Related Blog Posts on COVID-19, Engaging Families with Young Children, Marketing & Communications, Strengthening Congregations, and Worship

Digital Content to Enliven Your Passover Seder

URJ staff and Reform Movement partners

You already know how to host a beautiful, profound, and Jewishly meaningful seder. What you may not yet know, though, is how to re-imagine your usual traditions to incorporate digital content that will enliven this year’s virtual rendition of your seder.  

Enhance Meeting Effectiveness with Our New Toolkit

Julie Harris
Whether your next congregational meeting is focused on collaborating, relationship building, or checking in on the progress of strategic initiatives, ensuring that it effectively meets your desired outcomes is critical. To help you in this important work, the Union for Reform Judaism has released our Effective Meeting Toolkit.

Setting Your Leaders Up For Success

Gila Hadani
It's board nomination season again! Time to compile lists, get recommendations, and start calling the future leaders of your congregation. The URJ has resources, advice, and initiatives to set you and your board up for success.

The URJ Pulse+ Survey Can Elevate Your Story

Barak Malkin
The URJ Pulse Survey and the newly expanded URJ Pulse+ Survey showed that participating congregations were experiencing similar trends. Having the ability to compare your data with that of other URJ congregations will paint a picture that will help you assess where you are and share a more detailed story with your congregants and donors.

Building a Meaningful Jewish World: A Lesson in Expanding Temple Youth Group Programs

Aaron Wiener
During the COVID pandemic in southern California, we saw our Jewish communities weaken. From our camp spaces disappearing to our teen youth groups (TYG) struggling, many of us stopped programming and decreased in membership, while a few of us thrived the best way we knew how - by joining forces. For us, as youth directors, advisors, and educators, we knew this was the way to keep teens inspired and engaged with one another.

Reviving Synagogue Communities Using Smart Tech

Allison Fine
Beth Kanter
Email and other technologies are a huge factor in why employees feel like they're always on the clock. This "always-on" culture accelerated while synagogues began facing declining membership before the pandemic and has only intensified since. Even if clergy or staff are cut, the work demands don't decrease. As a result, remaining clergy or staff or volunteers are even more overwhelmed and are burning out at alarming rates.