Building the Mishkan: Ongoing Efforts to Strengthen and Grow Our Community
Continuing the theme of my past Kesher articles, our ongoing efforts, as this headline says, to strengthen and grow this community, I wanted to share updates on our latests priorities and efforts to address them:
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As I’ve suggested in the past, I look to use the Kesher article space as an opportunity to reflect on the direction of Society Hill Synagogue—where we want to go, what it takes to get there, and how each of us can contribute to this journey. Thankfully, many of you have already contributed so much of your time, talent, and resources.
Generally speaking, we see SHS as a vibrant synagogue community that is able to lift and strengthen peoples’ spirits through the rhythms, wisdom, and communal support of Jewish life. We see SHS as a community where, grand as it may sound, spending Jewish holidays, life cycle events, and communal activities here can help enrich one’s life. Because we think SHS is generally successful at doing that—although certainly there is always room for improvement—we want to continue to grow: we want more people to know about who we are and what we have to offer.
In an effort to do that, as I’ve written in the past, we’ve been working on some of the language that we use to describe who we are, recognizing we have changed and evolved over the fifty-plus years of our existence. What we’ve landed on for now, if you visit our website, is the following:
“Society Hill Synagogue is an independent congregation, rooted in tradition, flourishing with life. Our services are based on Conservative liturgy while incorporating influences from the Reconstructionist, Renewal, and Reform movements, and beyond. We emphasize lifelong learning, social action, soulful music and prayer, and sacred community.
We pride ourselves on being warm, welcoming, and intergenerational. We embrace our diverse membership, including interfaith couples and families, LGBTQ+ individuals and families, people of color, and people of all abilities.”
I think this helps get at a number of important features of our existence:
(1) We are both “deeply rooted in tradition” and continuing to grow and evolve in ways that speak to our current human needs;
(2) We have a blend of influences; we use a Conservative siddur (prayerbook), have had multiple Reconstructionist rabbis, a cantor ordained by the Renewal movement, and multiple Reform elements in our rituals. In short, we are independent, post-denominational, and looking for traditionally-grounded Jewish creativity and vibrancy wherever we can find it;
(3) We see the following elements as four strong pillars of synagogue life: (a) lifelong, i.e. early childhood through Hebrew School and into adult, learning; (b) social action, with many of us seeing our social values and our Judaism as deeply intertwined; (c) dynamic music and prayer as an important feature of Jewish expression; and (d) community, whether that’s in times of celebration or mourning and everything in between, we’re a place where togetherness can be fostered.
(4) Two of the features that make us who we are are our warmth and friendliness as well as the intergenerational nature of so many of our gatherings. From our Shabbat morning Torah discussions to our Purim and Simchat Torah celebrations, we feature experiences that bring together people of all ages, something that isn’t easy to find in today’s world.
(5) We are committed to making sure everyone feels embraced by our community, including those who have often found it more challenging to navigate many Jewish spaces, such as different identities listed in the description.
From there, thanks to the help of staff, a committee of volunteers, and outside support, we’re going to work to continue to get the word out through the many channels, digital and otherwise, available to us. We’re always looking for help getting the word out about SHS, so if this is a task that interests you, or if there is someone you know who may want to be a part of SHS, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me at rabbikamesar@societyhillsynagogue.org.
To name a few other priorities we’re working on in the weeks and months to come: we want to continue to add to the cultural and communal program offerings we provide, recognizing that people often look to Jewish community for programs, speakers, and the like that speak not only to their overtly religious sensibilities, but also to their general sense of Jewish—and human—identities. There are many talented speakers inside and outside the SHS community whom we’d love to host to help inform and enrich our community.
Further, we’re always evaluating our Hebrew School curriculum and pedagogy to strengthen it. Mike Roe has done a terrific job leading the Hebrew School through the pandemic and beyond, and we work closely together, along with Hazzan Jessi Roemer and Sahar Oz, to look for new ways to strengthen our program. We’ve had a number of parents join our Hebrew School Committee and it is a talented, enthusiastic group. Might you envision yourself as part of that group? If so, email me and I can connect you with our awesome co-chairs Elana Hunter and Sara Schwartz Chrismer.
The work of strengthening a synagogue takes a village. Thankfully, we have a great one here at SHS.
