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Ahad Ha'Am, the secular Zionist thinker, who was active in the early decades of the twentieth century, wrote that "More than the Jews have kept the Sabbath; the Sabbath has kept the Jews." We could easily replace the word "Sabbath" with the word "synagogue," for just as the Sabbath organizes the Jewish people around a uniform 25-hour non-work period, so too, the synagogue organizes communal Jewish space.
Synagogues are arguably the most important Jewish communal institutions and at the same time, the most underused. Over the past two decades, the American Jewish community invested its time, expertise and financial resources to study the best practices of successful synagogues and to apply those practices to strengthen the most viable congregations of all sizes from across the religious spectrum, from Modern Orthodox to Reform. Synagogue 3000 and STAR (Synagogue Transformation and Renewal) worked with a select group of synagogues to transform them from static, suburban and even urban models that met the needs of the post-war generation and the baby boomers into dynamic institutions that are more savvy about developing community, using the latest technology and communicating by means of the ever-expanding social networks of Facebook and LinkedIn.
At their core, synagogues are meant to be communities of men and women who pray together, learn and study together and celebrate and comfort each other together. To succeed, synagogues need a sense of intimacy rather than anonymity. Certainly some people like large synagogues because they can melt into the crowd and not be noticed. But many more people like it when they are known by name and not just by the location of their seat or the colour of their Kippah. The success of Chabad starts there. Come once and you're a guest. Come twice and the Rabbi knows your name. Come three times and everyone knows your name and you are invited on the spot for Shabbat dinner or Shabbat lunch.
Prayer is the pivotal and universally common activity of every synagogue. But we Jews don't pray. We daven. There is a melody to davening. There is a rhythm to davening. Sometimes davening is absolutely silent. Only the lips move, but we don't utter a sound. Other times, davening is exuberant singing. Sing a new song unto the Lord. Sometimes davening is passive when the Hazzan and choir perform a Cantorial and choral composition. But at all times davening must move us spiritually. It needs to make our skin tingle, to give us goose bumps. It ought to engage us, involve us, make us participate. Measuring the success of services is more than a function of how many people come to Shul. It's how many people come early, stay to the end and are moved to open their mouths and express themselves with joy.
Intellectual curiosity is at the root of all learning and study. We are taught in Pirkei Avot to set down a fixed time for study and to choose a good study partner. We are warned not to procrastinate, not to say "When I have time, I will study, lest you end up never having the time and hence never study." Nor is study a solitary activity. It is actually a time for social engagement. The traditional method of study was with a partner (called a Hevruta) not only because two minds are better than one, but more importantly, so that there be a flow of information between the partners. Success is not only measured by having several hundred people attend a single lecture with a well-known speaker, but even more by being cognizant of how many people study at least once a month or participate in a class that meets weekly for six or eight weeks.
Measuring success requires more than selective anecdotal information. It requires a thought survey, the collection of sufficient data to be an accurate reflection of the feelings and interests of the members of Shaare Zion, an analysis of the data collected, and most importantly, how to translate the analysis into an action agenda that builds on past successes and rethinks how to succeed where we are weakest and most deficient.
Through a programme called Tools for Shuls sponsored by Federation-CJA and Gen J, we will have the opportunity to participate in such a survey, designed specifically for Montreal synagogues and to benefit from an analysis of the data by a professional group called Measuring Success. Shaare Zion may have to make a small financial investment to be part of the survey and analysis, but the success of the survey depends on collecting data from a statistically valid sampling. The survey will be sent to every member of Shaare Zion for whom we have an email address. It is important that everyone who gets the survey completes it, even if two or more people in the same household receive the survey.
Measuring success is a first step toward striving for greater success. Building on success requires ongoing involvement by all our members, beyond meeting our financial commitments, beyond attendance on the High Holydays and Life Cycle events. Re-igniting our dynamic congregation will require increasing our financial resources and using them wisely. Revitalizing our congregation means that we will all need to attend more services, more classes, more events at Shaare Zion and then promote membership at Shaare Zion among our friends, our families and our acquaintances. Our legacy for the future need not be that we are the biggest, but it cannot be anything less than striving to be the best synagogue, the best and warmest community we can be.
