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Joshua Hammerman
E-Mail:
rabbi@tbe.org
Temple Beth El
350 Roxbury Rd.
Stamford, CT 06902
Website:
www.tbe.org
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The Rabbi's Library
by Rabbi Joshua
Hammerman |
"S.O.S.:
Saving Our Synagogues"
(Review essay for
JBooks.com, 2003)
The concept of synagogue renewal
has been around for as long as there have been synagogues.
Liturgical reform might well have been invented by Abraham, who
decided that his father's idols didn't fit in with his
generation's cutting-edge modes of spirituality, so he applied his
own "cutting edge" to the idols themselves. The Torah is replete
with examples of places of worship being knocked over and altars
destroyed. Relatively speaking, today's efforts at synagogue
renewal are rather mild.
The contemporary
synagogue-renewal effort can easily be traced back to the
beginnings of the Havurah movement of the late 1960's. Within a
few years, that old/new model of communal intimacy in worship and
study infiltrated the large amorphous edifices of post-war
suburbia, thanks to visionary rabbis like Harold Schulweis and the
enormous popularity of the Jewish Catalog series. It was in the
third volume of the Catalog (JPS, 1980) that Lawrence Kushner,
Arnold Jacob Wolf and Everett Gendler addressed the issue most
directly: "The synagogue is the only institution claiming as its
reason for existence the perpetuation of religious Judaism in
America. For all but a very few Jews, the synagogue is the sole
vehicle for religious life and response...And despite this, few
would disagree that most synagogues are irrelevant, boring and
probably secular."
In fact, back then, few might
have disagreed with that statement, but far fewer would have
admitted it openly. That was because a generation of American Jews
was not completely lost yet. Twenty years ago, those afflicted
with boredom and irrelevance had not yet defected in droves into
the arms of then many alternative gods awaiting them and their
new-found freedom. Synagogues were boring, but we had no choice
but to eat our peas and sit in muffled acquiescence. Few enjoyed
the non-participatory music and dusty irrelevant sermons given
from distant, stratospheric pulpits, not to mention the
rectangular gridiron seating configuration, but there was no
compulsion to change things.
No longer. Now we in synagogue
life fully understand that our children have choices and that we
must compete for their attention. We must provide a nurturing and
energizing oasis for their journeys. When I was in rabbinical
school twenty years ago, we were told that services didn't need to
compete with the cultural offerings at Lincoln Center and
Broadway, because they couldn't possibly measure up to those
levels of entertainment and pathos. Now, belatedly, we are
realizing that what Jewish prayer has to offer can be just as
moving, revitalizing and spiritually gratifying as anything else
out there. Bold new models have emerged that have proven that we
can compete with anyone, and actually attract younger people to
venture through the doors. Coming to shul can be "cool" again.
The Jewish world has come to
understand that synagogues are still the best possible place for
renewal to occur, so even staunch secularists have come to the
rescue. Federations are looking to nurture synagogue life--a
once-unthinkable notion. And private foundation dollars are
pouring into this effort, creating new think-tank organizations
like STAR (Synagogue Transformation and Renewal) and Synagogue
2000.
One of the co-founders of
Synagogue 2000 (who might now wish to rename) is Lawrence Hoffman,
a professor at Hebrew Union College. Hoffman's recent writings on
liturgy and renewal are becoming required reading for clergy, and
they have inspired other books on the subject. Three books of note
are Hoffman's own The Art of Public Prayer: Not for Clergy Only,
Sidney Schwarz's Finding a Spiritual Home: How a New Generation of
American Jews Can Transform the Synagogue, (for which Hoffman
contributed a glowing endorsement), and Isa Aron's Becoming a
Congregation of Learners, which is part of the Synagogue 2000
"Revitalizing Synagogue Life" series and contains a forward by
Hoffman. Collectively, these three fine books can help us to
understand what are the primary aims of contemporary synagogue
reform and how they might differ from those that came before.
One thing is clear. Boredom will
no longer be tolerated. Mediocrity is unacceptable, and those
synagogues that refuse to ride the new wave will ultimately sink
under the weight of their excessive ballast. And in order to
overcome the boredom, change tends to be more revolutionary than
evolutionary. Whereas the Havurah movement toyed with neo-hasidism
but basically hung close to tradition and emphasized community and
fellowship most of all, the moderns are far more eclectic and open
to spiritual experimentation. B'nai Jeshrun in New York, for
example, is one of the four model congregations profiled in
Schwarz' book. This is the model "Conservative" congregation,
although neither it, nor the models selected from the other
movements, remotely resembles what the mainstream of their
movements have been doing. B.J.'s selection of music has gone far
beyond the basic Eastern European niggunim tunes of its Havurah
forbears, to feature an eclectic blend of American, Sephardic and
Israeli contemporary melodies.
We find in these books
conflicting prescriptions for effective leadership. While the
trend is clearly toward democratization (i.e. the empowerment of
the congregant and the less-central role of the rabbi--with the
role of the cantor in even greater danger), the model institutions
presented by Schwarz all have rabbis who have achieved nearly
iconic status. Somehow, it seems, we have to find the perfect
blend of charisma and passivity among religious leaders, allowing
congregations the chance to grow organically without coercion from
above. The "shepherd" model of a pastor tending his passion-less
mindless flock appears, thankfully and most certainly, to be dead.
Dynamic congregations have learned not to depend on the rabbi's
healing powers alone, but to take on the responsibility, and the
joy, of caring for one another and creating community. The rabbi
as visionary is very much alive, with the caveat that the
congregation has to be ready to share and develop the vision as a
partner.
Hoffman's Not for Clergy book is
in fact must reading for clergy, for he exposes clearly some of
the subtleties that make the worship experience dysfunctional, and
how we can change them. When people say they are unable to pray,
or that they don't need to pray, Hoffman tells us, "they are
unknowingly scapegoating themselves, mistakenly blaming themselves
for a system failure." He goes on to discuss matters ranging from
choice of music to the selection and arrangement of sacred space,
which have been central to the mission of Synagogue 2000.
Aron looks away from the
sanctuary service as a key to revitalizing the synagogue, but
applies many of the same goals of massive transformation and
shared vision. Most recognize that the post-War Hebrew School
model, as practiced for two generations, has essentially failed.
Jewish education, like worship, like Judaism itself, no longer can
be compartmentalized. When education isn't just confined to the
Hebrew School, but makes its way into the boardroom, sanctuary and
home, it can imbue the congregation's visioning process with
Jewish authenticity as well as spirituality. Aron gives us a
number of success stories. Utilizing personal testimonies and
citing congregations of excellence, she, like Schwarz, provides
needed motivation for other clergy and lay leadership.
After reading the Schwarz book, I
bought copies for my entire board and arranged for a field trip to
one of the congregations described, knowing that it wasn't enough
for me to want change, they needed to want it too. I now wonder if
the Aron book might have been of greater use. While less dramatic
in presentation, she offers a cogent, step-by-step approach, using
her skills as an educator to lead congregations on the path toward
transformation. Schwarz is less able to get the average
congregation from "here" to "there"--he just gives us a glowing
sense of where "there" is. That in itself is valuable, but unless
your congregation has a hyper-dynamic rabbi (preferably a
venerated founding rabbi) whose vision is automatically accepted
by a rousing consensus of lay leaders eager for experimentation,
you will have to travel far even to begin the process of
transformation described here.
Schwarz admits that the utopias
he describes are diametrically opposed to the norm:
"Unfortunately," he writes, "the corporate organizational
structure of most synagogues is inhospitable, if not antagonistic,
to the kind of singular rabbinical leadership that characterizes
our four featured synagogues...The rabbi may have some success in
changing the tone of religious services and will have relative
freedom to speak and teach as they wish, but changing the
organizational culture is next to impossible."
I'm not sure I agree that it is
next to impossible. I've managed to achieve it in my own
congregation, to some degree, but only over the course of many
years. Changing the culture is in fact the easy part. The hard
part is to get the congregation to want to change. That means
chopping off the head of Terach's idol--and Terach, after all, is
our father. Terach is the 90-year old macher who sits in the
second row every week, or the past-president and department-store
owner who wants nothing to change so that he won't be tempted to
leave golf course each Saturday, or the Holocaust survivor who has
had enough turmoil in his life who does want anymore change.
However, when people can read of
success stories such as these via Schwarz, and then through
Hoffman (with liturgy) and Aron (with education), they find a road
map toward achieving similar success. When the synagogue comes
alive, I've found that even Terach wants to come along for the
ride to the Promised Land.
Books Discussed in Night Reading
The Art of Public Prayer: Not for
Clergy Only by Lawrence Hoffman. Skylight Paths. $17.95
Finding a Spiritual Home: How a
New Generation of American Jews Can Transform the Synagogue by
Sidney Schwarz. Jossey-Bass. $24.00
Becoming a Congregation of
Learners by Isa Aron. Jewish Lights. $19.95
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