Thinking about LESS as a vehicle for Thriving Sustaining Synaogues

Of late, I find myself focused on less.

I’m not referring to the volume of what I’m pondering but about living with and on less. In our acquisitional,
consumerist, materialistic world, you might wonder how I started obsessing about less.

First, the novel World Made By Hand inspired me to think about a world where we could suddenly be plunged into living without the comforts of oil, electricity, and technology. (I recommend it—the book,
not the living situation.)

Then there was a workshop I attended on Systematic Inventive Thinking (SIT). SIT is a strategic planning tool where participants explore a problem or situation in two ways. The first way is to expand or multiply the
focus. The second way is to imagine the situation where that focus does not exist, to where it has been subtracted. The idea being, how can we maximize our use of something and/or how can we learn to do what we do differently. How do we move ourselves to a place where nothing is a given, nothing is taken for granted, and there are no sacred cows?

As I anticipate applying this newfound methodology to the work we do at the Synagogue Leadership
Initiative, I find myself eager to chat with lay and professional leadership about distribution of resources
and sustainability. As many religious institutions struggle to balance the budget in a way that does not push
them over the tipping point of affordability of belonging (dues), I feel that SIT could be just the tool we need to help us find new solutions. For example, what would the outcome be if we applied the SIT method to
the synagogue building? For our example, we will accept that, along with salaries, the single greatest consumer of financial resources is the synagogue building itself. Mortgage, roof and parking lot repairs, utilities, liability insurance, landscaping and snow removal are just a few of the costs incurred when it
comes to building ownership.

Since most synagogues use a significant amount of resources to support their building, wouldn’t it be prudent for us to spend sometime thinking about how to maximize the building and then to, conversely, imagine what the synagogue would look like without the building?  Disclaimer: While I am fascinated by SIT, I am not an expert in it so I will attempt to do justice to the methodology but as a novice. Additionally, I am neither a lawyer nor an accountant so if you decide to embark on this type of endeavor do be sure to consult with your experts.  To find out more about SIT visit www.sitsite.com.

So, let’s work.

Imagine what our world would be like if we multiplied our synagogue building.  How could we use available
space to its maximum capacity to create ways to share in the overhead of the building?  What synergies exist that should be considered as part of this equation? In considering sharing the building, there are some endeavors that could feed people into the institution: pre-school; camp; religious school; religious high school; social service programs for seniors and/or special needs; hosting support groups; office and event space for another Jewish nonprofit. There are also some partners that would help financially but would be unlikely to impact our community by bringing prospective members. Those might include: sharing our sacred (worship) space with a non-Jewish religious group; housing a non-religious school on our premises such as a
Montessori or special needs school; or sharing office space with another entity.

Now, imagine what if we were to (gasp) subtract the building from our synagogue equation. What would
our synagogue look like if we did not have a building? How could we do what we do, differently? For services, for example, could we rent space in another house of worship, school, office building, or hotel? Could we meet in the homes of members? Could we worship outdoors? For religious education, could we rent a public school, or day school? Could we meet in a participant’s home? Could we develop an online learning community? For adult education, could we rent space? Could we meet in donated pace or community space, such as a library? Could we partner with local JCCs to provide vibrant adult education
that takes place on their premises? This, in particular, exemplifies a wonderful synergistic relationship of
the synagogue’s rabbi (as part of his/her employment agreement) teaching at the JCC (for no rent but class is
also open to non-members). Could we develop an on-line learning community (using Web-ex, Oovoo, etc.)?

The provocative brief example above just scratches the surface of what our community could achieve by applying this methodology.  What other areas can we explore with this tool?  Might it be handy when
considering staffing models?  Worship?

Let us know if you would like some assistance in launching your own SIT endeavor.

Lisa

I N V I S I B L E

Can you see me?

I am sad. I feel alone. I… recently divorced; had a miscarriage, lost my job.

I need… camaraderie; a network; an ear; a shoulder; an invitation to Shabbat dinner or a seder.

Can you see me? I am part of your sacred community. See me. Serve me.Remember me.

Being with me makes you uncomfortable. I do not want to be on the sidelines waiting for my life to

(re)start. I will not feel like a fifth wheel. Your happiness will not make me sad. You may find my sadness contagious but that is not my fault.

So much of participation in synagogue life centers on the family. We are all very focused on children and young families. Many sacred communities are not addressing the needs of singles (or single again), those without kids (by choice, infertility, empty nest), those in crisis (due to job loss or illness). In fact, so much of the way we are structured and the way we program present barriers for those who don’t fit the cookie cutter mode of idyllic life.

Why are we uncomfortable with those whose lives are not like our lives? Does thinking about some of these situations make us nervous? Terrified? Envious? Feelings such as, “there but for the grace of G-d go I” or “being around divorced people might plant a seed of possibility in my spouse’s brain,” or “we can’t invite the Schwartzes out to dinner as one of them is out of work and maybe they cannot afford it,” are more common than you think. Whether because of unspoken (or dare I say, ungenerous) feelings or simply due to oversight, congregants in these categories are often on the periphery.

As sacred communities it is incumbent upon us to make a place at the table for all who choose to be a part of our synagogue society. At a recent screening of the film, Hineini: Coming out in a Jewish High School, I was struck particularly by two things. The first was that during the film, the young woman who is the center of the movie says that she feels “invisible.” Invisible! That simple statement choked me with tears. How can a person who is at our table feel invisible? How can we permit someone to feel invisible? What is our responsibility to this person? In answer to that I share with you the other statement that has stayed with me, which emanated from a panel discussion that followed the movie screening. At it, Rabbi Shmuel Goldin of Congregation Ahavath Torah in Englewood said the phrase, “value without validation.” That simple phrase resonated so completely with me that I typed it into my Blackberry. It caused me to reassess the labels that I/we put on people. Meaning, I can value the person even if I cannot relate to (or do not approve of) some aspect of their life. I can value the human without validating or sharing every aspect of their life.

Innocently, sometimes our reason for avoiding people who make us feel uncomfortable is because we don’t know what to say or we’re afraid to say the wrong thing. I implore you not to let that be the reason you stay away from someone on the periphery. Truly, a simple, “I don’t know what to say,” “I’m thinking about you,” or “I’m happy to see you,” are enough to break the ice and start a dialogue. Remember, my point here is that those on the periphery don’t have to fit into our activities. We may have to bend our activities to include them. For example, while you are free to invite your childfree friends to your child’s birthday party, you can also hire a babysitter and go out for childfree activities, as well.

There is an opportunity here for each of us to step out of our comfort zone (or even the doldrums), to make new friends, to try new things, to explore other activities and prospects. The added benefit is that by exploring these opportunities we also create a chance for welcoming and inclusion.