Join the conversation on JSpot.org about the Fall 2007 S3K Report, “Synagogues and Social Justice: Creating Sustainable Change Within and Beyond the Congregation.”

Rabbis Elliot Dorff and Kerry Olitzky, both members of S3K’s Synagogue Studies Advisory Board, present Big Tent Judaism:

It is time for the Jewish community to rally together around the issue of welcoming newcomers. No mitzvah is repeated more often in the Torah than to “welcome the stranger.” (“Stranger” is not our preferred translation because of its sometimes negative connotations in English, so we say “newcomer.”)

Welcoming newcomers is not the domain of just one movement or institution. We must coordinate across denominational and organizational lines to determine what works best in finding and reaching people, how we on the inside can engage those still on the outside, and what are the messages of meaning and value that will draw them in.

Join the Big Tent Coalition here.

STAR’s Rabbi Hayim Herring, a member of S3K’s Synagogue Studies Advisory Board, notes in JTA that

“[T]he vast majority of rabbis are aware that they must continue to pursue ways of engaging members, reaching out beyond the core community and including participants who have historically been sidelined by the synagogue….What is most apparent is that many synagogues are seeking ways to change the fundamental assumptions about membership and participation. Rabbis are honest about the problems that synagogues exhibit and know that critiques are often leveled at them — they are still not shaping enough people"s lives and often are perceived as out of touch and parochial.

However, with their heightened willingness to rethink their roles and congregations, rabbis are hopeful that they will overcome challenges to make Judaism more relevant in the lives of American Jews beyond the High Holidays.”

The RRA’s Richard Hirsch offers good advice in The Forward for reviewing High Holyday services:

“Given the diverse nature of our community, did our services manage to provide comfortable access for most people?”

“Given the need to balance personal reflection and prayer with communal participation and congregational singing, did our services allow enough time for both?”

“Given that many of our members are familiar with the liturgy while many others are not, did our services hit a reasonable balance between fidelity to the core structure and innovation?”

“Given that this year we decided to try a new innovation, do we have enough sense of the response to try it again, drop it, or modify it?”

“Given that we assign the final responsibility for shaping the Yamim Noraim services to the rabbi, are there suggestions you might want to offer to her for consideration for next year?”

“Given that there are many opportunities for spiritual enrichment, what was one moment during the services that you felt was particularly powerful for our community?”

For our communities to fulfill the high expectations we have for them, we need to think in terms of “we” and not “me.” Congregants should come to the Yamim Noraim with the expectation of working on teshuvah, and then rate the services in terms of how well the services supported that work. That will be an authentic indicator of how well a community and its rabbi work together to accomplish the holy work of the season of repentance.

From Jewish Theological Seminary Chancellor Arnold Eisen’s installation address:

Given the vastly changed circumstances of the Jewish community and particularly of the synagogue in recent decades, the first major task that the faculty will undertake under my leadership will be a curricular review of the rabbinical and cantorial schools. We will be looking hard this year at what we teach and how we teach it. It’s not enough that our future rabbis and cantors be learned in their tradition, and especially its texts and music, though they will of course continue to graduate with that learning and the ability to transmit it effectively. Future rabbis and cantors, to be successful, must understand the sociology of the communities they will serve, the consciousness of the individuals they must inspire and counsel, and the detailed workings of the institutions they will lead. They must be prepared to teach and represent Jews who stand alongside other communities in true pluralism. As if that were not difficult enough, our future clergy must combine mastery of these tools and skills with the development of an inner life of spirit and awe before God as they understand these. We will help our students do so, moreover, not only by what we offer them in the years leading up to graduation but in an expanded program of continuing education available to them once they are out in the field.

Writing in The Forward, my old schoolmate Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove rightly notes that

[W]hile Judaism may be a religion of deed and not creed, a generation that does not invest its energy into the question of Jewish belief is a generation that will find itself without the life-sustaining aquifers necessary to keep it vital.

He points out that without theology, kashrut, circumcision, and Israel are, respectively, a diet, a medical technique, and another problematic Middle Eastern country.

And without theology, the synagogue is just another old boys’ or old girls’ club, or perhaps just another preschool.

Larry Hoffman has started the conversation (PDF download). Anyone want to join him and Elliot?

(Thanks to Jewschool’s LastTrumpet for the heads-up.)

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.

Ari Kelman on the S3K Synagogue Studies Institute’s recent research agenda consultation on synagogue studies/Jewish congregational studies:

…[T]he most exciting and urgent stuff (for me) went down at the post-conference conference, a working group gathering convened by Synagogue 3000. It was a chance for a bunch of us (about 15) to sit down and think through some research interests and potential research that we want to either undertake or see undertaken soon. these were not easy questions: questions of diversity (in all its diverse stripes), of worship/spirituality/music, of leadership, and of motivations. Fortunately, we had some brilliant people there, and we came out with a good-looking, provocative, and loose research agenda for Synagogue 3000.

Joshua Avedon and I were guests at last week’s Synaplex Sneak Preview, covered here by The Jewish Journal. As Rabbi Hayim Herring (a member of the S3K Synagogue Studies Advisory Board) remarked,

“People have all kinds of yearnings…. Some are looking for God, some for prayer and meditation, some for community. I don’t want to impose my definition of spirituality on anyone else. We all go through different stages; what fits us today might not fit us tomorrow. If you think of Shabbat as the destination, Synaplex provides many paths to get there. Synagogues take what we have to offer and imbue it with their own creativity and energy.”

His comments were echoed by Rabbi Laura Geller of Temple Emanuel Beverly Hills:

“There are many different doors to Judaism. For some it’s spiritual, for some it’s cultural, for some it’s community, for some it’s learning, for some it’s social justice.”

The popularity of Synaplex programs at places like Temple Emanuel and elsewhere demonstrates that American Jews haven’t given up on the synagogue — they just want them to become more welcoming sacred communities. And it’s more evidence of the potential synagogues have to be true sacred centers for the Jewish people.

This post by Rabbi Aaron Spiegel

Yesterday’s USA Today included an article entitled, “Some Protestant churches feeling ‘mainline’ again,” contending that it"s not just conservative, evangelical churches that are thriving but that many mainline Protestant congregations are alive and well. The “mainline” here refers to the Episcopal, Presbyterian, Disciples of Christ, United Church of Christ, United Methodist, and Lutheran denominations. Most of the press around these denominations has predicted the slow demise of the mainline from the religious landscape of American Christianity.

Not so, says Diana Butler-Bass in her new book, Christianity for the Rest of Us: How the Neighborhood Church is Transforming the Faith. Along with her two previous books, The Practicing Congregation: Imagining a New Old Church and From Nomads to Pilgrims: Stories from Practicing Congregations, her research found that there are mainline churches that are doing well, and many are thriving and growing.

So, what does this have to do with American Judaism? We could learn a lot from Diana"s research. Bass makes a distinction between programs and practices. The congregations she studied are able to identify those things they do that were irrelevant or lost their meaning. Instead of throwing these away, Bass talks of “retraditionalizing” these practices. I"m reminded of Larry Hoffman"s distinction between ritual and ritualization in The Art of Public Prayer. Bass"s research found that mainline churchgoers crave ritual and ancient practice. But, they also want these presented in ways that are relevant and meaningful to their contemporary lives. So while one Episcopal church chants Gregorian melodies, they also offer Café St. Mark – a free breakfast buffet for all, member and visitor, as a way of offering hospitality and forming community.

One Lutheran official stated of mainline Protestantism, “We got lazy…” Sociologist of religion Barry Kosmin says, “The mainline is never going to be the dominant cultural group again.”

Where is American “mainline” Judaism in comparison? There is already talk that Judaism is in a post denomination/movement period. Steven M. Cohen"s forthcoming S3K Report for the S3K Synagogue Studies Institute on movement affiliation may say otherwise. Larry Hoffman says that “post-denominationalism is a ‘myth" and that denominations are still very important.” I would contend that the movements are not important themselves; it"s the identity that synagogues derive from their affiliation. However, I think we"re in the midst of our “lazy period.” If synagogues (and the movements) don"t start the process of retraditionalizing, we will have our own version of mainline decline.

Bass says of these practicing, revitalized churches, they “have a beautiful world where they are enacting service, doing justice, learning to pray and caring for one another.” Isn"t it interesting how this parallels the edict in Pirke Avoth, “The world rests on three foundations: study, service, and benevolence”? Judaism offers the prescription for vital synagogue communities. Maybe it"s time for us to borrow it back from our Christian brothers and sisters?!