Atlanta Journal Constitution: For new year, some Jews look for 'home'

For new year, some Jews look for 'home'
Unaffiliated may 'shop' for place to worship
By Rachel Pomerance

Saturday, September 27, 2008

 

If there’s a symbol, a moment, a sound that encapsulates the Jewish High Holidays, it is the cry of the shofar, a ram’s horn that’s blown to trumpet the start of the Jewish New Year.

 

It’s a hollow, primitive moan sounded in a variety of short and long blasts that are meant to awaken the soul, remind a Jew of his or her roots and summon the community to reform, repent and renew themselves —- to, liturgically speaking, pray to be “inscribed and sealed in the Book of Life.”

 

Jews around the world will flock to synagogue next week to mark the start of the Hebrew calendar year 5769. For many, the High Holidays —- Rosh Hashana, the two-day new year festival that starts at sundown Monday, and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement that follows the next week —- are the only prayer services they attend.

 

“It’s like the World Series or the Super Bowl of Judaism,” said Rabbi Yossi New of Congregation Beth Tefillah, an Orthodox Chabad synagogue in Sandy Springs.

 

Or, as Rabbi Shalom Lewis of Marietta’s conservative synagogue Congregation Etz Chaim puts it: “If our fate hangs in the balance, then where do we go to make the appropriate appeals?”

And so, in the weeks and months before the High Holidays, many Jews scramble to figure out which synagogue to attend or even join.

 

Why? Because unlike nearly every other synagogue prayer service, High Holiday services can be exclusive events.

 

To accommodate demand, raise money and ensure room for a synagogue’s dues-paying members, nonmembers are often charged a fee to attend High Holiday services. But some synagogues offer discounts, free services or (in some cases) waive fees.

 

A bit of explanation on how synagogues are funded: “The reason we don’t pass the plate,” says Jonathan Sarna, American Jewish history professor at Brandeis University, is the prohibition of doing business during the Sabbath and holidays. While houses of worship in some countries get state funding, synagogues in America typically seek funding through membership dues, donations and fees for various services, Sarna says.

 

The High Holidays create a sort of momentum, in which returning to synagogue at a time replete with new year’s resolutions renders the season ripe for synagogue shopping.

 

“I’m looking for a community, and I’m looking for a good fit, and it’s my annual reminder that I need to do that,” says Bruce Meyers, a longtime Atlanta resident and executive coach. “I’m searching for my Atlanta Jewish identity.”

 

Synagogues tend to respond during this season with recruitment efforts.

 

The Temple, the Reform synagogue on Peachtree Street, puts a membership table in its lobby three months before Rosh Hashana, and it hosts membership coffees one month beforehand. The synagogue, which boasts 1,425 member units, expects some 2,000 people to arrive Monday night at the start of Rosh Hashana.

 

Congregation Shearith Israel, a Conservative synagogue in Virginia-Highland, hopes to entice members with a $36 High Holiday package, which is lower than many fees. Sometimes people will consider inexpensive High Holiday tickets a way to “test drive” a synagogue, says Tal Frank, the synagogue’s vice president of membership.

 

Some synagogues offer free High Holiday services. They include Chabad, an Orthodox outreach group with several Atlanta locations; The Temple; Congregation Bet Haverim, a Reconstructionist congregation in DeKalb County founded by gays and lesbians; and Congregation Beth Jacob in Toco Hill, which features an educational service geared toward the unaffiliated.

 

Such options work for those looking for a place to dock a few times a year. Others seek more.