In a JTA Op-Ed announcing the publication of a report written with Steven M. Cohen, Ari Kelman opines:

…what we are seeing is not the loss of Jewish practice in North America. We are seeing young people who want to build something new that follows a different vision of what an institution can be and that will cater in a different way to the needs of American Jews for meaningful Jewish engagement.

The report, “THE CONTINUITY OF DISCONTINUITY - How Young Jews Are Connecting, Creating, and Organizing Their Own Jewish Lives,” was commissioned by the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies. It examines the anti-institutional bent of young Jews who are building new models for Jewish engagement that blur the lines between the secular and the sacred, as well as between Jewish culture and pop culture.

Edgar Bronfman, writing in yesterday’s JTA:

[W]ithout experimentation the synagogue will continue to diminish as Judaism’s central institution. An ethos of experimentation is precisely what is needed in order to attract more people to Judaism and create a renaissance in Jewish life.

…The challenge before rabbis of all the branches of Jewish observance is to make the synagogue experience joyful and affirming on an everyday basis.

The Jewish Journal’s Tom Teichholz, reflecting on remarks by New Jews coauthor David Shneer at UCLA earlier this year:

I was struck by Shneer’s remark that “synagogues used to be the places in which Jews constituted their communal Jewish identities.”

He’s right, of course. It used to be that if you were a big shot, you gave to the synagogue.

“If I were a rich man,” sang Tevye, I would “have a seat by the eastern wall.” Which led me to think: Why does each Jewish billionaire need his own museum? When being Jewish is part of the culture, what if culture (and the cultured) returned the favor?

Why can’t Jewish synagogues also be showcases for culture?

…How many temples could be restored, how many liturgical, musical and cultural programs could be funded by …the host of other big museum donors and creators.

…In Los Angeles, “the Newest Jewish City,” Jews are shaping the culture, and their Jewish museums are shaping our notions of Judaism in American culture. Can Jewish culture also play a role in revitalizing our temples?