Reflections on the JRF Conference - Boston Nov. 13-16

The bi-annual JRF conference provided a wealth of insights and experiences to the 8 of us who attended from Keddem Congregation. Operating under the theme of Transformational Judaism for the 21^st Century, the organizers made good use of our presence in Boston, drawing on local speakers with national perspectives from Brandeis University, and Harvard University as well as visits to local historical sites such as the Vilna Shul on Beacon Hill .

Two of the keynote speakers from the Boston community were Jonathan Sarna, Brandeis University Professor of American Jewish History on the writings of Rabbi Mordechai Kaplan during the economic challenges of 1928-1932. and Noah Feldman, Harvard Professor of International Law on conflict negotiation, compromise and cooperation.

A discussion panel addressed the challenges of growth, transformation, the synagogue of the future. and the specifics of creating sustainable congregations while engaging both new and existing members. Rabbi Elliot Tepperman of B’nai Keshet in Montclair, New Jersey addressed the rabbinic role in leading congregants in their spiritual growth and connectedness and the responsibility of Ritual Committees to not only define ritual, but to support services by making them spiritually meaningful and engaging. Reinforcing the principal that “the best way to understand an organization is to try to change it”, Amy Sales, Brandeis University – Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies, presented the findings of their surveys of Congregational participation and engagement within the Synagogue 2000 program, and their report “Developing the Developers” http://www.cmjs.org/Publication.cfm?IDResearch=149. Their survey revealed difficulties across the whole course of human resource development, from encouraging the uninvolved to participate more and getting members to accept leadership positions to developing and training leaders. So, we at Keddem, are not alone in facing these challenges.

The series of workshops on Leadership Development, Strategic Planning and Best Practices in Synagogue Transformation were excellent in communicating how other congregations has thrived and grown in the face of organizational and financial challenges similar to those facing Keddem. Later in the conference, over twenty representatives of mid-size congregations in university towns met to discuss their experiences and challenges for sustainability and growth. This will be the subject of considerable Keddem board focus and articles in the months ahead.

Rabbi Sid Schwartz, founder of PANIM, The Institute for Jewish Leadership and Values, spoke of new paradigm communities which pursue being deeply Reconstructionist, with a change of organizational culture to a participatory community, with an articulated mission which includes being the source and purveyor of serious Judaism. He described a congregation as made up of those who are a combination of justice seekers, spirituality seekers and wisdom seekers (darshei zedek, darshei ruach, and darshei chesed. Whether its davening ”out of the box” or making Congregationally based Community Organizing central – identifying the issues that face the community and engaging in an effort to understand how to confront them together.

Environment Challenges: Rabbi Michael Cohen (RRC 1990) described water management challenges being addressed by the Arava Institute in Israel including up-stream contamination problems in the rivers that flow through Israel from Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan due to the lack of sewage management and their agricultural pesticides and practices, and the problems due to water diversion causing rapid reductions in the level of the Dead Sea. Rabbi Cohen was a founding faculty member of The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies www.arava.org, affiliated with Kibbitz Ketura and Ben Gurion University of the Negev. The Institute is a multinational environmental study and research center with a student body comprised of Israelis, Jordanians, Palestinians, and North Americans preparing future Arab and Jewish leaders to cooperatively solve the regions environmental challenges. They is also developing a research facility for solar power generation and distribution with international affiliates and sponsorship. The closing ceremony also focused on tikkun olam and environmental action, with recognition awards to 12 congregations for their programs and leadership in energy conservation as a path to protecting the environment.

Shabbat Celebration: The Friday night celebration, Saturday morning Torah study and services were terrific Shabbat experiences, energetic and engaging from the style of leadership, the pace and approach to prayer, as well as the infectious enthusiasm of the 400 representatives. Of particular note on Friday night was the cantorial contributions by Marcelo Gindlin, originally from Argentina, but now at the Malibu Jewish Center and Synagogue. The Torah study session Demanding Torah, Demanding Peace was a midrash on the naming of Isaac (Yitzhak = will laugh), and contrasting the laughter of Abraham and that of Sarah – and their subsequent dialogs with G-d. The midrash was based on the poetry of Haim Bialik as interpreted by Ari Elon, the former Talmud instructor at the Reconstructionist Rabbinic College and the author of From Jerusalem to Plumbedita. Elon is compiling a whole new series of progressive / humanist commentaries in Hebrew which are being translated through the sponsorship of the RRC.

The closing session was a meeting of Western Regional Representatives from congregations spanning California, Colorado, Washington, and Oregon. The hiring of Rabbi Jane Litman, as the new regional coordinator was announced, and we discussed the scheduling of a regional gathering in 2010 to follow-up on the January 2008 event at University Synagogue, in Irvine California. The JRF Camp located in Northeast Pennsylvania has been extremely popular and successful and there is considerable interest in the possible creation of a West coast camp and conference center – possibly in northern California. There continues to be a need to improve the use of technology to enable better information sharing among the western congregations, covering events of mutual interest as well as the specifics of organizational processes.

I’d like to encourage members to contact me directly if they would like to learn more about the issues covered or how to apply them in the Keddem community. This is still a highly condensed, impressionist overview of a broad, rich, thought provoking set of experiences and meetings with leaders who are passionate about their causes and pursuing them in the context of Reconstructionist Judaism.