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December 20, 2002/Tevet 15 5763, Vol. 55, No. 17
Improved education will attract unaffiliated
BARRY COHEN
Editor
Improving educational curricula is a way for synagogues to attract the unaffiliated, according to the leader of the congregational arm of Reform Judaism.
The high degree of unaffiliation is "a profound problem," but at the same time, "we have a minority - a committed lay leadership - which is far more involved with Jewish study and Jewish practice ... than we would have imagined possible 30 years ago," said Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations.
Locally, synagogue affiliation is low - 29 percent of the Valley's Jewish community is affiliated with a congregation, according to the 2002 Greater Phoenix Jewish Community Study.
Proposed changes in the study curricula of UAHC synagogues provide a way to spread the level of commitment of core congregants to the unaffiliated, according to Yoffie.
The UAHC has suggested revamping religious school curricula and inviting more adults into classes, not only with their children, but also for higher level instruction, he explained.
Yoffie was in town Dec. 12-14 for a UAHC Board of Trustees meeting. Approximately 250 people from 920 congregations serve on the UAHC board.
Parents need to be in religious school at least six times a year, according to a recent guideline adopted at the 2001 UAHC biennial - a national convention of UAHC-affiliated congregations - in Boston, said Yoffie.
Three of these sessions are for "family education" and three are for "parent education."
Yoffie wants more parents in classrooms with children learning together in family education.
"This doesn't mean (parents) sitting in the back of the room while (the children) draw pictures," he said.
Parent education entails parents studying together, apart from their children.
"They need to learn in a sophisticated, adult way, some of the things their children are learning," explained Yoffie.
In addition to parent and adult education, the UAHC is working on new curricula for grades 2-7; already, lesson plans for second and third grades have been completed, Yoffie said.
Yoffie stressed, however, that these renewed efforts to improve synagogue education are not a guarantee to attract the unaffiliated.
"There is no magic program that is going to draw the unaffiliated into organized Jewish life," he noted.
Yoffie said that there is "considerable diversity within the Reform movement," but that a handful of religious principles holds the UAHC together.
He pointed to an evolving and growing commitment to Jewish tradition; the equality of women in Jewish life; the pursuit of social justice; the use of Jewish tradition to address contemporary problems; and a line between Jews and non-Jews that is inclusive, not exclusive.
Yoffie said that the Valley's UAHC synagogues - Temple Solel, Temple Chai, Temple Kol Ami, Temple Beth Israel, Temple Emanuel of Tempe, Temple Gan Elohim, Temple Beth Shalom and Temple Havurat Emet - embrace these principles and potentially can attract the Valley's Jewish community.
"Ultimately, can they succeed and draw a lot more people to Jewish life? I believe they can."
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