In the coming weeks, Jews will be frequenting places to which they rarely go — their synagogues. One rabbi I know did an anonymous survey of his congregation on the reason they came to synagogue on the High Holy Days. The most common response was: “to see my friends.” It is enough to get clergy to question why they spend so much time preparing for services. One huge Kiddush might just do the trick!
What is clear is that the Jewish community is in a time of transition, and many synagogues — and the national denominations of which they are part — are behind the curve. The recession has put increased focus on institutions that under-deliver on their promise because funds are scarce. Philanthropists, who are quickly overtaking federations as the arbiters of what programs and institutions will live or die, want to see a return on investment. Synagogues that engage relatively small percentages of their membership on a weekly basis do not recommend themselves for such portfolios, and the trend lines are moving in the wrong direction.
Survey data from 1990 told us that, at any given moment in time, about 35% of Jews were affiliated with synagogues and that over a lifetime 80% of Jews would affiliate (usually in the years leading up to a child’s bar or bat mitzvah). The data from the 2000-01 National Jewish Population Survey showed that those numbers had dropped to 30% and 73% respectively.
Perhaps even more significantly, younger Jews who are most committed to pursuing Jewish life and learning are voting with their feet by creating alternatives to the American synagogue. Around the country there is an upsurge of Jewish prayer and study groups that use rented facilities, have few if any professional staff and whose energy comes mostly from the members.
The phenomenon is very similar to the Havurah movement of the 1970s. Heavily influenced by the American counter-culture, young Jews then felt that they could create more authentic expressions of Judaism than those which could be found in American synagogues. Ironically, many of the leaders of the Havurah movement now lead major Jewish communal institutions, including serving as rabbis of synagogues.
But in the short run, synagogues are challenged to prove that they can become compelling spiritual homes for Jews. Most families affiliate with synagogues for 10 to 15 years to see their kids through a cursory Jewish education and their bar or bat mitzvahs. The data indicate that few families seem to get enough out of the experience to retain their memberships.
Many wonder whether synagogues’ denominational identities are part of the problem. Jews are looking for innovation and engagement; denominational labels convey conventionality. We know that American Jews are notoriously non-ideological, joining synagogues more based on convenience (e.g. proximity) and friendship patterns than for a particular denominational set of practices and beliefs. And parallel to the anti-institutional bias of young Jews is the growing trend toward trans-denominational approaches to Jewish life. The strength of organizations like Hillel, community Jewish day schools, Birthright Israel and the American Jewish World Service prove that Jewish life can be nurtured without denominational labels and that many Jews prefer it that way.
Still, it is premature to write an obituary for the American synagogue. It continues to be the primary retail outlet for meeting the educational and life-cycle needs of Jews, and no other institution seems positioned to take its place. Moreover, there are a handful of very creative rabbis out there and foundations ready to underwrite innovative new approaches for synagogue life.
What does seem critical is to encourage many more rabbis and congregational lay leaders to take some risks in the hope of making synagogues far more compelling places for serious Jewish engagement. For too many Jews coming to shul on the holidays, the fare will be predictable and will not result in a return visit for another 12 months.
We can do better.
Rabbi Sid Schwarz is the founder of the PANIM Institute for Jewish Leadership and Values and the founding rabbi of Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation in Bethesda, Md. He is the author of “Finding a Spiritual Home: How a New Generation of Jews Can Transform the American Synagogue” (Jewish Lights, 2003).
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I have a wonderful small conservative congregation and have been the Rabbi for 20 years. Thank G-d I have a loyal following who help make certain we have a minyan. Some congregations are doing better because of innovations and I applaud them. The truth is that Orthodox congregations do not need innovations. They have congregants who attend because it is there religious obligation and they believe it is the word of G-d they follow in the Torah. Congregants and not only their Rabbis need to keep Kosher and the Shabbat. I urge my fellow Jews to attend services for the holidays as well as daily and Shabbat services. Our best innovation is that of obligating ourselves to follow the mitzvot and to love G-d and our fellow human beings.
Irregardless of why it is so, a Jew along with the 90% of American Jews who have zero level of hebrew fluency will find the religious service incomprehensible and ostracising, if not totally boring and pure torture. Jewish in the diaspora means religion and the religion the way it is set up demands hebrew and the minds of the best educated people in the whole world the American Jew demands at least a level of comprehension that only fluent hebrew would bring.
I'm an engraver by trade. The other day, two gentlemen from a local conservative synagogue came into my shop to order several trophies for a golf tournament they were organizing. Inasmuch as I appreciate the business, the incongruity of such a purchase by an institution who's primary concern is ostensibly the spiritual maintenance and well-being of its congregants was not lost upon me.
When the temple decides they want to charge $2000.00 per annum membership dues and hold a golf calssic, it ceases to be a house of worship, and instead becomes a country club, and a restricted one at that. Recently our son ahd been attending a pre-school that was affiliated with a local temple. When we enrolled him, we recieved literature re. membership. The membership fee's were graduated. The more you paid, the greater access to the Rabbi. I sh*t thee not. You could pay the nominal fee of $1800.00 per year. For this price you get the pre-school program and free High Holy Day tickets. It went up from there. By the time you get to 3000 clams, you're sitting at the rabbi's table during the seder. I don't know. All I wanted to do for the sake of my boy, was to maintain a spiritual connection to G-d and the community, not eat dinner with Captain Steubing on The Love Boat.
All the gimmicks and stratagems will not work because they don't address the root cause of the problem. And the problem is simply this; The Reform and Conservative movements do not speak to the spirtual or temporal needs of the majority of younger jewish couples. The high fees and the resultant economic stratification of the synagogues are a sop to a generation of Jews who value monetary success above all else. Now this may go over a treat with Irving and Estelle as they pull into the temple parking lot in their Bayerlische Moter Werks automobile for Shabbat services, but its a turn off to the rest of us who are part of families with two struggling working parents, who are just looking to maintain a connection to G-d, our heritage and the community without having to go frum and buy into religous fanaticisms. When you go to temple for High Holy Days, its supposed to be about making your peace with G-d and the world around you. It's not supposed to be a high school reunion, where the primary concern is keeping up with the Shapiro's.
While the individual synagogues and temples are culpable at a local level, they are but a fractile of a much larger paradigm and therefore philosophically speaking, they cannot be blamed. When the Jewish Federation has enough money to lose $16,000,000 dollars in fraudulent stock speculations with Mr. Madoff on one hand, while closing the JCC's with the other, when theres enough Jews willing to donate money to expand the Simon Wiesenthal Museum of Tolerance in order to accomadate catered weddings and bar mitzvahs for well-heeled Beverly Hills Jews but not a dime to maintain a Jewish Pre-School for those Jews of less means, the message becomes clear. We're not wanted. Now you can stop wondering why there's so much intermarraige and assimilation.
The most common reason for coming to synagogue on Yomim Norayim is to see their friends. I suppose that's an improvement on 50 years ago when most showed up in time for Yizkor. I suppose we live longer these days! 'One big kiddush could do the job.' On Yom Kippur ? I suspect many thrice a year members enjoy the Cantor and choir -- the music can be powerful --and feel dutibound to hear the Rabbi's sermon once or twice a year. For women it's a chance to dress elegantly as they attend the Court of the King,to see and be seen. This works even when the ladies occupy the traditional gallery ; after all they dress to impress other women. Men aren't into ladies' hats and formal day wear.
Shalo,m All,
People do things for two reasons: because they want to or because they have to. For the vast majority who identify as Jews (the approximately 5/8 Jews who are unaffiliated as well as the majority of the non Orthodox affiliated), Judaism and the synagogue are not in the “have to” (read obligatory) category and no amount of handwringing or ostrich-like desire to turn the clock back to the “good old days” (read the middle ages or at least the 1950’s and 60’s) will change that fact. What’s left is the great opportunity to persuade those Jews to “convert” to the “want to” group. In today’s consumerist world, Judaism/the synagogue must compete in the arena of ideas and leisure time/discretionary income choices. People will give of their time, talents and tithes to that which is perceived to have value. Synagogues and Judaism are perceived by the masses of Jews as having at best marginal value and thus the result is at best marginal commitment.
The problem is relevance, specifically the lack thereof. Most Jews have voted with their feet that the synagogue and/or Judaism is/are irrelevant. Judaism and synagogues have to re-earn their place in the life of most who identify as Jews. To do this, synagogues need to deliver a Judaism which is relevant, practical, challenging and life application oriented, showing that Judaism actually speaks to life as it is lived and experienced in the 21rst century, ie., teach and talk about what Judaism has to say about our physical, financial, emotional, relational, and spiritual well-being. The folks want to know that the synagogue and and Jewish teaching, have “walked a mile in their moccasins.” People ought to leave the synagogue saying, “yes they really get it,” and not “so what,” or heaven forbid, “whatever.” The only hope for Judaism’ s life transforming prescription of a life of holiness is through the doorway of relevance.
As Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church as well as the author of “A Purpose Driven Life,” has said: “clergy need to ’say something on Sunday that people can use on Monday.’ ” Rabbi Lawrence Hoffman who wrote “Rethinking Synagogues” calls this: sermons that emphasize where “Torah meets life.” So "on one foot” rabbi’s (and I’ve heard many from the pews over the years) need to become/be made more aware that the content of their bimah teaching always be about answering the question, “why think/do Jewish?”
In the High Holiday liturgy we find “B’rosh hashana yikateivun, u’v’yom tsom kippur, yeikhateimun, mi yixyeh umi yamut…” On Rosh haShanah it is written and on Yom Kippur it is sealed; who shall live and who shall die…..
So the question is “will the synagogue and non orthodox Judaism be inscribed and sealed in the Book of Life for the coming year?” God only knows and it doesn’ t seem like we’ re doing m uch to help Her/Him out with the decision. What is the necessary redefinition of “t’ shuvah, t’ fillah, u’ ts’ daqah” needed to “avert the severe decree” i.e., to change the fate of the synagogue and non-orthodox Judaism?
There is hope and it is in learning the lessons of successful megachurches, a segment of organized religious life that continues to grow in contradistinction to the remainder of protestant denominations as well as non orthodox Judaism, that are in decline. Kudos to Synagogue 3K as well as the Reform movement who had Pastor Rick Warren at their Biennial convention in Dec., 2007, for recognizing this important Truth. One of those lessons is found above in the paragraph that begins “The problem is relevance…”
Kol Tuv, Shana Tova U'm'tuqah
Biv’racha, Jordan Goodman
Since I am not prone to large, gregarious essays, I will say my piece in short and succint paragraphs.
"What you sow, so shall you reap".
A number of Conservative and all Reform temples have adopted Socialist agendas in the name of "Social Justice". They have become more political in their teachings. Unfortunately, Socialism is a G-DLESS ideology. This has been occuring over the last 30 or 40 years. You cannot expose your children to this ideology in the name of Judaism with out having a negative effect on their psyche.
"What you sow, so shall you reap"
The American eduction system has been ruined by these left wing fanatics. I would be very careful about what is being taught in Hebrew Schools in this country. Look at your child's books, attend their Hebrew school classes 3 or 4 times a year. Listen closely to your rabbi's sermons. I think this has driven many people away from Synagogues and Judaism. There is no room for politics in the Synagogue, This is the House of G-d (Beth-el)
"What you sow, so shall you reap".
It is not incidental that as Judaism has shifted more and more to the left, Fewer and fewer people are attending Synagogue, or that the Jewish community is shrinking. Most of the Statements written by contributors to this article are accurate in what they say, but they reflect symptoms, not causes
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We have become a religion of elitists. The more you pay the closer to the front you sit, so that all can see the big spenders in order of their payments.
But, I ask you, in G-D's eyes what is greatest mitzvah, The man that has $10 and gives $2 to charity or the man that has $100 and give $5 to charity.
By answering this question, you define yourself.
I came from a secular Jewish family with very little ties to Judaism. But my family has always been spiritual and i have always felt a personal yearning for a connection to the unknown.
I went to Israel, mostly just to understand the troubling politics, and had an unexpectedly life changing experience, one that connected so many things i felt in my heart, to things that had existed in Judaism for centuries... I wasn't expecting to have such a connection, but i did. I felt, that just maybe, in my life, Judaism was a way i could discover and investigate my connection to the mysteries of the universe, and my purpose in the world.
... then i get back to america, and i try to attend Rosh Hashana/ Yom Kippur, a holiday i understood to be extremely serious introspective ritual. I had never been to a temple in the states before, i had no idea what i was in for. I am a "starving artist", had on my only nice outfit that i had taken great care to only take out for holidays, i was so nervous approaching the gates of a temple i had only found out about online, when i saw two men outside who almost seemed like bouncers, and they ask me for my ticket. its hard to explain just how much this stopped me in my tracks as i stammered "rosh hashana, this is a ... ticketed event?"
Its hard to explain the psychological shift that happened after i heard about "buying tickets". I came to the gates nervous about meeting hashem in an unfamiliar place, nervous about evaluating my soul... then after i was ushered to two or three "official people" who told me yes i could have this "free pass" for a year but after that i was required to "make a decision"... It took every ounce of willpower to forget about all that and just try to let the service work its magic, and it did, but my brain kept on returning to all of that ticket nonsense, and at times my eyes would look around me and wonder, what do i have in common with people who would extort money for spiritual events? is this some sort of joke?
I was shown a lot of hospitality in Jerusalem and abroad, and the more generous the Jews i met were, the more i longed to be more like them. Because thats what generosity does, it requires risk, but it inspires generosity, it changes people.
... but then in israel there were also jews that were myopic and bigoted to an extent that i felt embarrased to be a part of the same faith, and here in america these tickets make me feel embarrased too, and i wonder whether ive made the wrong decision to feel so connected to this life.
And i cant help thinking about that story about Jesus getting really pissed off at the marketplace near the holy temple for trying to sell things too close to a holy place. Im not even pretending to have any opinions about messianism. But that story never made much sense to me until now.