It\u2019s a not-so-well kept secret that recently many Jews\u2013many Americans, in fact\u2013have come to find traditional, frontal services where congregants sit quietly in pews to be off-putting and, dare I say it, boring.<\/p>\n
For a certain generation raised with a different set of attitudes toward institutions and authority, this may have been the way to go. But the hallmark of any healthy system that meaningfully engages people in their own lives\u2013Judaism, of course, being no exception\u2013is that it continues to adapt and evolve to remain relevant to changing times.<\/p>\n
This is not, of course, to say that the baby should be thrown out with the bathwater: the core teachings and values of Judaism\u2013forming covenanted communities, cultivating awareness of the blessings in our lives, celebrating Shabbat and holidays as a way of acknowledging sacred time, connection to Jewish peoplehood and Israel\u2013always need to be at the center. But reexamining and rearticulating them for our own times can in fact be ways to reinvigorate them, have them speak to today\u2019s Jews in new and exciting ways.<\/p>\n
Across the country, synagogues have been experimenting with different formats to bring in Jews who haven\u2019t connected to Jewish life. And while some of these attempts may be nothing more than gimmicks\u2013kabbalah dating for Jewish singles?\u2013it\u2019s important to make the effort to reach out at a time when synagogues, like so many other traditional institutions, are stagnating.<\/p>\n