The Year in Review 2000-2001

by Emily Grotta

The death of Rabbi Alexander M. Schindler, the visionary leader of Reform Judaism from 1973 to 1995, marked the end of an era. He opened the doors to all who sought a spiritual home in Judaism; welcomed converts; strove for social justice; championed full equality for women, gays and lesbians, and people with special needs; and encouraged lifelong Jewish learning. We pledge to perpetuate Alex's legacy, marked by a tireless devotion to the synagogue, the institution that has sustained our people and our faith for two thousand years.

As a Reform Jew, Alex never lost sight of the fact that the spiritual health of our people depends on our ability to adapt courageously and creatively to change. One of the great challenges facing the UAHC and our more than 900 member congregations is navigating the often turbulent waters of synagogue transformation. Hundreds of UAHC congregations have already begun this journey, often to great reward. They are making fundamental changes in all aspects of synagogue life, from value-driven board meetings to innovative and participatory worship services, and much more. They are discovering that transformation is not about adding another program, choosing different melodies, or hiring a new staff member. Whether working on their own or as part of Synagogue 2000, HUC-JIR's Experiment in Congregational Education, or the UAHC's Creating Learning Congregations project, congregations are discovering the power unleashed when a synagogue becomes a caring community that meets the spiritual needs of all who enter its doors.

Since our earliest days, we have insisted that Judaism must change and adapt to the needs of the day. Our willingness to openly and honestly assess ourselves and to change what must be changed has brought new vitality and strength to the North American Jewish community, and is the central reason for our continued growth.

While we take pride in our growing membership, we must remember that the success of the Reform Movement is not in our numbers but in our ability to balance tradition with innovation, never losing sight of the eternal values of a covenant people that walks humbly with God.

Russell Silverman, Chairman

Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie, President

Key Initiatives

At the end of the millennium--at the Orlando Biennial--UAHC President Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie called for a revolution in synagogue worship. "We sense that our Judaism has been a bit too cold and a bit too domesticated; we yearn to sing to God, to let our souls fly free," he said. "Through prayer we can rediscover our inner selves, and tie ourselves to the collective body of Israel." To do so, he said, "we must give our leaders the freedom to experiment and to develop forms of communal prayer that are both Jewishly authentic and fully indigenous to North America." His call reverberated throughout the Movement. Large and small congregations alike began to engage in worship study, visiting nearby congregations for new ideas, empowering their worship committees to reexamine past practices, and seeking out the guidance of UAHC professionals.

Rabbi Sue Ann Wasserman, director of the UAHC Department of Religious Living, says that changes in worship practices are already evident in many synagogues. A formal study was conducted last fall, when the UAHC sent Worship Survey 2000 to every member congregation to gather information about ritual observances, music, and worship. The results will be released at the Boston Biennial.

To demonstrate diversity of congregational prayer, the UAHC has produced a video of Friday night services at three congregations: Temple Israel in Boston; Congregation B'nai Jeshurun-Barnert Temple in Franklin Lakes, NJ; and Central Reform Congregation in St. Louis--three congregations with widely diverse histories and physical spaces. Worship With Joy: Visions of Prayer will be available to congregations free of charge this fall.

In addition, Iv'Du B'Simchah: Worship With Joy, a guide to congregational worship renewal that includes a seventeen-session study curriculum for Ritual Committees, has been revised and is available in book form from the UAHC Press (to order, call 888-489-8242 or visit the website www.uahcpress.com). New approaches to prayer were introduced at each of the UAHC regional biennials and at the Small Congregations Conference. At overflowing workshops, congregational leaders throughout North America joined together in an effort to revitalize prayer and make each Reform congregation into what Rabbi Yoffie has described as "a center of avodah--of worship, reverence, and awe."

The widespread embrace of worship reform this year is part of the growing spiritual quest within our Movement. The Meditation Kallah in Prescott, AZ, organized by the UAHC Department of Adult Jewish Growth, was sold out long in advance. The UAHC's four spiritual summer Kallot programs in Bristol, RI; Santa Cruz, CA; Colorado Springs, CO; and Parry Sound, Ontario will draw close to 5,000 participants; plans are underway to hold similar retreats in a number of UAHC regions throughout the year.

Combining the quest for literacy with a quest of the spirit, Rabbi Yoffie's call for Reform Jews to read at least four books of Jewish substance a year as part of his Adult Jewish Literacy Initiative has inspired a number of congregations to develop book discussion programs using the recommended UAHC Significant Jewish Books and study guides (see page 54). The UAHC Press published a second adult Hebrew primer, Aleph Isn't Enough, and two volumes about Reform Judaism: The Reform Jewish Reader, a chronicle of Reform Judaism from its roots in Western Europe to the present by Rabbis W. Gunther Plaut and Michael A. Meyer; and Jewish Living: A Guide to Contemporary Reform Practice by Rabbi Mark Washofsky. In addition, the Department of Adult Jewish Growth is preparing a bar/bat mitzvah curriculum, to be unveiled at the Boston Biennial, that will model the most successful adult congregational b'nai mitzvah programs.

This year, through its network of regional educators, the Department of Jewish Education created teacher-training seminars, providing direct counseling and service to individual schools by involving whole staffs in teacher training and offering special aid to novice teachers. The Department also created the UAHC's first-ever online distance learning course, primarily for teachers who are not conversant with the history and practices of Reform Judaism. This "virtual classroom," featuring web pages with assignments, online question and answer forums, and dozens of Reform web links, is only the beginning--additional courses are anticipated as the UAHC continues to make advances in online learning technology.

For our youngest members, the UAHC embarked on an initiative to support congregational preschools, which have now become an integral part of many synagogues and often the entry point to synagogue affiliation. More than 100 preschool directors convened in New York in January for the first UAHC Early Childhood Educators Conference, attended by close to 100 directors, who exchanged ideas on curriculum, teacher training, and integrating nursery schools into congregational life. As a result, the UAHC is helping to create an organization tailored to preschool directors' needs; Martha Katz, a doctoral candidate in Early Childhood Education at Vanderbilt University, has been hired as coordinator of early childhood education.

In other educational initiatives, the Department of Jewish Education has created a comprehensive curriculum on tikkun olam (repair of the world) and tikkun middot (repair of our moral life). The first three books in the curriculum--Be a Mensch Campaign (for students in grades three and four), To Learn Is to Do: A Tikkun Olam Roadmap (grades five and six), and Repairing My World (b'nai mitzvah students and their parents)--will be published this year by the UAHC Press.

How Jewish ethics are applied by adults both in the synagogue and in their work are the topics of two other new publications. Who May Abide in Your House? Jewish Ethics and Decision Making, which explores ethical issues in synagogue life, such as leadership, staff relations, and confidentiality, is available at no charge on the web (http://uahc.synman) or from the Department of Synagogue Management. Talmud for Everyday Living: Employer-Employee Relations by Rabbi Hillel Gamoran applies the ethical lessons of the Talmud to the workplace; it is available from the UAHC Press.

The Task Force on the Shortage of Reform Jewish Professionals has been working at both long- and short-term solutions to what is deemed the most critical problem facing the Movement today. Using a newly created database of rabbis, cantors, and educators who are not currently working full-time at UAHC congregations, the UAHC will try to pair them with congregations that need part-time professional services. In addition, the Reform Movement is expanding its successful training programs whereby lay leaders learn how to assist clergy in areas such as education, worship, conversion, and music. Pararabbinic and music trainees then bring their newlyacquired skills into their home congregations, relieving rabbis and cantors and providing services to congregations without professional leaders.

One of the long-term solutions to the professional shortage is to identify high school students who might be interested in a career of Jewish service. Now in its second summer, the Meitav Fellowship for Reform Leadership, a three-year program for highly motivated and spiritually curious high-schoolers from throughout North America, includes intensive Hebrew instruction, leadership training at Kutz Camp Institute, a semester in Israel, and mentoring with top Reform rabbis and professionals to insure that a new generation of Reform leaders emerges from today's youth. For more information, contact Andy Dubin at (212) 650-4078.

One of the "untold stories" of the Reform Movement's Outreach efforts is the remarkable number of people who are choosing Judaism. Many non-Jews first enroll in the popular three-week "Taste of Judaism" program, an entry-level, boundary-free course on Jewish life and tradition, which has, since its inception in the mid-1990s, reached 33,000 people in nearly 300 communities. Many of the students then move on to the more demanding "Introduction to Judaism" course, which usually is a prerequisite to conversion.

While authority for conversion remains with the rabbi, many Reform congregations are now relying on certified Outreach fellows to counsel and teach individuals who are contemplating conversion to Judaism. More than eighty people have been trained in the CCAR and UAHC's Outreach fellows program since its inception three years ago, providing much-needed relief to the rabbis in their communities. For more information, please contact the William and Lottie Daniel Department of Outreach, (212) 650-4230, outreach@uahc.org.

Committed to inspiring junior and senior high school students with broad and innovative programming, the UAHC is hiring professional youth workers throughout our fourteen regions to work directly with congregational staffs to strengthen the youth program in the areas of junior youth, integration of formal and informal education, youth worker training, and engaging the unengaged. To date, more than 140 congregations have been visited by one of these professionals and forty are engaged in ongoing on-siteconsultations. In addition, a Junior Youth Group leadership program has been developed at Kutz Camp that trains senior high school youth to serve as mentors for junior high youth within the congregational setting.

Last February, more than 170 congregational youth workers attended the Youth Workers Convention held in Los Angeles in conjunction with the NFTY Convention. A record number of NFTYites gathered for a weekend of learning, fun, and community. Youth workers learned from experts in areas such as Judaic Studies, informal education, and adolescent development.

Some one hundred Reform college students from throughout North America exchanged ideas and developed community at two KESHER conventions this past year. In addition to a focus on the evolving nature of Reform Judaism, these conventions, held at UAHC camps, gave students the opportunity to develop their leadership skills, to engage in Reform worship and study, and to build community. Given the ongoing success of the UAHC's birthright israel trips, the College Education Department has enjoyed a successful year serving our Movement's college population.
Social Action

Last spring's Consultation on Conscience at the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism in Washington, DC focused on the threat to church-state separation and encouraged hundreds of our leaders to remain vigilant about international human rights, gay and lesbian issues, gun control, campaign finance and estate tax reform, the death penalty, international religious persecution, and privacy. In May 2000, many Reform Jews traveled to Washington for the Million Mom March, where Rabbi Eric Yoffie called gun control a religious obligation. "Our gun-flooded society has turned weapons into idols," he said, "and the worship of idols must be recognized for what it is--blasphemy."

Last fall, the collapse of the Middle East peace talks and the violence that followed sharply curtailed travel to Israel. Nevertheless, the UAHC's fall and spring high school semester in Israel programs continued without interruption. Anticipating a drop in travel to Israel this summer, the Youth Division has arranged alternative travel programs for high school students, including a student trip to some of the defining sites in the history of American and Canadian Jewry.

In order to educate, encourage, and mobilize North American Jews in support of peace and social justice in Israel, the UAHC has embarked on Seeking Peace, Pursuing Justice, a three-year initiative funded by a $500,000 grant from the Ford Foundation. Publications, educational materials, and synagogue program ideas will be developed, and UAHC synagogues will benefit from a speakers series, Israel trips, and extensive interfaith dialogue.

Reaching Out, Reaching In

With an ever-growing number of Reform Jews relying on the Internet for information, the UAHC is applying web technology to upgrade communications and service to individuals and congregations. A new database is now being created that will enable UAHC's New York offices and all fourteen regions to offer congregations immediate information as well as services specifically targeted to their needs.

This year, the UAHC changed its web host, enabling all UAHC and linked congregational sites--among them the UAHC Press and Transcontinental Music Publications--to accept online orders. Also, we will soon have the capability to offer online registration for all UAHC meetings and conventions.

Synagogue Match was unveiled this year to help Jewish families who relocate to establish new synagogue connections, and assist congregations in contacting Reform Jews who have moved into their area. The newcomers' information is entered on the Synagogue Match website and then forwarded to three nearby Reform synagogues, which may then contact the new arrivals and welcome them to the community.

Editor's note: "The Year in Review" departs from the usual "UAHC & You" format to bring you a special review of the UAHC's major initiatives, accomplishments, and milestones in the past year. We will return to the section's regular contents (i.e. "For You," "For Your Congregation") in the subsequent edition.

Notable Numbers

11 congregations join the UAHC

13 regional/bi-regional biennials, with record attendance

25 books published by the UAHC Press

87 Reform e-mail discussion groups

125-year anniversary of the founding of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion

638 congregations post web pages--and the number keeps growing

725 congregations send youth to UAHC camps, conclaves, conventions, and other programs

906 congregations are affiliated with the UAHC

1,200 students receive social action training at the Religious Action Center's L'taken seminars

2,000 high school students attend the NFTY Convention

27,300 copies of Torat Hayim are downloaded from the UAHC website

300,000 people visit the UAHC home page at http://uahc.org/

315,000 synagogue families receive Reform Judaism magazine

$13.5 million is pledged or donated to enhance programs or create new ones, including $8 million for camp expansion on the West Coast and in the Southeast

Back to Summer 2001

Back to UAHC home page