How do you ‘hospice’ a synagogue?

Editor’s Note: This article first appeared in eJewishPhilanthropy on September 6, 2024

It’s a strange question, isn’t it? Why would anyone want to hospice a synagogue? The rabbi’s sermons can’t be that bad, right? Yet at this moment in American Jewish life, it is a question that needs to be asked. Across the country, synagogue communities are facing similar realities of lower affiliation rates and economic concerns about the cost of Jewish living. Many congregations have an aging membership, and the synagogue facilities they built decades ago when membership was younger and growing are in desperate need of repair and maintenance.  

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, I became the rabbi of a small, struggling community. Congregation Beth Mordecai (CBM) in Perth Amboy, N.J., was once a vibrant and shining example of post-war Conservative Judaism in America. Even before COVID, CBM was not in great shape; when I arrived, it was just a shell of its former self. 

While the pandemic raged, we ran Shabbat services and classes on Zoom and were able to maintain some sense of community amidst the chaos. But the die had already been cast: By the time I was hired to serve as the congregation’s part-time rabbi, it was clear that there was an expiration date on the institution.

Click here to continue reading this article.

Rabbi Uri Allen is the rabbi of Temple Sha’arey Shalom in Springfield, N.J., and an independent rabbi serving the community. He is an alumnus of the Clergy Leadership Incubator (CLI) Rabbinic Fellowship.