Coming together October 18, 2006
Posted by uricohen in Darkhei Noam, General, Kehilat Hadar, Kol Zimrah, Minyanim, New York City, Synagogues.add a comment
By the end of 2003 Kol Zimrah, Kehilat Hadar and Darkhei Noam had begun, stabilized, and developed as individual prayer communities. They got better and better at serving the needs of their constituents, and the communities flourished on the upper west side, surrounded by the synagogues and other groups which had preceded them.In March of 2004 a new group came on the scene, bent on giving the UWS Jewish community an opportunity to expand its horizons.
Tikvat Yisrael was formed in late 2003 by 8 post-college individuals who had moved to New York City. I was one of them. We had enjoyed our college experiences, which were based on our experiences on our campuses, mostly in Hillel environments. We had enjoyed the opportunity to celebrate shabbat and other Jewish commonalities with others on the campus, and really understand what it means to be a Jewish community made up of a multitude of backgrounds.
When we moved to New York we had a whole new experience. No longer were we limited in our prayer options to the two or three or four services which were sustainable in our Hillels. In New York each person could come as close as is possible anywhere to finding a prayer service which meets their exact needs and interests. Floating from shul to shul, minyan to minyan was possible, and we enjoyed it. By the end of 2003, however, we realized that the community aspect was missing, and we felt that lack quite strongly.
We organized in late 2003, incorporated in January 2004, and had our first program in March of the same year. Our core model involved multiple prayer services operating simultaneously, yet independently under one roof in the same building. Housed in the Abraham Joshua Heschel lower school on 89th and Broadway, we operated three services which we called “liberal”, “traditional egalitarian” and “orthodox”. We stayed away from “conservative” and “reform” because it was our experience that many people felt pigeon-holed rather than described by these titles, and that those terms carried associations that were more harmful than helpful. On the other hand, we felt that we should call the third minyan “orthodox” to serve as a “hekhsher” of some kind for the attendees who would be looking for assurance that the service would meet their needs.
Following the services (held along the same hallway on the first floor), we devised a communal shabbat dinner, to be held upstairs in the gym. The idea was to provide an opportunity for everyone who attended to see, not just hear about others who were dedicated to prayer. To experience community, rather than just read or think about it. The doors on the service rooms were open, melodies flowed out as people could see in. We were hoping that this would be an attractive model, and one that would draw at least 10 people per service (and at least 10 men for the orthodox service).
We were absolutely shocked by the result. We took registrations for the dinner (and charged a nominal fee) and we sold out a week in advance with 140 registrants. We had been hoping to hit 40. We were hoping for 40-50 people come to services, and we were thrilled to see 200. There were people asking if they could come for dinner at the last minute, and we sat as many as we could.
The traditional egalitarian and orthodox services each saw around 80 attendees. The services were lay-led, and featured a traditional liturgy and a devar torah. The traditional egalitarian service featured mixed seating and full participation for women, and the orthodox service featured male-led prayer and a mehitzah. The liberal service was led by an accomplished service leader who led a beautiful non-traditional service using a guitar, with the chairs formed in a circle. This service had around 50 attendees.
For this first event we had men lead kiddush (blessings over the wine) and birkat hamazon (the grace after meals). A woman led the hamotzi (blessing over the bread). While we knew that this could not be a long-term solution to the gender participation issue, we thought that people would allow us some leeway in using this relatively mainstream approach. Though we did get some feedback about this, for the most part people were satisfied with this solution – for now.
The feedback was wonderful. People enjoyed the services, the experiences and the meal. People told us how they had missed these experiences and had really enjoyed them in their college lives. They were grateful to have such an opportunity and were excited for the next one to take place.
Meanwhile, we got press in the Jewish Week, and word began to spread…
Darkhei Noam background September 14, 2006
Posted by uricohen in Darkhei Noam, General, Minyanim, Synagogues.add a comment
Thanks to co-founder Jonathan Stein for this:
“Rodeph Sholom deserves a ton of credit for giving us space at cost. I just
cold called them out of the blue and their desire for real
inter-denominational interaction was very genuine. We even had their Rabbi
speak at DN once. So the back story about institutional versus
non-institutional minyanim needs more nuance. The Reform establishment was
backing some upstarts from the Modern Orthodox community.
And while DN certainly fits within the independent minyan framework, it also grew
out of stirrings within the Modern Orthodox community for something more
egalitarian, e.g., Rabbi Silber and the Drisha Minyan, the Edah Journal
article by Mendel Shaprio, etc.
I think that explains why DN attracts relatively more families than some of
the other ind. minyanim. And that demographic in turn explains some aspects
of how DN grew and didn’t grow, its fundraising, its later ties with
Heschel, etc.
And something I’d love to clarify for posterity: DN developed completely
independently of Shira Hadashah in Jerusalem, though SH’s larger numbers and
earlier launch date have often meant that DN is viewed as the UWS version of
SH. I’m not sure I mind the label, but the goings on in Jerusalem did not
have any direct impact on the development of DN.”
Thanks, Jon!
I’d love to get some more information on the cooperation between Rodeph Sholom and Darkhei Noam here. Can anyone elaborate on the methodology and/or thinking that contributed here?
In the beginning August 28, 2006
Posted by uricohen in General, KOE.5 comments
In the beginning (September 2001), there were synagogues. Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist, BJ and others. Each had its membership, its Rabbi, its building and such. The synagogues in my rotation were:
Ohab Zedek (Rabbi Allen Schwartz): OZ world served as the center of the Upper West Side universe. Friday night was a madhouse, as hundreds and hundreds of “young professionals” would crowd into the synagogue (men downstairs, women upstairs in the balcony) for, what is still, one of the best Friday night services. The big attraction, however, was afterwards, when these hundreds of young folk would stand around for an hour or so, clogging the exits, blocking the streets, and forming the greatest singles event of the year – every week. Schmoozing, catching up, and the like, meeting new people – a very important feature of the Upper West Side.
Shaarei Zedek (Rabbis Hillel Norry, Mark Ankcorn and Julia Andelman, in succession): A Conservative synagogue just 25 blocks from the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS). My understanding was that the community had just (in the past couple of years) become egalitarian, which had caused quite a rift in the congregation, and there was a rebuilding process in place.
Ansche Chesed (Rabbi Jeremy Kalmanofsky): A Conservative synagogue which was (and is still) made up of a number of separate prayer services which meet in the building. Besides this unique feature of the synagogue, it ran (and runs) its own homeless shelter, which really serves to integrate social justice values into the normative life of the constituents in a unique way to the Upper West Side.
There was (and is) also Ramath Orah (Rabbi Friedman), Shearit Israel (the Spanish and Portuguese synagogue) (Rabbi Hayyim Angel), Lincoln Square (then Rabbi Alan Mintz), and Congregation Habonim (Rabbi Joanna Samuels), all of whom I went to on an infrequent basis. The Jewish Center (Rabbi Berman), Rodeph Shalom (Rabbi Levine), the Society for the Advancement of Judaism (SAJ, Rabbi Michael Strassfeld) and the Reconstructionist Synagogue of the West Side, BJ, the Carlebach Synagogue, Young Israel of the West Side, Ohab Shalom and others were on the radar, though I never attended services there as a resident of the UWS. Nor had I attended services at JTS.
AND THEN there was KOE (Kehilat Orach Eliezer). An anomaly, in the sense that it was a prayer group which was nota synagogue, but rather an independent group of people who had secured their own rental space (not in a synagogue) yet met every week and had Rabbi Weiss-Halivni to serve as its leader. Services were (and are) lay-led. At the time I moved to the Upper West Side, we considered KOE as the cutting edge of the Orthodox UWS presence. Its opportunities for the participation of women in an orthodox environment were unparalleled, and it had a large constituency. Another known and unique feature was the focus on prayer as an activity to be enjoyed – hence a slower (sometimes too slow) pace. i always found KOE to be quite warm and welcoming, and a pleasant place to go.
Then, one week a friend mentioned to me that a traditional egalitarian minyan was going to be meeting on my roof (the Key West, where else?), and it had wonderful prayer services, but didn’t have a name… this was the spring of 2002.
Comments? Questions? What have I left out or misrepresented? Please help paint the picture of the history prior to the spring of 2002.
The Plan August 28, 2006
Posted by uricohen in General, Minyanim.add a comment
Here is the initial plan for how this site will work:
Each month there will be a theme, introduced by a question and/or statement relating to that theme. I expect that the content of the themes will overlap at various points, and I anticipate lots of tangents and digressions. However, we’ll do our best to keep the conversations on topic so that we get thorough conversations of each topic.
The topics will begin with the recent history of independent Minyanim, and we will branch out from there. Please give your comments and supplement the perspective(s) given. While New York may well end up taking the bulk of the conversation, communities and minyanim outside of the New York area are of great interest, so please share information in their regard!
Welcome to The Aperture! August 25, 2006
Posted by uricohen in General.add a comment
The aperture of a camera lets in light through a camera lense which ultimately forms picture which can be captured. The light is captured just right, so that the picture that results is formed from the totality of its surroundings, creating a snapshot of what is going on around it.
Welcome to The Aperture. This site is designed to function much in the same way as a camera aperture – to collect the thoughts and trends which pervade the Jewish community today, places it in its historical and social context, and form “snapshots” of where we are and where we are going.
As President and Founder of Tikvat Yisrael, Inc., Assistant Director of Development for Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, and a committed member of the Jewish community in “Generation Y”, I am exceedingly interested in the happenings in the Jewish community today. This blog is designed to present ideas and get feedback on the Jewish community, to make connections, present historical perspective, and ultimately to build a network of dedicated Jewish leaders and thinkers.
New to the site? Please post your comments, ideas, and arguments in a clear manner. Abide by the “house” rules – everyone’s relevant and well-articulated perspective matters and all perspectives are respected. I look forward to serious and substantive conversation, connections, and partnerships going forward! For more information on me, make sure to visit the Webcenter — uricohen.net.
