Chapter 16: Every tradition: services and what they need · Part 2
Judaism
Reform Judaism
A temple of the Union for Reform Judaism, America's largest Jewish movement (about 37% of American Jews, in some 830 congregations), which holds Jewish law to be a guide for informed personal choice rather than binding. Men and women sit together and lead together; women have been ordained since 1972, and the movement officiates at same-sex weddings and counts as Jewish the child of either Jewish parent raised as a Jew (1983). Shabbat has two peaks: a Friday evening service at a set hour, often the week's best attended, with music on organ, piano, or guitar and an oneg after, and a Saturday morning service of Torah and haftarah, many weeks led by a bar or bat mitzvah before the family's guests. The game holds Saturday as the main service, since it keeps Shabbat by it. Few temples hold a weekday minyan, and many say Kaddish without counting ten. Festivals are kept one day, not two. Families join and pay dues, more and more often a 'fair share' or voluntary commitment rather than a fixed rate; nothing is collected at services, non-members buy seats for the High Holy Days, and the religious school, on Sunday mornings, is the engine of membership. The kitchen is usually 'kosher-style': no pork or shellfish in the building. Practice varies from temple to temple: some keep two days of Rosh Hashanah, a kosher kitchen, or a weekly minyan. Its rabbis are ordained by Hebrew Union College and placed through the movement's placement commission.
3 required or forbidden in the building · services, rites, joining, giving, leaders and staff, life together, every item, and every factor →
Conservative Judaism
A synagogue of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism (Masorti, 'traditional', abroad), about 17% of American Jews in some 560 congregations, which holds Jewish law binding but developing through history: the Rabbinical Assembly's law committee may approve more than one opinion, and each congregation's rabbi, its mara d'atra, decides which it follows, so a new rabbi can change its practice. Most congregations are egalitarian: women counted in the minyan from 1973 and ordained from 1985, men and women seated together; a minority keep traditional roles (a variant). Shabbat begins with Kabbalat Shabbat near candle-lighting, so its time moves with the seasons, and the main service is Saturday morning, two and a half hours in Hebrew with the Torah service and Musaf, then the kiddush. A daily minyan, morning and evening, is kept going by mourners saying Kaddish, which needs ten adults. Festivals are kept two days and like Shabbat; most congregations follow the 1950 ruling that lets members drive to the synagogue. The kitchen is kosher, under the rabbi's authority, with supervised caterers. Members pay dues (some congregations now take voluntary pledges), non-members buy High Holy Day seats, and the Hebrew school meets on Sunday mornings. Its rabbis may not officiate at intermarriages. Instruments on Shabbat are each rabbi's call: two thirds of congregations use them at least sometimes, mostly on Friday evenings.
3 required or forbidden in the building · services, rites, joining, giving, leaders and staff, life together, every item, and every factor →
Modern Orthodox Judaism
A Modern Orthodox shul of the Orthodox Union, its rabbi a member of the Rabbinical Council of America: full observance of Jewish law, the written and oral Torah held divine and binding, with engagement in secular education and American life. Orthodox Jews are about 9% of American Jews but 17% of those under thirty; 93% belong to a synagogue and 80% attend at least monthly. The shul prays three times a day, its times set by the sun: Shacharit early each morning, Minchah and Ma'ariv around sunset, Kabbalat Shabbat at candle-lighting on Friday, and the long Shabbat morning service, with the Torah read by a skilled ba'al koreh and Musaf, followed by a kiddush. A minyan is ten men; men and women sit apart, divided by a mechitza (or, in some shuls, with the women in a gallery: a variant), and only men lead the prayers or are called to the Torah. There are no instruments, microphones, money, or driving on Shabbat and festivals, which are kept two days: members live within walking distance, often inside an eruv. The kitchen is strictly kosher under a mashgiach. Members pay dues and seat charges and pledge for honours, paid after Shabbat; their children go to day schools rather than a Hebrew school. Rabbis are men, ordained at yeshivas such as Yeshiva University's RIETS; the OU bars women from clergy roles (2017), and the rebbetzin is an expected community leader. A community mikveh, usually not in the shul, serves married women, brides, and converts.
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Reconstructionist Judaism
A congregation affiliated with Reconstructing Judaism, the smallest of the four American movements (nearly 100 congregations and havurot), founded on Mordecai Kaplan's idea of Judaism as the evolving religious civilization of the Jewish people: the tradition has 'a vote, not a veto', and its prayer book drops the chosen people, bodily resurrection, and a personal messiah. Practice is decided by the members together, by 'values-based decision making', rather than ruled by the rabbi, who is a teacher and facilitator; worship is participatory and often lay-led, chairs in a circle, a discussion in place of a sermon, instruments common, in Hebrew and English. It ordained women from its seminary's start (1968), admitted gay and lesbian students in 1984 and, in 2015, students with non-Jewish partners, and adopted patrilineal descent first, in 1968. Shabbat is a Friday evening service, often with a potluck, and a Saturday morning service of about two hours with no Musaf; minor fasts are rarely kept in common, and most keep one festival day (an unverified point). Many communities keep a vegetarian or kosher-style kitchen, chosen by the community: the game gives it a dairy-vegetarian one. Members pay dues, often income-based or voluntary; affiliates pay the movement 1 to 2% of their budget. Many are small havurot meeting in rented rooms or homes with a part-time rabbi (a variant).
3 required or forbidden in the building · services, rites, joining, giving, leaders and staff, life together, every item, and every factor →
Chabad-Lubavitch
A Chabad House: the local center of Chabad-Lubavitch, the Hasidic movement led until 1994 by its seventh Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, whose emissaries, the shluchim, now direct over a thousand American centers. A rabbi and his wife, the rebbetzin, are sent out young by Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch, the movement's educational arm, to found and run the center for life, often living in or beside it; there is no elected board that hires them, and each house raises its own money. Its practice is fully Orthodox: a mechitza always, ten men for a minyan, no instruments or money on Shabbat, a strictly kosher kitchen, two festival days; but most who come are not Orthodox (half are Reform or unaffiliated), and they are welcome as they are, and may drive. Nothing is asked for membership: no dues, no High Holy Day tickets, free services (often in a hired hall), and belonging is coming and knowing the rabbi's family. Shabbat begins with Kabbalat Shabbat and a dinner open to anyone; Saturday morning ends with a kiddush lunch. The center lives on donations, sponsorships, foundation grants, and fees for its preschool, Hebrew school, and Camp Gan Israel. Outreach to every Jew is its purpose: public menorah lightings at Hanukkah, tefillin stands, mobile sukkahs, classes; but it doesn't seek converts, nor perform conversions or intermarriages. Larger centers hold daily minyanim; small ones may struggle to make ten on a weekday.
9 required or forbidden in the building · services, rites, joining, giving, leaders and staff, life together, every item, and every factor →