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PRESENTS
New Rituals
at Orchard Mali
Friday, October 28th, 7 — 9 P.M.
join Miss Firecrackerfrr tke
pqictx.s.,/ P-Tour
svite.re tint '7
part Ztise skew, s'itk
our 1•114SiC, PUT X11.
• Wear your costume for a chance to win
The Ultimate Trick-or-Treat Bag!
Must be 14 or under to win.
• No boo-hoos here! All kids in costumes
will receive special Halloween surprises!
* Spooktacular games and prizes!
• Scavenger Hunt from store to store.
• Trick-or-treating!
Jews look outside synagogues
for new lifecycle events.
rthard Mail Has Beef!
ie- Via Nig
Sue Fishkoff
Completeiy Renovated!
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Berkeley, Calif
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44
C3, CD
am Sontag's parents
wanted him to have a bar
mitzvah, but they aren't
religious and felt it would be
hypocritical to join a congrega-
tion.
Shalva Sorani is active in her
Berkeley, Calif., congregation, but
when she faced a mastectomy
her friends wanted a female
rabbi to lead their all-women
healing circle.
These are some of the people
served by Rachel Brodie and Julie
Batz, founders and co-directors
of the Ritualist, a Bay Area-based
nonprofit that researches and
supports independent Jewish
lifecycle rituals — weddings,
funerals, bar and bat mitzvahs
— and other events held outside
the framework of a synagogue.
It's a growing trend nationwide,
Brodie says.
A Jewish educator who holds a
master's degree from the
Conservative movement's Jewish
Theological Seminary, Brodie
says people began asking her to
do their Jewish ceremonies
almost a decade ago.
The phenomenon is going on
especially in the San Francisco
Bay area, a region with particu-
larly low affiliation rates. Just 22
percent of Bay Area Jewish
households belong to syna-
gogues, according to a recent sur-
vey.
When these people want a
Jewish ceremony to mark an
important lifecycle event, Brodie
and Batz say, they don't know
where to go.
"There's so much going on in
the Jewish community under the
term 'outreach, and this is an
example of people who don't
belong reaching out to the syna-
gogue community," says Batz, a
business consultant and shaliach
tzibur, or service leader, for a
local congregation. "It's a tremen-
dous opportunity for us to say,
`We'd like you to have a really
deep, meaningful Jewish experi-
ence:"
But what this trend actually
produces is up for debate, as
some say it merely provides a
one-time rabbi rather than
strengthening the Jewish com-
munity.
In early 2004, Brodie and Batz
secured a research grant from the
Richard and Rhoda Goldman
Fund. They were shocked to find
more than 100 rabbis, cantors,
Jewish educators and other ritual
facilitators working actively in
the East Bay alone, conducting
traditional rituals as well as cre-
ating a whole host of new ones:
• mikvah ceremonies for rape
victims;
• New Age healing circles with
Jewish prayers;
• a coming-of-age ritual for a
boy who had just received his
drivers' license.
But Brodie and Batz found no
organization connecting the peo-
ple who want these ceremonies
with the professionals ready to
help them. As the two women
built up their database of facilita-
tors, and as more Jews heard of
their work and started contacting
them, they found themselves pro-
viding a personal referral service.
They talk to the people who
call and try to connect them with
appropriate clergy or lay facilita-
tors. Some of the callers are
young and haven't settled perma-
nently in the area. Others haven't
found a synagogue where they
feel comfortable.
Some, says Batz, "are on the
margins of the Jewish communi-
ty," often because they're interra-
cial or interfaith couples or are
gay or lesbian. They want to
mark life-cycle events Jewishly,
but don't feel comfortable in tra-
ditional congregations.
Later this fall, Brodie and Batz
October 20 2005
JN