Month: August 2013

Passaic and the Rabbi-Centric Nature of Growth Oriented Shuls

I had the pleasure of spending last Shabbos in Passaic. In the past 10 years, Passaic has been one of the fastest growing Orthodox communities in America. The residents love their town and almost everybody we passed on the street said good Shabbos. I davened at two Shuls on different sides of town and talked to a few people there about the state of Passaic Shuls. Although Passaic is known to have a solid Baalei Teshuva base, one friend said that the majority of residents are Bnei Torah from YU and other Yeshivas.

What was apparent is that people take their davening very seriously. The Shuls were quiet and the davening was a moderate pace. There are many opportunities for learning. The Shuls fit the growth culture model.

My discussions highlighted that in growth oriented Shuls, the opportunities to be involved in running the Shul have diminished. The people are looking for a serious place to daven and learn and the Shuls are primarily run by the Rabbi and a very small group of people. It’s similar to a Shtiebel, except the Rabbi has a little less control, because he isn’t assuming the financial responsibility. The financing is a combination of the standard fees and donations.

I think the main factor for the decreased input in these Shuls is that people respect and accept the authority of their Rabbeim. That leads to the Rabbi being asked for input in more day to day decisions. While this structure prevents some of the disagreements present in the more member-run Shuls, it does lead to less involvement and sometimes a degree of disenchantment by people who want to be involved.

There are always trade-offs in Shul structures. It’s great and important to have a respected leader, but perhaps it makes sense to carve out space for the members to be more involved in the Shul’s operations.

The Hop of Faith in Your Building Project

After renting a space for 10 plus years our lease was up, and thanks to steady membership growth, the current space was too small for our needs. A few members were generous and provided us with a free loan to finance the initial purchase of a suitable property.

Even with the generosity of our financial leaders, broader financial commitment was needed to move the project further along and that required a plan which the membership needed to approve. Membership collectives can be a conservative bunch, and ours proved to be no exception. It took a few years from the initial purchase to present a detailed plan, and we needed to get a number of membership approvals as the project progressed.

I was treasurer at the time and I can still remember those meetings from the mid 90’s, like it was yesterday. Armed with cost projections, commitments to date, and a number of guesstimates to navigate the spreadsheet’s red cells, we presented the numbers to the membership. And the membership did their due diligence and asked the hard questions about whether a wealthy-businessman-deficient Shul like ours could really pull this off.

On more than one occasion during those meetings, I stated that although I couldn’t guarantee it, my experience on this and other communal projects made me confident that we would get the contributions and commitments to close the gaps. After the lively and sometime heated discussion, I was almost certain the motions would not pass. But time after time, the vote was nearly unanimous to move ahead.

We’ve been in the new building for over 15 years and the benefits of having our own space have been immeasurable. The nature of communal projects are such that there are usually budget gaps and a hop of faith is required. Although there’s no guarantee, once your officers and board believes you can cross the red cells, your membership won’t be far behind.

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Building a Shul and Building a Community

I had a wonderful conversation recently with a dynamic, dedicated Rabbi, who is planning on opening a new Shul. He wants to build more than a Shul, he wants to build a community of people on a path of continual spiritual growth. The interesting part was that this Shul was located in an established Orthodox community which already has a number of Shuls.

The conversation highlighted the fact that for a Shul to be a spiritual community, it has to go beyond providing a place for prayer, learning and Jewish experiences. I think the two key aspects for a spiritual community are:
1) a Rabbi to turn to for direction as we navigate through the issues of life
2) a group of peers, to whom people can turn to share their issues and get feedback and possible strategies

It’s not so easy to create such a community. My Shul fulfills these two requirements for many people, and although we share the same Rabbi, different people associate with different peer groups. However, I think there are people in my Shul who would like more peers for support and friendship. And there are people in the larger community who are missing one or both of these essential components.

I’ve been having this discussion both within my Shul and among a group of friends across my larger community. I think it sheds light on the need for gatherings that will facilitate the formation of these peer groups. We’re in the planning stages for these types of gatherings and G-d willing, I’ll share the results in the months ahead.