A Problem Too Painful to Look At?

When I researched this week’s cover story on the future of American synagogues in the wake of the pandemic, I noted a strange ambivalence. On one hand, there’s real excitement about how digital technology has kept so many communities connected and has expanded global reach.

But beneath that excitement, I noticed a simmering anxiety that has become difficult to confront: How permanent is the lingering reluctance to enter enclosed spaces like synagogues? Has the amazing convenience of online technology led to new habits that will be hard to shake?

As I write in my piece: “For a synagogue world that has enshrined the brick and mortar model for well over a century, and has built revenue models around people showing up, the reluctance to enter a sanctuary represents a mini-earthquake.”

The synagogue world is now faced with two extremes—the miracle of digital versus the trauma of dwindling attendance. They both feed off each other, and together represent a threat to the future viability of many synagogues, especially those that were already struggling.

The more I worked on the piece, the more I realized that the virtual world, for all of its miracles, has the capacity to numb and isolate our communities, and that our most urgent task is to bring people back into our physical spaces. As we focus on safety, we can never lose sight of the big picture: The soul of a community is defined by physical attendance.

Staying connected online was a lifesaver when synagogues were in lockdown and physical proximity was not an option. But digital technology is so seductive and convenient it’s hard to let go, even as the world reopens. Synagogues now face the enormous challenge of getting people off their couches and back into their sanctuaries, if for no other reason than to secure their revenues and memberships.

But, as I write, “The good news is that what is good for revenue is also good for the soul.”

It’s hard to imagine a thriving Jewish future dominated by digital connections. It’s a sign of how far we’ve gone down the virtual highway that we even need to convince ourselves that in-person gatherings are really, really important. No kidding!

You’ll read in my piece some practical suggestions for bringing more people back into the communal space. Among them, I suggest that our houses of prayers become full-time community centers with a much broader array of offerings. 

People will be more likely to show up if prayer services are more meaningful and inspirational, if the programming is broader and more compelling, and if their synagogue touches on the most important aspects of their lives.

Every synagogue in America, I write, should make the communal Shabbat meal (with no iPhones) the centerpiece of bringing people back to their physical spaces. 

We also include in this week’s issue a piece by Rabbi Lori Shapiro of Open Temple in Venice Beach, who discusses how her community managed to keep going during the pandemic with creative use of real spaces. As I suggest in my piece, synagogues should share their success stories and creative ideas with one another. We hope to share those as well in future editions.

The community must put the survival of our synagogues at the top of its agenda. We must find creative ways of bringing people back into our spaces.

However painful and vexing, the Jewish community must put the survival of our synagogues at the top of its agenda. We must find safe and innovative ways of bringing more people back into our spaces. If not, before long it may be real estate agents, merger and acquisition specialists and bankruptcy attorneys who will lead the process.

Since the beginning of the COVID pandemic about 20 months ago, we’ve experienced a digital revolution with a historic growth of Jewish engagement online. But that virtual engagement has also magnified our communal isolation. As I write, “We’re all creatures of habit. There’s a real risk that the more we live online, the more we will increase our communal isolation, the more we will get comfortable with it.”

Meanwhile, with our physical spaces, there’s been a tendency to hold on tight and just hope that everything will eventually go back to normal. Few people believe that anymore. The changes are too deep, the new habits too engrained.

To survive, and possibly even thrive, in this new normal, synagogues will have to be open to new ideas and new thinking.

Ironically, this new thinking is needed for something radically old school: gathering Jews together in physical spaces, just like our ancestors gathered at Sinai. Of course it was a lot easier back then, when God and Moses didn’t have to compete with Zoom and Facebook Live. 

Ironically, this new thinking is needed for something radically old school: gathering Jews together in physical spaces, just like our ancestors gathered at Sinai. Of course it was a lot easier back then, when God and Moses didn’t have to compete with Zoom and Facebook Live, not to mention the fear of a virus. 

“Synagogues can and should become the communal antidote to everything virtual,” I write. “They should be the source, the last bastion, of real human connections.”

If we can pull that off, we won’t just save our buildings, we will save our Judaism.