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.

We are now solidly in the middle of camp season and our 3,000 dedicated staff are working to ensure that our campers are enjoying the friendship, smiles, ruach (spirit), growth, and love that are all part of the camp experience, while also keeping everyone safe and healthy.

One of the requests we frequently get from congregational leaders, even more so since the onset of Covid-19, is for clarification about emerging revenue structures of Reform congregations. In particular, many want to understand the existing dues models. In this post, we highlight in broad strokes the dominant dues models, and then lay out some questions we believe leaders need to consider if they are thinking of adjusting or changing their current model.

The High Holiday season is an important time of personal and communal reflection, including your congregation’s leadership. This can also be a time of reflection for your congregation’s leadership.

Blaming God for such tragedies is theologically problematic; blaming God for failed human policies is blasphemous. This idea is worth considering as we cope with the devastating aftermath of the multiple disasters confronting us. 

Reopening means so much more than unlocking doors, turning on lights, and resuming routines. As we enter 5782, it means reconnecting with one another, reigniting the bonds of friendship, and reestablishing our affiliation.

I sat down with Aviva recently to learn more about her Indian-Jewish heritage and her decision to establish the India Covid Campaign Partnership.

In Reform congregations across North American, teams of clergy, staff, educators, and lay people have worked together to develop innovative ways to re-open, re-enter, and reimagine our Jewish community life. But the challenges that congregations face in strategically thinking through reopening are more than any one community should have to take on alone. The Reform Movement as a whole will continue to work to help congregational communities envision and plan for the future.