August 31, 2010

Since the recession began two years ago, cutting back has become a way of life. And with the cost of belonging to a synagogue seemingly higher than ever, many Jewish families believe they have to decide whether belonging to a temple is worth the price.

In response, synagogues have had to come up with creative ways to appeal to financially strapped families — or face dwindling membership.

The average price of synagogue membership in Los Angeles for a family with children hovers around $2,500. For those who want better seats during the High Holy Days, or childcare, the costs only go up.

Jay Sanderson, president of The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, has heard from rabbis throughout the community about the difficulties that rising fees have caused.

“Hundreds and hundreds of families across Los Angeles are leaving synagogues because of the economic crisis,” he said. “This is a very significant community problem.”

At Sinai Temple in Westwood, one of the largest Conservative synagogues in the Los Angeles area, annual membership dues are $2,570 for families with children ages 17 and under, a rate that includes tickets for unreserved seating at High Holy Days services.

In the 2009-10 fiscal year,  membership at Sinai decreased for the first time in years, Rachel Feldman, the synagogue’s membership coordinator, said. After reaching 2,150 member families last year, the temple is now down to approximately 2,000.

“We had more resignations last year than [in] years before,” Feldman said, adding that resignations also exceeded new memberships for the first time in years.

All synagogues offer the possibility of reduced fees to members or prospective members in need. And, not surprisingly, the number of families receiving dues relief has increased since the recession began. Feldman estimates that in fiscal year 2009-10, aid was provided to approximately 60 families, up from 30 or 35 before the economic downturn.

At Temple Valley Beth Shalom (VBS) in Encino, membership numbers have stayed the same, according to executive director Malcolm Katz, but, like Sinai, more families have sought financial assistance. With dues for a family at $2,670 per year, Katz estimated that 25 to 30 percent of families received help this past fiscal year, while the number had been closer to 20 percent in years before.

The temple’s goal, as it is with others, is to avoid losing members or turning away those who wish to join.

“Our objective is to keep our members if we possibly can,” Katz said. “We don’t want people to leave only because they say they can’t afford it.”

To keep a balanced budget and allow more families to receive aid who need it, many synagogues have cut back on spending. At VBS, that meant skipping annual salary increases and leaving dues the same, a change from years past.

“Typically, we will both raise dues and give salary increases in a given year,” Katz said. “But we got through last year OK.”

Many synagogues are also bolstering their efforts to draw in new members. Most have established programs for young couples and singles, for whom dues are drastically lower. And more events, social networking and word-of-mouth efforts are cropping up.

Sinai’s young professional group, called ATID, recently hosted a luncheon for prospective members.

“We did a ‘nosh and network’ event for potential new and returning members,” said Stacey Zackin, ATID director. “We told them about what ATID does and [featured] a couple of established Sinai Temple members.”

Sinai’s Rabbi David Wolpe also launched his own Facebook account this year and now has 1,656 followers.

For those who simply can’t, or don’t want to, pay dues to a synagogue, there’s always the option of attending one of Los Angeles’ various low-cost or free High Holy Day services. While they may not provide the year-round community of a temple membership, they do offer a connection to Judaism that many still want.

Bayit Shelanu — which in Hebrew means “our house” — is just such an organization. Housed annually in the Ackerman Grand Ballroom at UCLA, the all-volunteer group offers free Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services that are led by Rabbi Jan Goldstein and open to the public.

Goldstein estimates that the services draw 350 to 500 people each year, and he emphasizes that they are geared toward those with no place else to go.

“We are especially for the unaffiliated,” he said, “people who are searching for ways to get back [to being] involved” with the Jewish community. (For a list of other free services,  visit jewishjournal.com/freehighholydays.)

As the reality of Jews seeking alternative places to worship — or simply forgoing a connection to the Jewish community altogether — sets in, Federation chief Sanderson expressed his concern that the trend would trickle into other parts of Jewish life.

“It deeply concerns me that we are going to start seeing this at every institution,” Sanderson said. “We need to create a community-wide effort to raise funds for synagogue membership, camp, day schools, Israel trips, so that those who can’t afford it are still able to participate.”

To that end, The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles is currently working to hire someone to collaborate with leaders in the Jewish community and figure out how to be more inclusive, and perhaps how to temper the growing cost of being Jewish. 

But not everyone is as concerned. ATID’s Zackin believes that during times of stress, people are more willing to seek out spiritual guidance and religious community, and if temples can find a way to make themselves more financially accessible, people will be happy to join.

“People’s enthusiasm for community seems to continue to build,” she said. “When other areas of their lives are tentative, they seem to want more discussions about how they can keep their spirit thriving.”

Kamran Pasha will read from, sign and discuss “Shadow of the Swords” on Sept. 12, 7-9 p.m. at the Levantine Cultural Center, 5998 West Pico Boulevard, Los Angeles. Suggested donation $10 or purchase of book. RSVP suggested: (310) 657-5511.

Q: My wife and I decided not to buy High Holy Days tickets this year because they’re so expensive. What can we do to mark the holidays at home on our own?

A: Every year as the High Holy Days approach, people grumble about the price of tickets. And it’s true, at some synagogues it’s upward of $500 a head. But why is it so expensive? It’s only a few hours, right?

First, in most synagogues, High Holy Days tickets are included in membership fees. So, if you join the synagogue as a member, there is no need to pay for tickets. It’s only if you want to go without paying membership fees that your tickets are so costly.

Think about it like a membership to a gym or health club. If you only go three times a year, then yes, what you pay is a lot per visit. But if you regularly visit your gym, then the monthly fee probably breaks down to only a dollar or two per visit. And the gym needs your membership fees to pay for machines, classes, maintenance, etc.

It’s the same with a synagogue. If you only go three days a year, it does work out to be a high fee per visit. But if you want that synagogue to be around for you to visit on your three days, then the synagogue needs to collect money to make it viable. That money goes to help pay for the building, staff, rabbi, cantor, children’s programming, classes, even food for Kiddush.

In addition to being places of worship, synagogues are businesses. They need to stay afloat financially if they want to be able to provide basics such as holiday and Shabbat services to their members. That said, your synagogue almost certainly offers a sliding scale of ticket prices if the price is really the only thing keeping you away. And some synagogues offer a special service for nonmembers with more affordable tickets.

I consulted with the executive director (who requested to remain anonymous) of a large synagogue in the Washington, D.C., area about this issue, and he explained that it’s worthwhile to invest in synagogue membership. While you may think of yourself as a “limited user” of the synagogue, there really is no such thing as a one-, two- or three-day-a-year Jew, he argued.

“Even though someone may not attend services religiously, they still attend synagogues for b’nai mitzvah, weddings, funerals and other occasions, and often call upon rabbis at times of need,” this executive director said.

That’s just a little background on why tickets can be so pricey.

If you’re definitely not interested in buying tickets, there are a number of other ways to get to services. A nearby university may have free services at Hillel on the High Holy Days. A few Hillels do charge for those who are not students, but most don’t. It’s best to call before you go.

Your local Jewish Community Center also may be holding services — members may get heavy discounts on tickets. For a more traditional service, Chabad houses are known for welcoming all. For a less traditional service, try the online streaming High Holy Days services via the Jewish TV Network.

If you want to do something that doesn’t involve any kind of service or rabbi, I can make some other suggestions. First, you can certainly purchase a High Holy Days prayer book, or machzor, and pray from home. How about taking the day off from work to spend a full day volunteering for a worthy cause?

Alternatively, you can go on a long, reflective hike, and bring along a machzor or some other spiritually relevant book to read. Try buying a shofar and blowing it yourself. Gather your family and friends for a festive meal, and eat the symbolic foods of Rosh Hashanah, apples and honey.

There’s a Sephardic custom to do a short seder-like ritual before the Rosh Hashanah meal, so you could try that even if you’re not Sephardic. Think about what has been most meaningful to you about past Rosh Hashanah celebrations, and try to duplicate and expand on that with your family.

Rosh Hashanah ultimately is about reflecting on your past year and improving yourself for the year to come. Any way you can do that, whether or not you end up in a synagogue, is in the spirit of the holiday. Chag sameach!

For more information about Judaism and Jewish life, visit MyJewishLearning.com.

In 2006, Lara Torgovnik, 21, started college at New York University as a vocal performance major.

She had little Jewish background — at age 8, she chose music school over Hebrew school with permission from her “very secular” parents — but on a whim one day during her freshman year, something prompted her to Google the phrase “Jew choir.”

That’s the way Torgovnik discovered the Zamir Chorale, a prestigious, New York-based Jewish choir that is celebrating its 50th anniversary this fall. She auditioned, won acceptance and, on her first day of rehearsal, felt overwhelmed by what she said was a “mind-boggling realization that music can be a means of expressing spirituality, and spirituality can lend a deeper level to my music.”

Now, Torgovnik works in the Zamir office in New York and conducts HaZamir: The International Jewish High School Choir, the organization’s youth choir in Westchester — one of two dozen chapters of HaZamir in North American cities.

After starting to sing in the Jewish choir, Torgovnik added Jewish studies to her program. Her experience — intensifying her Jewish engagement while getting involved in Jewish singing — is not unusual, a new survey of Jewish choral singers suggests. The survey, conducted online in May and June on behalf of the Zamir Choral Foundation, shows that Jewish choral singers are more Jewishly involved than the average American Jew.

The foundation is the umbrella body for an extensive network of Jewish choral singers and music, including the Zamir Chorale.

Responses to the survey show that people who take part in Jewish choral singing are more likely to do more Jewish volunteering, give to Jewish causes and belong to synagogues than the American Jewish community in general.

Researchers in charge of the survey stopped short of drawing a causal relationship between Jewish choral singing and Jewish involvement, but they said the study provides strong anecdotal evidence that many people who are not otherwise involved in Jewish life find their way in through their love of Jewish singing.

“There is a somewhat faulty assumption that people who sing in Jewish choirs are already engaged in Jewish life,” said Diane Tickton Schuster, a researcher at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles. Schuster conducted the study along with Ezra Kopelowitz, CEO of the Jerusalem-based Research Success Technologies.

“Sometimes, being involved in a Jewish choir is their entry point into Jewish life, and we didn’t know that before,” Schuster said.

The foundation’s survey was e-mailed this spring to nearly 15,000 Jewish choral singers, cantors and music lovers, and the results from 2,000 respondents were compared to figures from the United Jewish Communities’ National Jewish Population Survey 2000-01.

Seventy-three percent of the choral singers said they volunteer under Jewish auspices, versus 25 percent of the general Jewish population; 73 percent said they give to Jewish causes, versus 41 percent of the general group; and 88 percent belong to a synagogue, versus 46 percent of most American Jews.

While 60 percent of the choral singers ages 45 to 54 sing in synagogue choirs, just 54 percent of singers older than 55 and 43 percent of those younger than 45 do so. Yet they still exhibit higher levels of synagogue membership than their counterparts in the general Jewish population.

One middle-age Atlanta man said in his written response to the survey that singing in his local Jewish choir “lets me develop musically, spiritually and Jewishly all at one time.”

Allen Podell of Palo Alto, Calif., said that helping others get involved in the Jewish choir he helped to found more than seven years ago makes him feel more Jewish.

“I’m not much on pomp and circumstance, and I have problems reciting things like ‘God created the heavens and the earth,’ which I don’t believe,” said Podell, a retired electrical engineer. “But I certainly feel a connection to Judaism through Jewish music. There is a mystery to life, and Jewish music describes it.”

Increasing Jews’ sense of connection to each other and their heritage was his goal when he created the Zamir Choral Foundation 20 years ago, according to director Matthew Lazar.

“The music is the hook, but it’s the identity piece we’re interested in — connecting the text of our people with the music of our people, and doing it in community,” said Lazar, who also conducts the Zamir Chorale and HaZamir.

Schuster said that the results from the new survey show that Jewish choral singers engage in Jewish learning opportunities more frequently than other American Jews, and that can be correlated with their higher levels of Jewish involvement. “We began to see the patterns,” she said. “More learning led to greater involvement.”

Lazar and others describe Jewish choirs as one of the few remaining venues where Jews of various religious and political persuasions create something Jewish together. Seventy-one percent of survey respondents said that singing in Jewish choirs makes them feel connected to klal Yisra’el — the Jewish people.

“Choir is the embodiment of klal Yisra’el,” Lazar said. “It’s transdenominational and, even more important today, transpolitical — the only place where pro-Bush and pro-Obama Jews come together.”

While many attendees of the Zamir Choral Foundation’s North American Jewish Choral Festival, which brings hundreds of Jewish singers together for five days each summer, sing in Jewish choirs at home, others live in places where no such choirs exist. For them, the yearly gathering has particular significance.

Donald Gerber sings with a non-Jewish community choir in Omaha, Neb. An active member of his Orthodox congregation, Gerber says he has sung “all the great requiems,” but finds a deeper pleasure in singing Jewish liturgical pieces, which are “few and far between” in his choir’s repertoire.

The summer festival, which he has attended for the past 12 years, has had a deep impact on his sense of Jewish community, Gerber added.

“There’s nothing like it when 500 voices are raised in song and harmony — Reform, Conservative and Orthodox people all together — and it’s all about making music as klal Yisra’el, as one people,” he said. “There are no politics involved in singing.”

Young professional groups are hoping to draw 20- and 30-something Jews to shul during Rosh Hashanah with offerings that include a game show-style trivia contest, shorter, more musical services and apple martinis.

Organizers with Valley Ruach, a young professionals group at Adat Ari El, a Conservative synagogue in Valley Village, have turned the second-day Rosh Hashanah service into a trivia-based game show: RH2 — The Game. Attendees can win prizes by correctly answering questions about the holiday’s Torah portion.

“We’re offering something completely different,” said Ben Vorspan, Valley Ruach’s director. Rosh Hashanah, he added, “lends itself to the idea of trivia. Learning about the Torah portion on the High Holy Days in a fun way isn’t so radical that it couldn’t be accepted.”

A rabbinical student from American Jewish University will lead the Valley Ruach services. And, Vorspan said, there won’t be any sermons.

“I think that a lot of people, my age especially … they remember from their childhood that they were sitting through these long, boring services with 30-minute sermons,” said Vorspan, the son of Rabbi David Vorspan and grandson of Rabbi Max Vorspan.

Vorspan said the other “nontraditional” Valley Ruach services will be “shorter, guitar-accompanied [and] just more enjoyable.”

“[Attendees] are actually smiling while they’re sitting there, not counting pages, not leaving early,” he said.

Other congregations, such as Sinai Temple, Stephen S. Wise Temple and University Synagogue, will hold services that similarly cater to a young adult crowd.

Stacey Zackin, director of ATID, a young professionals group at Sinai Temple, said that musical services with the Upstairs Minyan, led by Rabbi Shawn Fields-Meyer and singer-songwriter Craig Taubman, are “designed specifically for young professionals.”

“I think Craig Taubman is a big draw,” Zackin said, for “the spirit and energy he brings … the mixture of alternative innovation while still being grounded in tradition.”

Zackin said she expects approximately 600 people to attend the services in Sinai Temple’s Weinberg Gymnasium.

At University Synagogue in Los Angeles, the recently formed young professionals group, Brentwood Havurah, hopes cocktails will attract people in their 20s and 30s. In a twist on the holiday tradition of apples and honey, attendees can enjoy apple martinis and honey cake after services.

Likewise, the W Group at Stephen S. Wise Temple will hold an appletini party following services on Sept. 8.