Rituals for Reopening

Rabbi Chai Levy 0 Comments

Editor’s Note: A version of this article first appeared in J. The Jewish News of Northern California After fifteen months of pandemic and social distancing, our communities are reopening. So too, synagogues and Jewish community organizations, which have been operating primarily online for more than a year, are resuming in-person gatherings. As we reopen our buildings and prepare for in-person services and events, there are many questions to address. Covid Response teams and Reopening committees are asking: How many people can attend an indoor event? Can we require proof of vaccination? Is communal singing safe if people are masked? Jewish organizational leaders grapple daily with the exhausting work of adapting our operations to the continually evolving public health protocols. Beyond these kinds of safety protocol questions, […]

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Turning a Synagogue into a Jewish Cultural Campus

Rabbi Jeremy Barras 0 Comments

Temple Beth Am in Miami is a large Reform congregation that owes much of its success to the vision of its founding rabbi, Rabbi Herbert Baumgard, z”l.  A pioneering rabbi in many respects, Rabbi Baumgard’s lasting legacy is punctuated by his belief that in order to flourish and remain viable, Temple Beth Am needed an exemplary Jewish day school. Today that day school contains approximately 500 students from pre-K through 5th grade. We are a 1500 family member unit congregation that has grown by about 400 families over the last six years.  We attribute that growth to three factors: a) our synagogue provides outstanding programming; b) our day school has acquired a reputation for educational excellence; and c) several other local congregations have either closed […]

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5 Shifts Congregations Need to Make to Keep Up with the Changing Times

Rabbi Esther Lederman and Amy Asin 0 Comments

Let’s review some key data: The Jewish community is dramatically more diverse than we once realized it was: One in every seven to eight Jews is a person of color; we have a sizeable LGBTQIA+ population; and the number of Jewish-adjacent individuals in our communities is growing. At the same time, religious affiliation is in decline, more houses of worship are shutting their doors than opening up for business, and “Jews of no religion” are on the rise. What’s more, today’s increasing lifespans mean we’re serving as many as five generations of adults in our congregations. Although this diversity of life experience is a blessing, it can also be a challenge. Often, as with any group of different experiences and generations, its members have varying […]

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Can Mussar Help Us Repair the World?

Rabbi Lori Shapiro 0 Comments

Editor’s Note: A longer version of this article originally appeared in the Los Angeles Jewish Journal on July 22,2020. Revolution is complex and not for the fainthearted. Most of us are not meant to be Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. or Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, yet the fate of the world rests upon the work of each and every one of us and the perfection of our individual path. Judaism is built upon the concept of an interior experience of personal betterment through actions. It combines a study of past wisdom applied to the refinement of our present actions to help build a better tomorrow. Judaism’s goal, fueled by ancient concepts of the end of days, redemption and a Messianic world to come, is to cultivate […]

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Design Thinking Techniques for Synagogues: Let’s Talk Tachlis

Aimee Close 0 Comments

When our entire world changed overnight a year ago, last March, we in the synagogue world had countless new challenges to address as the enormity of the pandemic came to light. This unprecedented time was clearly going to require innovative solutions and a very different kind of thinking.  It quickly became clear that in order to be able to address these types of difficult challenges now and in the future, we would need to completely change our mindset and teach ourselves new problem-solving techniques. Back in the summer of 2018, my life was forever changed when I stumbled upon an ABC Nightline clip known as the IDEO shopping cart video. I must have watched that clip a dozen times. Here it was — the key […]

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Zoom-a-Thon: Building Community, Raising Funds

Uncategorized 0 Comments

 In July 2020, a few months into the Covid 19 pandemic, our Reform congregation in Denver, CO hosted 27 Hours with Temple Sinai: The Come Together Zoom-a-Thon, a full weekend of virtual programming for all ages intended to be both a community-building experience as well as a fundraiser. Leading up to the weekend, we had sponsorship opportunities as well as the option to order shabbat meals from a local caterer we work with and homemade challah baked in our temple kitchen. The event really began Friday afternoon with families driving by for a distanced pick up as we loaded meals into their trunks. The Zoom-a-Thon began with Friday night services and continued with programming 6-9PM and then Saturday and Sunday from 9AM-9PM. We offered a full […]

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Creating Affordable Senior Housing: An Interfaith Effort

Rabbi Amy Schwartzman 0 Comments

In 1962, 36 families, many with young children, pooled their energy, resources and vision to create a new Jewish congregation in Northern Virginia. There were a few well established synagogues in Alexandria and Arlington, but families were moving “west.” This reality and other community issues led this small group to break away from their congregation to start Temple Rodef Shalom in Falls Church, Virginia. Fast forward to 2002. The founders were now in their 70’s. It was clear to the, now large, Temple Rodef Shalom (TRS), that caring for senior members must become a priority.  As our congregation began to envision how we might respond to this need, our neighbors at the Chesterbrook Presbyterian Church were facing a similar issue. Their members were mostly elderly, […]

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It’s time for the Suburban Synagogue … Again

Rabbi Danny Burkeman 0 Comments

Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in eJP in September 2019. It takes on added significance in light of the trend during the Covid-19 pandemic to leave cities and take up residence in suburban neighborhoods.   Ten years ago, I became a rabbi and, over that time, I have to confess that I have frequently broken one of the Ten Commandments. I have coveted. I have coveted as I have seen the attention and accolades that have been given to Jewish communal startups. I have coveted as I read about the programs and experiences that these communities were able to offer. And I have coveted as I have read about foundations pouring money into these emergent Jewish communities, all the while reinforcing the conventional and […]

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Organizing Congregations for Immigration Justice

Rabbi Ethan Bair 0 Comments

Over the past two years, I have been part of leading a number of campaigns at Temple Beth Sholom, Miami Beach that made a positive change in our greater community while deepening our congregation’s commitment to meaningful social justice engagement. Our work in helping to shut down the for-profit, child detention center adjacent to Homestead, FL was our most galvanizing campaign to date. Here’s how it worked in our case. In 2018, our congregants began talking about the wave of new and cruel immigration policies including family separation. We knew that the interest in this issue was explosive, but the question was where to channel this energy. Our Social Justice Network initiated a research task force and zeroed in on the Homestead Child Detention Center. […]

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When Leaning In is Not Enough: Women Rabbis in the Pulpit

Rabbi Denise Handlarski 0 Comments

Editors Note: This article was first published by Kveller on July 28, 2020 I recently left my job as a congregational rabbi. I loved the community — a dynamic, 50-year-old congregation with some 135 families that’s affiliated with the Humanistic Judaism movement. The place, and its people, have a lot of heart, and I felt I was doing good work there.  My reason for resigning from this dream job? I found it impossible to juggle the responsibilities of my job alongside caring for my children during Covid-19 — the strain had become untenable. Rabbinic work is emotionally demanding and, oftentimes, extremely time-sensitive. I was finding it increasingly difficult to speak to congregants about their anxieties, funeral planning, and ways to navigate social distancing at their son’s […]

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