PIECES page 39

To address that issue, Hebrew
Union College is offering a class
on the fundamentals of syna-
gogue management, a study in
the corporate model of the syna-
gogue. Classes address the issues
of facilities management and
budgetary concerns. Many of the
students are rabbis.
Years ago, the corporate mod-
el of the synagogue was foreign.
As the leaders of shtetls, the rab-
bis would be hired by a commu-
nity to be a teacher and spiritual
guide who presided over every-
thing from business matters to a
brit. The rabbi received payment
for services rendered or was paid
a modest salary collected from vil-
lagers.
As Jews moved to the United
States, synagogue life changed.
No longer were congregants
forced to accept the village rabbi;
large cities attracted several syn-
agogues and temples appealing
to a wide variety of needs.

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Consequently, rabbis were
forced to "market" themselves
more, to compete in attracting
members and to raise funds to op-
erate their synagogues.
"It is a pressure-packed posi-
tion," said Rabbi Raphael Butler
of the Union of Orthodox Jewish
Congregations of America. "The
rabbi has to remain the village
rabbi while at the same time in-
spire the community at large and
attract people individually.
"To get the message out today
you have to compete against the
20-second sound bite and com-
mercials," he said. "You have to
articulate ideas that are thou-
sands of years old in a sound
bite."
Congregants are more numer-
ous now, forcing synagogue mem-
bership counts to hundreds or
even thousands of families. It is
not unusual to see Conservative
synagogues and Reform temples
with thousands of members while
Orthodox shuls tend to remain
more neighborhood oriented.
Bigger congregations gen-
erally mean bigger budgets.
Larger shuls almost beg for
more sophisticated means of
operat-ing, especially since the
budgets of these institutions have

grown to the multi-million dollar
range.
And the membership has
changed, too. Gone are the days
when the board was filled with
the common laborer or new im-
migrant.
"You are not seeing the tailors
and the junk man looking up to
the rabbi because he understands
English better or knows more
about Judaism," said Rabbi
Steven Shaw, director of com-
munity education at the Jewish
Theological Seminary. "The con-
gregants are very sophisticated
now."
Temple and synagogue boards
today comprise professionals
whose names often appear on the
executive staffs of major corpo-
rations. As the board member has
become more sophisticated, so
have the methods by which they
operate, utilizing more secular,
modern business ethics.
This is a dangerous trend, said
Michael Meyers, Adolph F.
Ochs professor of Jewish his-
tory at Hebrew Union College
in Cincinnati.
As in business matters, the
boards of synagogues at times
overrule the rabbi on matters
of conscience, opting for more
popular, mainstream ideas.
This tends to warp the de-
finition of rabbi, moving it fur-
ther from teacher and closer
to chief executive officer.
For example, many a rabbi
has lost a position or been de-
nied one over such issues as
the refusal to perform inter-
marriages, Mr. Meyers said.
Such was an element of the
problem at Temple Beth El. In
the letter to congregants, Mr.
Kamins wrote about the inter-
marriage concern in the metro
Detroit area. Rabbi Polish refus-
es to perform weddings between
a Jew and a gentile.
"In our unique community,
every rabbi at every other Reform
temple offers what our senior rab-
bi does not," he wrote. "Given that
our need to retain and recruit
members is paramount for our
temple's survival, this constitutes
another relevant reason why
Rabbi Polish is not right for Tem-
ple Beth El."
Nasty public fights over the
struggle to redefine the roles have
resulted. Rabbis have lost posi-
tions and board members have
been recalled in the fight.
And not only Temple Beth El
has been affected. Synagogues
and temples in the Detroit area
have been embroiled in battles
over leadership roles to the point
where help has been called in to
heal the rifts.
While the juicy mudslinging
makes for interesting coverage in
the media, it generally does not
play well in the congregation,
alienating members who seek
peaceful refuge in their syna-
gogue or temple community.
To heal these evolutionary