Biennial Day 3--Sh'ma Yisrael

Today was an early day for me at the biennial.  Each morning 3 different types of morning services are offered at 7:30 AM.  See why a previous post was titled Sleep Deprivation?  As many of you know I love all kinds of Jewish music (even though I'm somewhat tone deaf)...in case you hadn't figured that out by all the time I was spending at the URJ Books and Music stage (and yes Melissa....I'm bringing home more CDs).  One of the services being offered was "Shiru L'adonai:  Mostly Music Service".  It was a beautiful service led by a rabbi and a number of Cantors.  Following services was the first learning session of the day.  I attended (crashed) "For congregational Presidents"  Strengthening Your Board and Building and effective Lay Leadership Team".  I was among temple presidents (and a couple other non-presidents) from congregations ranging in size from 40 to 3,000.  What I found is that the problems that we have are no different than problems at many other congregations.

Next was the days plenary session.  As I have described in other posts, each sessions starts with a short musical presentation from some of our contemporary Jewish musicians  The session included some additional award presentations.  The first highlight of the session was the address by the URJ chairman of the board Peter Weidhorn.  This is the highest lay led position in the URJ.    Peter is beginning his second 2 year term as the chairman of the union.  The key messages he delivered were:

• The ability of religion and specifically Judaism to maintain relevance and purpose.
• We must identify our constituents and what they require.
• We need to prioritize what we do.  We can't provide every type of service or program which is known.
• We must reach out to "Just Jewish Jews".
• Emphasize early learning in our communities.
• Transform youth programming from social to life long learning and social justice.

Following Peter's address, the delegates dealt with the business portion of the biennial.  There were 4 resolutions presented and all 4 passed unanimously.  Additional information can be found at http://biennial.urj.org/program/resolutions/.  After receiving the award Eisendrath "Bearer of Light" award, we heard a presentation by Irwin Cotler, Canadian parliament member and former justice minister.

Next were networking lunches.  Here I had an opportunity to meet representatives of other small (<250 members) congregations.  As I indicated earlier, our problems and challenges are not unique.  This was a good opportunity to share ideas and success stories.  Following lunch was the final learning session of the biennial.  I attended "Demographic Shifts and Changing Synagogue Size:  Where Do We Go From Here?"  Here presentations were made by 3 different congregations, each a different size, on how they are dealing with changing demographics in their synagogue membership.

Following the learning session, I did a little shopping at the book store and a quick tour of the exhibition gallery.  Then I hung out until a short concert by Julie Silver which was celebrating the launch of her new CD. She put on a great performance.  From there we headed over to Kabbalat Shabbat Services.  We participated with over 3,000 other reform Jews.  We sang and prayed our way to welcome Shabbat.  As we chanted the Sh'ma it occurred to me that we were praying the same words as a congregation of over 3,000 that just an hour later members of Vassar Temple and Jews all over would be doing the same.  It was a powerful event.  Following services we joined others from our region (NJ-West Hudson Valley) for Shabbat dinner.  Then it was back together with everyone else for a rousing song session led by a full array of cantors, soloists, song leaders, and members of NFTY (our youth movement).  For an hour we sang and danced to celebrate Shabbat.  After that was an opportunity to continue celebrating with smaller groups.  I attended the late night rock show.  One of the performes was Alan Goodis, the grandson of Elaine Lipschutz.  It was a wonderful performance.

Shabbat Shalom,
Seth