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November 21, 2003/Cheshvan 26 5764, Vol. 56, No. 9
Raising the bar for Reform Jews
Synagogues consider changes, from shofar blowing to daily Torah
JOE BERKOFSKY
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
LEISAH NAMM
Managing Editor
Delegates at the Reform movement's 2003 biennial convention overwhelmingly vote to change the name of the organization from the Union of American Hebrew Congregations to the Union for Reform Judaism, effective immediately.
Photo by Michael Fox
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At Temple Congregation Ohabei Shalom in Nashville, Tenn., congregants newly trained in the ancient skill of shofar-blowing sounded the ceremonial ram's horn for the first time this past Rosh Hashana.
It was the first time a lay member of the 150-year-old synagogue had blown the shofar.
"It was quite a pivotal moment" for the 800-family congregation, says its rabbi, Mark Schiftan.
Deeply rooted in classical Reform Judaism, the temple's services until recently were marked by choirs and English-only prayer.
This Reform movement charter synagogue is undergoing upheaval, and it is not alone.
A journey toward religious tradition, accompanied by musical innovation, is reshaping many of the more than 920 member synagogues of the Reform movement.
The change is not new but it marks a continuing evolution for the movement, which just officially changed its name to the Union for Reform Judaism, shedding its old moniker, the Union of American Hebrew Congregations.
The name change was one of several changes at the group's 67th biennial convention in Minneapolis earlier this month.
Many of those changes have come from on high. The union's president, Rabbi Eric Yoffie, signaled a historic shift in North America's largest liberal Jewish denomination at its 1999 biennial with a worship initiative urging synagogues to use more Hebrew in prayer and reassess communal worship.
His call came after a statement of principles by the movement's Central Conference of American Rabbis, which had met in Pittsburgh earlier that year, sought "renewed attention" to Jewish commandments, or mitzvot.
At this year's convention, Yoffie tried to nudge the movement even further, calling for Reform Jews to go online daily to a "Ten Minutes of Torah" Internet program.
The Torah, he said during his Shabbat morning speech at the biennial, "is the engine that drives Jewish life."
"Such a commitment would enable us to meet our Jewish obligation to make Jewish study a fixed occurrence," Yoffie says. "And if the answer is, 'I can't find 10 minutes,' let me suggest that we need to take a good look at our priorities."
Yoffie is the first to admit that many of North America's estimated 1.5 million Reform Jews may find the idea foreign.
Since his initial calls four years ago, Reform Jewry has embraced more intensive religious study "conceptually," but not in practice, Yoffie said in an interview at the conference.
"There is a core, committed elite that is studying," he said. "On the ground, results are strong in some areas, less strong in others."
Rabbi Alan Berlin of Temple Solel in Paradise Valley says he plans to encourage his congregants to participate in the new Internet Torah study program.
"Torah study is something that's always the focus of any Jew," Berlin says. This program is "a very simple way for people to really engage in Torah study daily."
Rabbi Lawrence Hoffman, a professor of liturgy at the movement's seminary in New York, the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, says that when it comes to congregational worship, "Reform is all over the map."
Hoffman spoke at a conference panel called "Beyond the Worship Wars: Worship Change Four Years Later," which examined how Reform congregations are responding to Yoffie's 1999 calls.
Change "is a process; everybody knows it takes seven to 10 years," Hoffman says.
Indeed, exhortation to change has become a movement fixture.
After World War II, the UAHC's then-president Rabbi Maurice Eisendrath began moving Reform away from its classical roots. His successors, first Rabbi Alexander Schindler, then Yoffie, who took the helm in 1996, followed the path, with each one raising the bar further.
For many of the 4,500 movement leaders and activists who gathered in Minneapolis, change remains an article of faith. Daily and evening prayer sessions throughout the week echoed to crowds of dozens, with those praying donning yarmulkes and prayer shawls. The event also saw its first all-Hebrew prayer session.
The workshops on religious themes were crowded too, including those on delivering a d'var Torah, or text-based teaching, learning to chant from the Torah, creating High Holiday liturgy and experiencing a yoga minyan.
Some were not surprised by Yoffie's renewed call for commitment, if only because it signaled another step in the movement's evolution.
"I think there's absolutely a trend within the Reform movement in going back to tradition, says Rabbi Andrew Straus of Temple Emanuel of Tempe. However, "I don't think it's a radical change, I think it's been a slow, gradual change over the last 15-20 years."
Since he joined the 27-year-old synagogue in 1998, Straus says he has seen a definite growth in its adult education program. Besides starting a joint education program last spring with Temple Beth Sholom, a Conservative synagogue in Chandler, Straus works with about 20 adult b'nai mitzvah students and works with a weekly Torah study group that attracts 20-40 students.
Other changes Straus has noticed with regards to religious observances are an increase of kashrut discussion, the re-embracing of wearing a tallit and kippah and celebrating the second days of holidays, as well as celebrating holidays on the actual day "rather than on the nearest Friday or Saturday."
Throughout the Reform movement, Straus also notes an increase in "getting laypeople involved in reading Torah from the scroll at Shabbat services and urging people and encouraging people to learn to chant Torah or Haftorah."
At Temple Emanuel, a typical Friday night service is about 60 percent Hebrew, 40 percent English, Straus says. "The Hebrew that we use is all song." A discussion is currently underway whether or not the congregation will switch to the movement's new prayer book, Mishkah Tefilah, which is due to be published in 2005.
The new prayer book includes prayers in Hebrew, with translations and transliterations, commentary on the prayers and source references, with music and songs throughout.
Temple Solel in Paradise Valley has used the prayer book during a pilot program and plans to use the completed version once it's released, says Berlin.
When it comes to the Hebrew/English ratio during Solel worship services, the synagogue has tried "to find a good balance that resonates with people and that people connect with," Berlin says. "If you look at where the movement was a generation ago, there was certainly a lot more English than there is today. That's nothing unique to our congregation; around the country that's the pattern."
Beth Haverim, a 280-family congregation in Mahwah, N.J., is also experimenting with the new book.
Beth Haverim's rabbi, Joel Mosbacher, said that while he feels the new prayer book's inclusion of transliterated Hebrew prayers is a crutch allowing people to avoid learning Hebrew, he found that prayer participation among his congregants skyrocketed since its introduction.
One type of service playing out in Reform congregations across the country is a musical service with contemporary sounds.
For instance, on Dec. 5, Temple Beth Israel in Scottsdale will hold a "Rock in Shabbat" service featuring electric guitar and drums and songs with a rock beat, says Cantor Mikhal Shiff-Matter.
However, "most of us guard carefully the balance between traditional and contemporary sounds," she says, "not wanting to turn our backs on the rich Jewish musical tradition we've inherited."
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