The Movement for Reform Judaism

When my nephew was a little boy, he lived just round the corner from here with his parents in Malford Grove. Alex was renowned for gathering together as many people as he could, standing on a chair and singing that classic Cliff Richard aria ‘Conglatulations’ – loudly, tunelessly and repetitively.

If it weren’t for the fact that his tunelessness is a family trait, I would do exactly the same thing right now. But I’ll say it instead. Congratulations. Mazal tov. Yeshar Kochachem. You’ve done a fantastic job. And, let me assure you, this is not what I trek round Britain saying, a well-worn sermon pulled off the shelf. It comes from the heart and is specifically for you.

Visitors: just consider this. The Reform Synagogues of Great Britain – RSGB – was not a well-endowed, strategy-led, business operation. Not only was/is RSGB not well-endowed, it has no endowments at all. It’s a voluntary association of synagogues.

It’s not an organisation which decides to build an outlet where it perceives there to be a market and it’s not a franchising operation. A small group of people emerge in an area and they decide that they want to create a Reform synagogue. The RSGB says: ‘Great, that’s terrific’. It offers advice – Jews are outstanding at offering advice, less outstanding when it comes to taking it! It offers support. David Jacobs, our Director of Synagogue Support, is tireless and knows more about the development of synagogues in Britain than anyone in the history of British Jewry, despite being a Manchester City supporter. But the support does not include money.

Our synagogues fund the RSGB, not the other way round. As I say, we have no endowments or old buildings to sell.

So, the handful of people who emerged in this area 25 years ago had to do it all themselves. It says inside the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral about Sir Christopher Wren, “If you want to see his monument, look around”. Exactly the same is true of the men, women and children who’ve built this synagogue and this community. It’s a staggering achievement that a handful of families should have built a community, acquired this wondrous building, refurbished it, maintained it and developed a vibrant, creative community which gives so much to its members and contributes so much to the wider community of Wanstead and beyond. It would be absolutely invidious of me to single out people by name. It’s very tempting because there have been people whose contribution has been quite remarkable but it’s too fraught with dangers. So I will just name Rabbi David Hulbert, rabbi here for eight years and Jocelyn Shepherd, the present Chair, as representatives of all the people who’ve achieved so much in only 25 years. This may be a silver anniversary but you’re all pure gold. Congratulations.

That’s the good news.

But you don’t get away that lightly.

In fact, I have to tell you that you’ve barely started. The real work, the really challenging work starts now.

There’s a story in the Talmud about a rabbi who went round breaking crystal glasses at a wedding party – to remind people that life couldn’t always be celebrations and conglatulations (not to mention jubilations!). That seems to me to provide a precedent for the rabbi as party pooper. So can I crave your indulgence for a more sober few minutes – but don’t lose sight of the fact that I’m not taking back a word of the mazal tov. I meant it.

Some of you will have noticed that I referred to the Reform Synagogues of Great Britain, the RSGB and hovered uneasily between is and was. A few months ago, we said goodbye to RSGB after 63 years and changed our name to The Movement for Reform Judaism. Since name changes are very fashionable with organisations these days, a lot of people thought that this was a superficial, cosmetic change thought up by an expensive marketing consultant.

Actually it isn’t. I’m neither a marketing consultant nor expensive! But it marks what we believe to be a profound philosophical change.

The dear old RSGB began life as six Reform synagogues coming together in 1942, primarily to deal with issues relating to Jewish education during war time. It developed into a voluntary association of synagogues – if you like, a kind of trade association. It did the most fantastic job in building up the institutions of Reform Judaism in Britain. From six synagogues to forty-three synagogues; founding what is now the only mainstream rabbinic training college in Britain, Leo Baeck College. And, more recently, developing a network of primary schools – the most recent being Clore Tikva, which is such a success.

But RSGB was, when all is said and done, an organisation of institutions and the people leading them – a macher’s organisation. Since my dad has been President of SWESRS and my elder daughter is currently Honorary Secretary at Alyth Gardens, I think the world of machers.

But there is more to life than institutions, even warm, friendly, hardworking and inspiring institutions like this one. There are people, our members and our potential members. Just as the Health Service exists to meet the needs of patients, not the other way round, so our institutions exist to meet the needs of our members and our prospective members, not the other way round. In more or less every synagogue, perhaps 20% of the membership is active and 80% passive. In the community as a whole, a third at least of British Jewry is unaffiliated and non-affiliation figures rise to more than 50% amongst the under-35s. It should be no surprise that British Jewry is shrinking by 1% a year and in a community of 267,000 the shrinkage towards the point of non-sustainability looks terrifyingly close. Every single Jew is vital to the future of British Jewry.

Who has the best chance of reaching the inactive, the uninvolved, the unaffiliated, those on the point of exiting? We do. From six synagogues to forty-three and from a couple of percent of the community to, with our Liberal sisters and brothers, 25% of the affiliated community in sixty years isn’t bad. But it isn’t good enough to halt the decline.

What do we have to do? We have to become a Movement of people which focuses on the needs of individuals, not just an Association which celebrates its institutions. We have to, to use jargon, take power to the edge. We have to get out there and engage people where they are. We have to listen to them as well as communicate our message. We have to listen and respond. We have to help them get in touch with their individual sense of Jewish identity and their need to find meaning and purpose in being Jewish. We have to support and facilitate a large number of individual Jewish journeys by providing a multiplicity of programmes and opportunities since the days are long gone when one size fitted all. We have to reach out rather than schlep in. We have to listen attentively rather than talk glibly. We have to be those who minister to the struggle to make sense of being Jewish and to make sense of life.

In order to begin to listen and understand, we have already completed three major pieces of research. First, our rabbis – very much including Rabbi Hulbert – have been teasing out the needs of the many Jews who have non-Jewish partners or family members. Staggeringly and amazingly, all forty of our rabbis have agreed on a programme which will lead to a much higher degree of proactive response to one of the most important social realities of our time. If you haven’t heard about it already, you will be hearing about it very soon. Second, we commissioned Jewish Policy Research to study 500 families in five representative synagogues across the country, defined by being people that neither the rabbi nor the synagogue council knew. Over the coming year we will be looking at the sobering and challenging things they had to say. And thirdly, we’ve just completed a major piece of qualitative research into the needs of the 18-35 age group, research and recommendations which we hope each synagogue will engage with between now and the summer.

I think you may just be beginning to get my drift. Within the terms of RSGB, this synagogue has been a model and no community could have been a higher achiever. But just when you’re celebrating eleven A stars at GCSE, party pooper Bayfield comes along and tells you that it’s time to get stuck into the A levels. The game is changing radically. The next test is even harder.

We have to nourish and develop the magnificent institution that you’ve created over twenty-five years whilst, at the same time, moving into a more listening, engaging, responsive, outreaching mode. What are the Jewish needs of each individual member of the community who is not here with us today? What are the needs of the Jews out there whose needs are not being met anywhere else? How do we prompt them to explore their Jewish identity and find meaning, purpose and values within their Jewish inheritance? And how do we enable them to contribute to the Jewish community and the wider society of which we are such a proud part? You may think that it’s the million dollar question. But for a community that has achieved so much in just twenty-five years, it ought to be a piece of cake and you’re part of a Movement, The Movement for Reform Judaism, which will give you all the help and support it can – except for money!

So, conglatulations and jubilations on having come this far. Chazak, chazak ve’nitchazek. Be strong, be strengthened, let us strengthen ourselves for the challenge of the next twenty-five years."

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed