The Ida and Howard Wilkoff Department of Synagogue Management strives to help congregations build, develop and maintain well-run, spiritually fulfilling congregations, where the sacred informs the practical and the practical creates the sacred. The department, and the Joint Commission on Synagogue Management, in cooperation with the National Association of Temple Administrators (NATA), develop materials and provide consultations to congregations throughout North America.
Among the services and publications offered by the department are:
Greening Reform Judaism is an all-thing-green web portal offering primers on the climate crisis, suggestions on how to green your life and your congregation and much more.
Be sure to click on Communicate!, the online Resource Bank of ideas, program expertise, contacts and resources designed specifically for the Union and its member congregations.
In response to requests for assistance in the area of congregational heritage preservation, the Department has just published So That You Shall Remember: Preserving Your Congregations Heritage which recommends what material to preserve (key legal documents, important records, real estate and ritual objects), how to preserve them (museums, archives and written, oral and visual histories) and models for transitions. Appendix highlights include information about risk management, document retention, merger documents, trust agreements and moving checklists. As with all our new and updated publications, So That You Shall Remember includes a Think Small: An Approach for Small Congregations section. Click here to see the full list of publications.
Please be patient, these publications can take several minutes to download.