…smells just as sweet. Time Magazine describes “A More Intimate Sabbath“:

Zachary Thacher often spends Friday nights at home in his New York City apartment, but not because he’s skipping out on Sabbath-eve prayer services. Thacher, 32, is the founder of Kol haKfar, an independent Jewish community that, like a growing number of similar groups around the country, meets in the homes of community participants. Thacher says he started his group–which now has a Friday-eve attendance of about 25–because “having a meaningful, personal service just didn’t seem possible in the harsh lighting and monotonous, institutional vibe of a synagogue.”

Like Kol haKfar, many of the new communities thriving in cities across the U.S. are run by volunteers–with a healthy representation in their 20s and 30s–and offer religious services organized almost exclusively by e-mail. The groups tend to avoid denominational classification.

Hat tip: Mah Rabu.

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