Rabbi Elie Kaunfer

Rabbi Mintz makes a strong point in viewing independent minyanim not as a threat to movements, but instead as “showing us the possibility of a new engaged, immersed, committed generation.” As executive director of Mechon Hadar, an organization that networks the 60-plus independent minyanim across the country, I am often asked: what is the future of the “alumni” of independent minyanim?  Here are some possibilities:

• More independent minyanim – One possibility is that empowered Jews will form minyanim outside the super-urban Jewish areas of the United States (New York City, Los Angeles, Boston, and so on). Already in the past two years, we have seen the spread of minyanim in different areas of the country: places like Columbus, Ohio; Princeton Junction, New Jersey; Denver, Colorado; and Charlottesville, Virginia now have independent minyanim. The founders of these minyanim are either alumni of large, urban, independent minyanim or are in the same social network as urban-minyan goers. The minyanim in these areas are different from their predecessors. These new minyanim do not have a critically large base of attendees to draw on and rely on the active attendance of a few families. But significantly, they have not taken the path of least resistance by melding into the existing synagogue structure.

• Minyan-synagogue hybrids – Alumni of independent minyanim will join synagogues, but will launch their own minyan within the synagogue. The best example of this is in a large congregation in northern New Jersey. Two former independent minyan leaders moved to the suburbs when they outgrew their one-bedroom apartment in New York City. They joined a synagogue that was well-attended and warm, but whose “main sanctuary” services didn’t offer the vibrancy they had experienced at Kehilat Hadar, a flagship independent minyan in Manhattan. These former minyan leaders were looking for something that emphasized a vibrant, participatory service—and that incorporated young children. So they started Minyan Koleinu. Koleinu is not strictly an independent minyan—all of the participants are members of the larger synagogue. But the service they put together is largely based on the model of an independent minyan: It is participant-led, includes the full liturgy, and incorporates new melodies on a regular basis. Significantly, the minyan has drawn new people in addition to a number of long-time synagogue members. When clergy are open to this model, it represents a real possibility for change within a synagogue structure.

• Minyanim as training grounds for future synagogue members – Some independent minyan alumni will attend synagogues—and they will become more active members than they would have been without their minyan experience. One former organizer at Kehilat Hadar moved to Salt Lake City after two years in the leadership. There was no critical mass to start a minyan in her new community. But she and her husband joined the synagogue (with their 2 children) and immediately became active members of the synagogue leadership. She drew on her models of success and her practical skills gained in the minyan to offer real contributions to her new community. And, in the outskirts of Washington, D.C.,  one rabbi said he loves the existence of DC Minyan, an independent minyan founded in 2002: it serves as a feeder of engaged, knowledgeable laypeople for his synagogue.

• Rabbis who bring independent minyan ethos to their communities – The vast majority of people who attend independent minyanim are not rabbinical students, but many rabbinical students attend independent minyanim. When these students become rabbis and fan out across the synagogue landscape, they may incorporate various features of the minyanim in their synagogues. They will know that “standard” suburban synagogue services are not the only model in twenty-first century Judaism, and they may incorporate the values and practices of independent minyanim into their mainstream synagogue. Some of them will even found their own start-up rabbi-led communities—like Kavana in Seattle—taking the independent minyan ethos and applying it to a new environment.

• Minyan participation as a deviation from an otherwise unengaged Jewish life – Some minyan alumni will simply drop out of organized Jewish life. This is a sad potential outcome, but part of what animates attendance at the minyanim is a connection to the vibrancy of Jewish prayer. If that vibrancy is missing and if it is simply too difficult to turn around a synagogue, people may become frustrated and go back to their preminyan Shabbat routine—sleep through services and find other ways to engage their spiritual side. Because this generation does not join out of guilt or institutional obligation but out of a search for meaning, if the meaning is absent, some will not join at all. This is the outcome I fear the most, because it means that people who would otherwise be engaged will stop contributing to Jewish life.

Rabbi Mintz writes: “We are being challenged to make Judaism important, to create opportunities for us to join, invest in, and embed within the evolving Jewish community.”  This is a challenge not just to movement insiders and rabbis, but also to Jews everywhere. I pray that together we will meet it.

Rabbi Sydney Mintz

It is 2009. There are almost 900 Reform synagogues in North America. Although I agree with Rabbi Kaunfer that independent minyanim are not a challenge to the movements, I disagree with his statement that the Internet is. As time has progressed and the Internet has developed, the movements have also shifted, morphed, and evolved. Yes, “the new reality of niche markets [as opposed to the mass market] gave rise to independent minyanim,” however, it also gave rise to new definitions of what it means to be a sacred community. The explosion of emerging sacred communities continues to be matched by innovations within synagogues in each of the movements. The Internet has changed and shaped the way we communicate, and the way we create and even define communities, but I would argue that it has done so across the board.

The Internet is not threatening: it is challenging the Jewish community to reexamine the modes of communication and community organizing that until now happened on an organic plane, in living breathing communities, not on a two dimensional screen. If all corners of the Jewish world can harness the power of the Internet and transform it from a potentially anonymous-singular interface to a portal to capture those searching for belonging, we will all benefit. Synagogues are not outdated archaic places that people belong to only to say Kaddish. They do not cater only to those who receive all of their mail in an actual box and who show up at synagogue twice a year. Rather, synagogues, like independent minyanim, are blending tradition with modernity. We are utilizing the Internet to reach not only our own members, but also others who are seeking community.

Consider whether this sounds like a synagogue or an independent minyan: “Long lines to get into a Friday night Shabbat service; congregants standing up during the service to dance in the aisles; newcomers weeping without understanding the Hebrew liturgy; a cantor who plays the electric keyboard along with drumming rabbis and Middle Eastern musical ensembles; congregants swaying, humming, or loudly joining in the singing; liberal Jews who claim that they can ‘feel God’s presence’ in the sanctuary. These are all part of what has made B’nai Jeshurun, a progressive, Conservative-style synagogue on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, a laboratory for those concerned with dwindling membership at North American synagogues” (S3K Report, November 2009, number 7, at www.synagogue3000.org). While the synagogue does not fall into the category of an independent minyan, it has evolved into a spiritual center that any minyan—independent or affiliated—should notice.

I do not know if the Internet has helped B’nai Jeshurun in its evolution, but I know that it has benefited our emergent Jewish young-adult community here in San Francisco, California at Congregation Emanu-El. The young-adult community is ten years old at Emanu-El and the Internet has only helped strengthen the broad base of membership that we continue to build from among Orthodox, Conservative and Reform Jews, including those who attend the Mission Minyan across town and others. Because a Jew davens at an independent minyan does not preclude that person from eventually affiliating with a synagogue (of whatever movement appeals to his or her sense of identity) when he or she needs a rabbi, preschool, religious education, burial, wedding or bar or bat-mitzvah. These are but a few of the reasons that new members mention for joining the shul.

My colleague Rabbi Kaunfer might be correct in his assertion that “independent minyanim stepped into a vacuum created by a shift from mass markets to niche markets,” but that is only a piece of the puzzle. I can see that the lines between the movements are becoming blurred in some areas but more well-defined in others. Some people abhor labels, but many Jews still do call themselves traditional or observant, Conservadox or Reform, liberal or progressive to indicate who and where they are on the spectrum of identity. Just check out Facebook to see the wide spectrum of influence that the Internet has on synagogues and on independent minyanim. You might be surprised at who you find.