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What Job Is The Synagogue Hired To Do?

Rabbi Joshua Rabin 0 Comments

Clayton Christensen, a professor at Harvard Business School and author of The Innovator’s Dilemma, was given the following consulting assignment by a fast-food chain: help us sell more milkshakes.[1]   This fast food chain tried every kind of focus group to increase milkshake sales, asking consumers to evaluate whether or not the milkshakes should be sweeter, chunkier, thicker, and so on, yet none of the changes resulted in an increase in sales. Taking a different approach, Christensen and his team parked themselves next to one franchise location, and each time they saw a person leave the restaurant with a milkshake, a member of Christensen’s team approached that person and asked him or her what job he or she wanted done when they “hired” that milkshake.   Most […]

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Congregational Rabbis as Facilitators, Co-Learners, and Community Builders

Dr. Sarah M. Tauber 0 Comments

In a culture where spiritual seeking is often prioritized over religious practice, how do rabbis respond to the ambivalences, confusions, and journeys of contemporary adults who are willing still to look to Judaism as a source of wisdom? How do rabbis initiate conversations that respect the multiplicity of voices from the adults they encounter while still calling on the font of knowledge that they posses as clergy? Over several years I conducted ethnographic research with three congregational rabbis who possess reputations as outstanding adult educators. Rabbis Jonathan Fisk, Rina Lewin, and Eric Miller led Reform and Conservative synagogues of between five hundred and eight hundred households.[1] I attended their adult education classes, participated in their worship services and synagogue activities. Central to the process were […]

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Redefining “Rabbi” in Rockland County: Pursuing Justice in Public Education

Rabbi Adam Baldachin 0 Comments

As rabbis, we are trained to access the collection of texts that deal with the stuff of life. The law, narratives, interpretations, and inner yearnings that make up the Jewish tradition give us the background we need to do our holy work: to bring truth, meaning, justice, and empathy to anyone who will connect with us on their Jewish journeys.  Yet when I began to work full time as a rabbi in Montebello, NY, I couldn’t have guessed where my training would lead me. In my first week on the job, a local reporter asked my opinion about the crisis unfolding within the East Ramapo school district. Knowing nothing about the issue, I declined to comment. Instead, I began my justice work by holding one-on-one […]

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Seeing is Believing: Visual T’filot and the Future of Jewish Worship

Rabbi Lance J. Sussman Ph.D. 0 Comments

Three years ago, my synagogue agreed to install large retractable screens on either side of the Ark and mounted projectors on the back wall of our 900 seat sanctuary.  With almost no resistance, we quickly transitioned from late 15th century technology to early 21th century modalities of communicating.  It was a relatively easy process.  In addition to her musical talents, our Cantor discovered she had an inherent talent for developing liturgical power point.  What size font, which colors,   Hebrew versus transliteration,  translation versus epitomes of the text, iconic images versus new art and still life versus video instantly presented themselves as questions we needed to address. One by one, we worked our way through the various technological and philosophical issues. We also had to decide […]

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Six Faces of Synagogue Success

Dr. Rob Weinberg 0 Comments

Today’s most successful synagogues share six faces: Successful synagogues link people to what matters in life.Engagement goes to the heart of what successful congregations strive to achieve, not as an end in itself but as a means to creating the relationships that build communities in which Judaism confers meaning to life and opens the door to making a difference in the world. When a congregation creates sacred relationships, fosters Jewish meaning, and helps people make a real impact, people become and remain engaged. When they are so engaged, a self-reinforcing “virtuous cycle” is created in which each investment of mind and heart feels so worthwhile that people seek to engage more often and more deeply. Successful congregations are intentional. Having a vision statement and/or list […]

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Rev. John Steinbruck: Spiritual Role Model

Rabbi Sid Schwarz 0 Comments

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a life counts for a million or more. Last week I attended a memorial service for Reverend John Steinbruck who died on March 1st at the age of 85. When I moved to Washington D.C. in 1984 to take the post as the executive director of the Jewish Community (Relations) Council of Greater Washington, John was already a legend in a city that is somewhat jaded by all of the personages of importance (or perceived self-importance). John came to Washington in 1970 to be the senior pastor of Luther Place Church. His church was at the corner of 14th and N Streets, an area that a couple of years earlier had burned in the riots following the […]

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Synagogues Reimagined

Rabbi Sharon Brous 0 Comments

Once there was a beloved king, teaches Levi Yitzhak of Berdichev, whose court musicians played beautiful music before him.  The king loved the music and the musicians felt honored to be able to use their talent to bring him joy.  Every day for many years the musicians played enthusiastically, and the king and the musicians developed a deep love for one another.  But eventually, after years of dedicated service, all of the musicians died.  Their children were called into the king’s court to take their parents’ place. Out of loyalty to their parents, they began to appear every morning to perform.  But unlike their parents, the children did not love the music.  While they could play basic tunes, they did not understand the hidden power […]

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From Synagogue Centers to Intentional Spiritual Communities

Rabbi Sid Schwarz 0 Comments

In my book, Finding a Spiritual Home, I profiled four congregations, one from each of the major American Jewish denominations. Each had a track record attracting serious Jewish seekers who tended to avoid conventional synagogues. What emerged from the study were four principles that these congregations seemed to share and which suggested an exciting new paradigm for American synagogues. I’ve come to call this paradigm “intentional spiritual community” and I have worked with dozens of congregations helping them move from the older, synagogue-center paradigm, whose appeal is fading, to this newer paradigm. This work in the field has allowed me to fine-tune the four principles which I believe can help American synagogues become better suited to the contemporary realities of American society. Mission Driven and […]

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The Tent Peg Business, Revisited

Rabbis Noa and Lawrence Kushner 0 Comments

A. Almost thirty years ago (1984), when I wrote “The Tent Peg Business” for the first issue of New Traditions (it went belly-up after the third), we were pretty clear about who was a Jew (Jewish mother, conversion); we knew who was a rabbi (HUC, JTS, yeshivah—Recon was just an infant); and we knew what a congregation was (building, dues, rabbi). Now we’re unsure about how to define any of those categories. Indeed, even a print media journal like this may be on the way out. But, if you think that’s challenging, try living in San Francisco. Here, nine out of every ten Jews are unaffiliated. At The Bagelry near my home, the young woman flips the bacon with chopsticks. We ain’t in Kansas anymore.—LK […]

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People of Faith Standing with the Suffering

Rabbi Michael Latz 0 Comments

Last month, rabbis, pastors, priests and imams gathered together in Ferguson, Mo., a city rife with racial violence and pain. Along with my rabbinic colleagues from Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Justice, I decided to join together with the people of Ferguson in their struggle for justice.  I went with the intention of teaching protesters and police alike how to forge a new path for justice. I realized that I had the wrong idea: This wasn’t about clergy teaching anyone anything but about our bearing witness to a movement. After 18-year-old Michael Brown’s death at the hands of a police officer, the youth of Ferguson are demanding that he, and they, not be forgotten. Rabbis went to Ferguson to hold ourselves accountable. We participated in […]

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