1 ECE congregations form teams of lay leaders and clergy who study together and develop a vision for improving the synagogue. ECE encourages congregations to make education central to all synagogue activities rather than simply a function of the religious school. The project leaders no longer work directly with synagogues and are instead putting together a series of books about synagogue transformation as well as developing a Web site to help congregations start transformation processes. Synagogue Transformation And Renewal A philanthropic partnership of mega-donors Charles Schusterman, Michael Steinhardt and Edgar Bronfman, STAR will invest $18 million over five years in efforts to reinvigorate synagogue life. A program of challenge grants invites experiments that involve congrega- tions of differing denominations and partnerships with community agencies. Another effort will Rind training synagogue-change consultants through the Alban Institute and a third will funnel money to local federations that increase their support for synagogue activities. ❑ — Jewish Telegraphic Agency own kind of spiritual success story," says Rabbi Larry Hoffman, one of the co-founders of Synagogue 2000. But Rabbi Daniel Freelander, who is overseeing the Reform movement's Union of American Hebrew Congregations' partnership with Synagogue 2000, said the B.J. story is only "minimally" applicable to most congregations. "If you have a congregation with 30 families left and it's bankrupt and has to choose between going out of busi- ness or allowing someone to change things 100 percent, then you can [innovate like] B.J.," he says. "We have 900 congregations and can't ask them to start from scratch," he notes. "They have to go through incremental, slow change." Through a recently discontinued project called Friday Night Alive, the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia actually imported the all- Hebrew B.J. service to several area congregations in hopes that it would attract unaffiliated Jews. While hun- dreds of people attended the services — held once a month at rotating Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist congregations — and many praised the project, it did not work well in Reform congrega- tions where congregants were less accustomed to Hebrew or unfamiliar with the melodies. "We felt like a one-size-fits-all isn't the way to go," says Ellen Bernstein, who coordinated the project. She notes that while Friday Night Alive energized the participants, it was less successful at engaging the unaffiliated in any ongoing way. B.J.'s Rabbi Marcelo Bronstein says other congregations can learn from B.J.'s success if they understand it is not simply about a type of service or "technique." Instead, Rabbi Bronstein says, they should focus on the shul's commitment to ongoing experimentation, its inclusiv- ity, and its governing style — in which rabbis and lay leaders work as partners, and rabbis play a larger role in decision making than at most synagogues. KIES EIN- sPo WITH LAURA KILPATRICK PLEASE JOIN US OCTOBER 6 & 7 Bloomfield Plaza • Telegraph at Maple Road • Open Mon-Sat. 10-6 p.m., Thurs. til 8 p. 248.855.8855 EUROPEAN FACIALS MICRODERMABRASION DIAMOND PEEL Tears OfJoy Synagogues that can glean even a frag- ment of the enthusiasm surrounding B.J. may well consider themselves lucky. One member, who says B.J. is the first synagogue she ever joined, says the shul was the biggest reason she recently decided against moving back to her native Australia. Ilana Eberson, a 39-year-old natural medicine student, says she found B.J. after years of trying out other Upper West Side synagogues and was so happy her first time at services — where a stranger welcomed her right away and she instantly fell in love with the music — that she burst into tears. Where else are you going to find 1,200 Jews on a Friday night happy to go to shul?" she asks, adding, "If there were more B.J.s, there would probably be more affiliated Jews." " SKIN CARE ESTHETICIAN ILLUSIONS BY SHERRI 360 HAMILTON • BIRMINGHAM 248-644-2144 ❑ Related commentaries: page 74 9/29 2000 83