Search results for: Synagogues

In strong contrast to these negative trends, new data suggests there may be room to renew and reinvigorate Jewish religious institutions, especially amongst younger Jews. A survey of over 1,300 individuals who participated in winter 2021 virtual programming at New York City’s Park Avenue Synagogue shows younger cohorts of Jews express a real commitment to these institutions.

In 1981, Rav Moshe Feinstein zt”l extensively outlined the extent of the obligation to educate a child with special needs. Rav Moshe explained that those with diminished mental capacities, who may not fully comprehend all things but nonetheless have some intelligence, are required to observe at least certain mitzvot as adults. Accordingly, Rav Moshe held that we are obligated in the mitzvah of Chinuch, educating them when they are children.

Many American Jews – third and fourth generation immigrants – carry within them the distant echo of their parents’ and grandparents’ Judaism. They know that there are stories to tell but can’t remember the major plot lines let alone the sacred details. They know that there was a Jewish song that guided and propelled, that healed and held for many generations, but they have no idea how to access the memory of that song. Our grandparents and great-grandparents came to Ellis Island clutching sacred books, memories, recipes and traditions. Their children tossed them overboard to become American, go to drive-ins and play baseball. But now many of us, uber-American, find ourselves wondering if there may have been anything in those forgotten books that could help us navigate life’s most challenging questions.

In what is a first in the Philadelphia area, three synagogues are joining forces to create a combined supplementary educational program for their students in kindergarten through sixth grade. The congregations, all located along the Old York Road corridor, include two Conservative synagogues — Beth Sholom Congregation and Adath Jeshurun — and Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel.