"The Secret Is Out" by Rabbi Laura Geller

The secret is out. It was on the front page of yesterday's LA Times under the headline: "Rebranding a Denomination: Rabbis Try to Update Conservative Judaism as Membership Declines."  It seems that Conservative Jews don't really know what it means to be a Conservative Jew.

I saw the paper last night after my flight from Cincinnati where I had spent three days at the Reform Jewish Think Tank, a working group representing the three pillars of the Reform movement: the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, and the Union of Reform Judaism.  The Think Tank was convened because for us, like for Conservative and other liberal Jews, this is a moment of change. The Jewish world of our parents and grandparents is no longer the world we live in; Jewish identity is no longer framed primarily as a reaction to the Holocaust and a response to the State of Israel.  All Jews in the twenty-first century are Jews by choice, choosing to identify with Judaism because it brings meaning and purpose to our lives.  Our community is more diverse than ever before, and there is no longer one Jewish narrative.

What does it mean to be a Reform Jew?  What are the values of our "movement"?  What institutions are necessary to support this movement and how can they collaborate to create the environment in which Reform Judaism and Reform Jews can flourish?   How will Reform synagogues change in response to the challenges of changing economic realities, the focus on individual spirituality as opposed to communal obligation, and the shift in philanthropic priorities?  What does membership mean in a world of virtual as well as face-to-face community?  What kinds of leaders, rabbis, educators, and cantors should our Hebrew Union College be training?  How do we support that training?

This is a moment of change.  The Union of Reform Judaism just named my friend Rabbi Richard Jacobs as the next president of the URJ.  And as the Forward newspaper said in a recent editorial, "Whoever leads the URJ can really matter in American Jewish life.  With 900 synagogues serving 1.5 million people, the Reform movement is the nation's largest Jewish denomination."  It goes on to say: "Rabbi Jacobs is a wise and bold choice. Wise because he seems to exude that rare combination of intellectual smarts, rabbinic charisma, and social empathy necessary for Reform leadership, with a solid track record to back it up. Membership at his Westchester Reform temple in Scarsdale grew from 900 households to 1200 during his twenty years as a rabbi."  In an interview with the Forward, Rabbi Jacobs spoke of bringing "transformation change" to the Reform movement, and said that the synagogue needs to become more "compelling, meaningful, and engaging" to retain its members and attract the unaffiliated and the uninspired.  Social justice, revitalized prayer, synagogue transformation, and Israel have always been at the center of his rabbinate.  I know all this because we have each continued our learning together both at the Institute for Jewish Spirituality and at the Hartman Institute in Jerusalem.

The secret is out. Our Reform movement and our Jewish world is at a moment of change. It is time to really focus together on the values, ideas, and vision of a movement that will inspire and engage us, our children and our grandchildren to create "living Judaism" - a Judaism that is alive and changing, and that gives each of us the tools and opportunities to live our Judaism in a way to bring meaning, purpose, community, and a connection to the sacred into our lives.

Rabbi Laura Geller

Comments

[Rabbi Paul Kipnes]

Nice post. We are confident that Rabbi Jacobs, in partnership with thoughtful leaders, can usher the Reform Movement into the next phase of American Judaism.