2007 - United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism

Focusing on our core values of being a warm, inviting and accessible congregation we wanted to find ways to
involve many of the concepts described above. Meeting initially as a subgroup from the WARM WELCOME/ACCESS
Committee, a focused group charged with finding ways to recruit and retain members, the “Warm Committee” members
soon focused on Shabbat services, both Friday night and Shabbat morning.
Several strands of thought soon surfaced. We had originally been having Friday night dinners several times a
year. Attendance at Friday night services held in conjunction with Friday night dinners was significantly greater than at
services held without Friday night dinners. Friday night dinners were seen as a good vehicle to attract and involve
members. A small but key group of congregants attended the Great Lakes and Rivers Fall United Synagogue
Shabbaton in Cleveland (October 27-28, 2006) where the focus was on Friday night liturgy. A small but strategic group
of members attended the conference. The niggunim (tunes) learned at the conference were incorporated into our Friday
night services. We decided to enhance the Friday night service by writing a complete transliteration of the Friday night
services. We also make the availability of wine purchase part of our dinner. A small cadre, an expanding group of
service leaders soon learned the tunes. The special tunes that made our Chavurat Shabbat Friday night services full of
song were quickly incorporated into our weekly Shabbat services. In addition we learned that we could create a similar
Friday night experience by providing appetizers, wine, and snacks in our lobby before services. This allowed our
members to meet, greet and slow down to better enjoy Shabbat.
At the same time we had been looking at ways to energize Shabbat morning services. We quickly recognized
that providing Shabbat lunches to everyone would likely attract more people. A donor who wanted to sponsor at least
one Shabbat lunch a month came forward. Our Shabbat morning service could have an hour window to provide time
for specialized programming if we started services at 9:00 AM and arranged services so that we would have a large
block of time after the Torah reading and before Musaf. We would use this teaching for creative programs. We
developed a structure of three choices for congregants and one specific program for younger children. We have had two
Shabbat morning programs. The first focused on prayer. We had sessions on the choreography of the service, different
models of prayer, a Talmud lesson, and the game “Jewopoly” for younger children. The second Shabbat focused on Tu
Bishvat and Israel. Our special sessions included a Tu Bishvat sing-along, a program for children using a floor-sized
map called “A Tree Grows in Israel,” text study of “The Torah of Trees” and a special program making “Fruit Faces”
led by Chaverot from Israel” (two Israeli young adults who were in our community for the year).
HONORABLE MENTION
CONGREGATION BETH EMETH
250-500 Herndon, VA
Submitted by Linda Eisenger 703-860-4515
Introduction
Congregation Beth Emeth, a 450-member congregation in the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., relies on
a cadre of lay leaders to lead services, chant Torah and haftorah, and serve as bimah gabbai’im during the Torah
service.
Several years ago, we realized that our bimah gabbai’im (most of who did not grow up in traditional
congregations) understood most of the basics of “running” the Torah service, but did not understand all the nuances of
serving as bimah gabbai – for example, calling a woman Kohen, or a Levi when a Kohen wasn’t present, or a couple
when the woman was a Levi (not her husband), when to chant the Hatzi Kaddish during a “triple header” (when we
chant from three Torah scrolls), or how much help to give the hagbah when he or she if lifting the scroll.
To train our bimah gabbai’im to understand the fine points of officiating at the Torah service, a lay leader,
David Cerny, consulting with our rabbi and using other Conservative sources, created an ambitious Gabbai Playbook
(attached) and crafted hands-on gabbai training sessions for skilled Torah readers and service regulars to ensure that our
Torah service runs smoothly and according to halacha.
We are a young congregation (we were founded in 1979) and we have many young families. In calendar year
2007, we will celebrate about 50 b’nai mitzvah. We regularly have many visitors for family celebrations who have
bimah honors during the Torah service. Many are not familiar with our synagogue practices and require significant onthe-spot
training before they ascend the bimah for a Torah honor.