Rabbi Paul Kipnes

Disruptive Judaism: Will Your Synagogue Be Beit Blockbuster or Kehillat Netflix?

Rabbi Paul Kipnes 0 Comments

Whenever we get stuck in the midst of a synagogue brainstorming session or change project, I trot out my cherished $50 Blockbuster gift card. It reminds us that unless our synagogue is willing to reexamine, bust through sacred cows, and innovate, we are liable to fall into irrelevance and disappear. That gift card warns us all that our synagogue – every shul actually – is in danger of becoming Beit Blockbuster. Once upon a time, that $50 Blockbuster gift card would have offered a full weekend of fun: VHS movies rentals, a tub of popcorn, and a bottle of Diet Coke. Today it’s worth nothing. Its value went the way of the company itself. Blockbuster, once the darling of the business world having owned or […]

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Re-Inventing Synagogues: From Within

Rabbi Paul Kipnes 1 Comment

Jewish pundits love to predict the eventual demise of the synagogue, decrying its dearth of deep ideas, shortage of spiritual inspiration, and absence of warmth and meaning. They say that Jews and Jewish families are opting instead for DIY Judaism, where one can rent-a-rabbi to “do it yourself,” or to start their own shuls, unencumbered by the trappings of traditional synagogue sloth. True, there are plenty of temples stuck in the 1970’s, whose music, methods and message seem to ignore that fact that the world and its spiritual seekers have changed. But contrary to these doomsday scenarios or the radical embrace of only newly birthed synagogues-without-walls, synagogue life is alive and well. Innovation is not the exclusive province of entrepreneurs. Across the country, a handful […]

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