Alban Weekly – Issue 488 – for Week of
Monday, 2 December 2013 - “Ten Things We Know about Synagogue Leadership’ by
Kerry Olitzky
While the American synagogue was built
with the financial support of what are commonly called three-day-a-year Jews,
referring to those who may attend the synagogue for worship only on Rosh
Hashanah and Yom Kippur, that generation of occasional synagogue attendees is
losing interest in the synagogue. Thus, either people are fully embracing the
synagogue-and willing to support and participate in it-or they are unwilling to
support an institution in which they do not participate. Without support from
these two groups, the synagogue may no longer be financially viable in its
current form.
Yet, all is not lost. The experience of
being fully American has also motivated large segments of millennials to
embrace religious practices that their recent ancestors rejected out of fear,
thinking that such practices would prevent them from becoming fully American.
Consider the Reform movement in Judaism, for example. Its members are now
embracing those very rituals and practices that the early Reformers rejected as
too Jewish (read: not American enough). Ironically, the desire to become fully
American was essentially what motivated the Reformers (in the United States) in
the first place to shape Reform Judaism. Nothing can keep this generation from
being fully American. At the same time, this notion of becoming fully American
may account for the dramatic increase in intermarriage among millennials.
Some will argue that the downturn in the
economy-since 2008-has caused the synagogue to falter. I believe, however, that
all the slowdown in the economy did was to force people to realize that these
issues were bubbling under the surface of synagogue life. An expanding economy
allowed leaders to ignore the problems. Those who still blame the woes of the
synagogue on a faltering economy maintain that people are simply no longer able
to afford the increasing costs of synagogue membership. Thus, the population
base of the synagogue has shrunk. The same argument is being made by other
Jewish institutions as well. In other words, all we have to do is fix the
economic problems in the nation as a whole and the problems in the Jewish
communal institutions will be resolved at the same time. But this is not the
case. The challenge facing the synagogue is not an increase in the cost of
membership. The challenge facing the synagogue is a decreasing cost benefit
felt by its members.
The role of institutional leadership,
particularly among clergy, must also be considered. Rabbi Irving
("Yitz") Greenberg, contemporary Orthodox theologian who founded Clal
(The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership) and was president of
the Jewish Life Network, argued thirty years ago that we were on the cusp of a
change in leadership models that would drive the Jewish community into the future.
Up until that time, and for the prior two thousand years, synagogue and
communal authority rested primarily with the rabbi. While the term rabbi may
still be used to refer to Jewish clergy, the role of such clergy, particularly
as communal authority, has evolved considerably. I contend that as the
synagogue further evolves, so must its religious leadership.
It is conceivable that your synagogue may
be one of the few religious institutions that will not change but will continue
to flourish in the years ahead because a sufficient number of members are
willing to support it. But based on what I see happening to synagogues
throughout North America, I am willing to prophesy that the majority of
synagogues-and other Jewish communal institutions-will undergo significant
change during this generation, if they haven't done so already. Such radical
change will be necessary for synagogues to successfully evolve so that they can
better serve the community.
This kind of change will require bold
leaders with vision and determination. Some synagogues already have the
adaptive leadership necessary to navigate this change. Those that do not have
such leaders may not survive. They certainly will not thrive. Some institutions
and their leaders are afraid of the trends-and the changes that accompany them.
Others welcome the opportunity for such change. I am among those who are
excited about what the future Jewish community will look like and what it will
offer. While we have accomplished a great deal to this point in our history,
the best days are yet to come-if we are willing to respond to the challenges
set forth in this volume and do the hard work necessary to elevate the
synagogue to sacred heights.
Ten Things We Know about Communal and
Synagogue Leadership:
1. Paraphrasing a rabbinic teaching,
"A leader can only take a community where it is prepared to go."
2. Leaders have to lead with vision.
Superb skills and effective tactics are necessary complements but insufficient
replacements for leadership.
3. Leadership is a strategy. It is not a
state of being or a personality trait.
4. Leaders have to be allowed to lead.
They can't be bogged down by bureaucratic process or held back by a volunteer
board.
5. Leadership transcends the barriers of
age. The ability to lead is neither limited by age nor determined by it.
6. Leadership is earned. It is not an
entitlement or a designation.
7. Leaders are not afraid to work in
partnerships with others, nor are they afraid of others climbing on their
shoulders and reaching higher. They are also not afraid that their ideas will
be lost through what is now being called Open Source Judaism (anything Jewish
that is available for free on the Internet and elsewhere).
8. Leaders are willing to take risks that
may be uncomfortable for others. As a result, leaders are not afraid of
failure.
9. Leaders are not afraid to show others
their human vulnerabilities.
10. Leaders want to raise up disciples
and are not afraid of losing their role to those whom they have raised up.
(Adapted from Playlist Judaism: Making
Choices for a Vital Future, copyright © 2013 by the Alban Institute. All rights
reserved. Copyright © 2013, the Alban Institute. All rights reserved. We
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Playlist Judaism (Kerry M. Olitzky)
“Every Jewish institution,” writes Kerry
Olitzky, “is undergoing significant change and is in danger of becoming
irrelevant to the majority of North American Jews. All these institutions will
have to reimagine themselves if they are to survive and grow. And the most
numerous of these institutes is also the most vulnerable: the synagogue.”
The synagogue as we know it developed in
response to a variety of needs, often in an attempt to create new communities
for education and assembly as populations moved from urban centers to the
suburbs. These needs have changed, and the synagogue is no longer the center of
social and professional life. Change is necessary, but what will a synagogue
that serves the new needs of American Jewish religious life look like?
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