2007 - United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism

Submitted by Joshua Furman 781-861-0303
In an effort to increase Shabbat participation among our youth at Temple Emunah, we introduced two Shabbat-focused
programming initiatives in the fall of 2005. Aimed at our 3 rd to 6 th grade population, these two programs synthesize
both formal and information educational approaches. They have dramatically revitalized the Shabbat experience for our
pre-bar and bat mitzvah students, one of our most important constituencies in the effort to assure Jewish continuity.
We added Torah trope to our kitah daled (4 th grade) religious school curriculum, training our 4 th graders to read
Torah at a Junior Congregation service at the end of the year. We have found that our students are empowered by
learning to read Torah on Shabbat, and many of them have continued to do so as 5 th graders this year. We also created a
new Shabbat afternoon informal program, called K.N.I.S.H. (Kadima Noar Interactive Shabbat Hang-out), which
features a special “kids-only” Kiddush lunch, Shabbat songs and games. Thanks to these two programs, our Shabbat
attendance numbers have increased significantly, and there is a great deal of energy and excitement among our students
and their parents at the prospect of spending Shabbat at Temple Emunah.
SILVER
TEMPLE BETH ABRAHAM
250-500 Oakland, CA
Submitted by Mark Bloom 510-832-0936
It is our belief at Temple Beth Abraham that when it comes to worship, even in the context of the Conservative
movement, one size doesn’t fit all. As a result, we have created a variety of different approaches to Shabbat prayer to
touch that variety of people in our congregation and community. These include traditional Shabbat services, Rock and
Roll Shabbat, Shabbat Unplugged, Raza d’Shabbat (a Kabbalah-based service), the Pardon the Interruption Learner’s
Service, Share-a-Shabbat, Tot Shabbat and Shabbat Mishpacha. Each of these services touches a different segment of
our community, and we are extremely proud of how our variety has spiritually touched so many lives.
We are proud to be a part of S.T.A.R.’s “Synaplex” program, where this
variety is emphasized, but we were doing this before we were affiliated with the program in any way. Perhaps what is
most impressive about this is that all this happens at a synagogue of less than 400 families.
Our basis is, of course, the traditional Saturday morning service and our heimish Kabbalat Shabbat service.
These are well attended and feature a great deal of congregational singing, with musical accompaniment on Friday
nights. All services are egalitarian and intergenerational. What follows is a plethora of different kinds of creative
services that touch the traditional and the innovative, the young, young-at-heart and everything in between.
SILVER
HAR ZION TEMPLE
Over 900
Penn Valley, PA
Submitted by Joshua Perlmuter 610-667-5000
“Dear God, this is a special place. It is special because I’m here, because other Jews are here, because You are here.
I’m here to pray to You with this congregation. So please help me to say and sing the words as if they were mine.”
Har Zion Temple is a special synagogue and the Thursday Morning Minyan is the pride of HZT, the member
congregants, the clergy and the community in general.
Har Zion Temple has transformed a routine Monday/Thursday week-of-the-B/BM aliyah to the Torah into an
extraordinary experience.
Beginning as much as a year prior to the bar/bar mitzvah, and for some teens extending for years after the
bar/bat mitzvah, our teens are taught the value of finding community through prayer by participation in the Thursday
Morning Minyan.
Cajoled, encouraged and prodded by the clergy, dozens of B’nai Mitzvah show up each Thursday morning to
both lead and join in worship with the adult members of the Kahal. Each week, the vatikim (post B’nai Mitzvah)