JTA’s Sue Fishkoff: “Renewal approach emerges as model for reinvigorating Jewish practice”:

Jewish Renewal …is becoming a groovy kinda tool not just for individual self-fulfillment but for synagogue revitalization across much of the denominational spectrum.

Related article: “Younger generation ignores gray hair, hippie garb to connect with Renewal”

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.)

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?

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.

Tobin Belzer in the World Jewish Digest on “congregations that ‘get it’” — or not:

In the Jewish community today any conversation related to Jewish continuity tends to be fraught. Jewish leaders have had any number of reactions to the noticeable absence of young adult Jews in synagogues. Some dismiss the black hole phenomenon as a life-cycle stage, suggesting that young Jews will join synagogues once they marry and become parents. Others blame increasing rates of intermarriage. (Jewish couples are more likely to belong to a synagogue than are intermarried couples.) Some blame young adults for their self-centeredness and lack of concern with Jewish peoplehood. Others believe that synagogues simply need to be better marketers.

Jewish community leaders would do well to examine the changing nature of today"s 20 and 30 year olds. For Baby Boomers, synagogue membership and Jewish institutional affiliations were primary markers of Jewish identity. In the past, Jews showed their support for synagogue life by paying dues— whether they were enthusiastic participants or not. Today, that sense of obligation is gone: young adults do not feel compelled to join a synagogue if they have no intention of attending. However, when they to do decide to join, they participate as active, invested members.

If Jewish leaders want to engage with young adults and bring them into the synagogue, they need to learn to speak their language. It is a language of openness and pluralism, one that acknowledges the fluidity of their Jewish identities. On a practical level, it begins with leaders" sincere interest in making room for young people to take on leadership roles.

Young adults currently attending synagogues will strongly influence the direction of congregational life in the United States over the next 25 years. It remains to be seen whether the majority of their peers in the “black hole” will decide to show up. If and when they do, one can hope they"ll encounter more than a few congregations that “get it.”

NB: She mentions the S3K Synagogue Studies Institute’s forthcoming S3K Report by Steven M. Cohen on congregational membership patterns …check back with us Friday for the published report!

As Rabbi Sid Schwarz, author of the just-released Judaism and Justice: The Jewish Passion to Repair the World, writes in this JTA op-ed:

[I]f the Jewish community made social action a signature part of what it means to be Jewish in the 21st century — not in lieu of Jewish learning and practice, but as a complementary part of it — we have a good chance to capture a new generation of Jews with a legacy that traces back to our biblical ancestors.

In the absence of time-stopping pre-cogs who walk through walls and recover from any injury, this is a good start.

This post by Rabbi Andy Bachman

[Cross-posted to IDEAS: thoughts during a day in the life of Rabbi Andy Bachman]

So Chicago is aiming to be one of the first cities to produce a Green Synagogue. I like that. They have the space out there to do it in a way that we don"t here in Brooklyn but it puts on the table this broader issue, yet again, of how religious ideas and architectural ideas come together to make an ethical statement about energy-use, community building, and the pursuit of the holy all come together.

Apparently this is an increasingly strong investment choice for homeowners and it skews toward a younger generation and how they think about their property values, which is a very interesting sign. Wells Fargo"s recent survey indicates that 24% of its annually surveyed homeowners “dream green.”

Now to make the big leap. Inspiring Jews across the generations to care as much about their Houses of God as their Houses of the Family and Self. This transition, from the individuated to the communal, is one of the great challenges of our day.

Where our synagogue is located in Brooklyn is one of the most sought after sections of real estate in New York City. Housing values continue to rise, melding together architecture and beauty. As Alain de Botton argues in his new book, The Architecture of Happiness, “Belief in the significance of architecture is premised on the notion that we are, for better or for worse, different people in different places–and on the conviction that it is architecture"s task to render vivid to us who we might ideally be.”

Who we might ideally be is what the synagogue should be all about. So here we build not happiness, but goodness, which, if achieved, can make you happy.

The JTA’s Sue Fishkoff, who wrote many of the articles in the recent (and excellent) “Extreme Shul Makeover” series (full disclosure: S2K and S3K make appearances), has launched her new JTA blog, The Pilpulist, by asking, “Should High Holiday services be free?”

Maggid Sarah and I are having an interesting conversation over at Moshav HaAm…..

[UPDATE] A spin-off conversation with Mishkaneer Yoel Natan is developing here.