

This year, let's move beyond wasteful seder conversation dedicated solely to nostalgia, boredom and pediatrics. Let's go around the table and ask, "What question might keep us up in productive conversation all night long, if necessary?" We'd better have one; we no longer have a tamid to atone for us, if we don't.

123next ›last »