How can we improve our community? Many of us have probably had strong - even radical - ideas over the years, but few opportunities to act on them. As in most communities, individuals have relatively little clout.
Anglo-Jewry is certainly characterised by powerful, centralised institutions and deep-seated traditions. While this has many advantages - such as wide-ranging services and a sense of rootedness - there are also disadvantages. These include a tendency to rely on top-down management, and complacency about change. It seems a high price to pay. With our numbers and resources rapidly shrinking, we need every good idea we can get.
In America, media outlets have recently been engaged in a marathon effort to find new ideas that could "transform the Jewish future". Their offerings - 59 in all - include sending young Jews to spend time in far-flung communities; an artists' residency; an organisation that would tailor individual programmes of Jewish experiences to the unaffiliated; an internet programme that would allow each family to create a personal haggadah; and many other innovative proposals.
We need to do some brainstorming here, too. So, during March, I am going to feature on my JC blog "21 ideas to transform our Jewish community". Each working day, I will be publishing one original, practical suggestion for Anglo-Jewry. I hope the project will not only generate discussion but that the best ideas will actually be taken up. I have invited community personalities to contribute but I also invite readers to email me with their own ideas, and will feature the best ones.
Here is my own suggestion: Let's make 2010/2011 the Year of Synagogue Renewal. While many view the JFS ruling as an unmitigated disaster, it does contain at least one positive outcome. Under the new entrance system, all children applying to Jewish schools must make several synagogue visits, giving the synagogues an unprecedented opportunity to reach out to thousands of relatively unaffiliated families.
Let us make 2010/2011 the Year of Synagogue Renewal
Because of the timing of the JFS ruling last year, synagogues had to handle the influx at very short notice. This year, we have far more notice - and we must take advantage. It is not enough simply to shepherd families into pre-existing services. By definition, current synagogue arrangements are not meeting their needs, otherwise they would already be attending.
We must put serious effort into making the synagogue experience as pleasant as possible - this includes making Certificate of Religious Practice instructions straightforward and welcoming; ensuring that children's services are not overcrowded - run in several shifts if necessary; and that there are appropriate services for parents who may not know how to daven.
Parents must pre-register their children so why not follow up with a welcoming phone call? Many 11- and 16-year-olds will require CRP certificates. If they are not familiar with the services, can another teenager be appointed to help them? Or, why not offer to set up families requiring a CRP for their child with another family for Shabbat lunch?
It would also be useful for the schools to follow up with new parents about their shul experience. Part of the reason so many families are treating the CRP's synagogue requirements casually is because they know that the schools themselves see it as a box-ticking exercise. If the schools took it more seriously, so would the parents.
More broadly, synagogues could survey members about what ideas they can adopt to speak more directly to the life of the average Jewish family.
For many, schools are fast replacing the synagogue as the engine of Jewish life. But if we managed to get even 15 per cent of non-shul attending families to return once the CRP requirements were fulfilled, this would rejuvenate Anglo-Jewry.
That's my idea. Now what's yours?
