Spirituality
Many thanks to the 300
Jewish Family Service Volunteers
who helped make our
11th Annual Fall Fix Up
a WONDERFUL SUCCESS
Independent
Young Jews are praying on their own terms.
Sue Fishkoff
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
New York
osh Fine grew up
Conservative — day school,
USY, summer camp, the
works. His wife, Julie Geller, grew up
Orthodox.
They moved to Denver four years
ago and couldn't find a synagogue
they liked, so the young couple cre-
ated their own: Na'aleh, a pluralistic,
non-denominational minyan, or prayer
community, for young, Jewishly literate
Denverites.
The minyan holds services the first
Friday night of each month and on
most Jewish holidays. There are no
dues, no building fund, no religious
school, no rabbi and no institutional
structure of any kind, just spirited,
song-filled worship in Hebrew led by
a core group of about a dozen young
Jews aged 25 to 35.
When the minyan doesn't meet,
some of them attend an Orthodox
synagogue; others try Conservative
services and others stay home.
Sometimes they put up a mechitza,
a ritual barrier separating men and
women. Sometimes they don't.
Fine says the minyan is "constantly
evolving" and searching for meaning-
ful religious expression that retains
the fluidity and independence these
young Jews are used to in the rest of
their lives.
"My generation, we do things our-
selves a lot': Fine says. "No one I know
goes to a travel agent to book a trip.
We book it online. That's true in every
aspect of our lives.
"In terms of our spirituality and
religious expression, why should we
go someplace where other people tell
us how to be spiritual? Why not do it
ourselves?"
Na'aleh is part of a vibrant new
phenomenon in Jewish life: the rise of
more than 80 independent minyans,
rabbi-led prayer communities and
other alternative spiritual communities
across the United States and Canada.
These loose-knit communities are
defined by their inclusiveness, plural-
istic nature, intense worship style, fluid
organizational structure, high Jewish
literacy and fierce aversion to labels.
And they're growing fast. In 2001
j
there were 15. Their numbers have
soared more than five-fold, with new
communities spreading out from
New York, Washington, D.C., and
Los Angeles to Boston, Denver, San
Francisco and Seattle, connecting
thousands of young Jews through e-
mail lists and word of mouth.
What was known about this phe-
nomenon had been anecdotal until last
week, when the results of a national
study were released. The study pres-
ents the first clear picture of who these
young Jews are and what they are seek-
ing.
The 2007 Spiritual Communities
Study, conducted by Hebrew Union
College-Jewish Institute of Religion
sociologist Steven Cohen on behalf of
the S3K Synagogue Studies Institute
and Mechon Hadar, is based on 1,354
responses to a Web survey posted this
summer.
Key findings include:
• Most participants are under 40
and unmarried; two-thirds of them
are women; 40 percent grew up
Conservative.
•A majority went to day school,
Jewish summer camps and campus
Hillel foundations.
• They are comfortable with Hebrew
and know Israel — more than half of
those in independent minyans have
spent more than four months on an
Israel program.
• They like worship — most attend
services at least once a month, and
two-thirds pray with more than one
congregation.
• They tend to be socially progressive
yet religiously traditional, illustrat-
ing the Gen-X phenomenon of the
"observant liberal" — one minyan, for
example, forbids the eating of food that
has been transported on Shabbat while
declaring itself "queer friendly."
Another key feature appears to be
that news of these new prayer groups
spreads through social networking
rather than institutional structures.
Yehuda Kurtzer, co-founder of
the Washington Square Minyan in
Brookline, Mass., notes that most of
the founders of the key minyans know
each other from college or from attend-
ing each other's worship services. Ll
We couldn't have done it without YOU!
Thank you to the hard working committee—
Stephanie Appel, Steve Dunn, Micki Grossman, Gadi Kaplan, Lindsay Leder,
Robin Pluto, Hilary Rotenberg, and Nathan Shiovitz
Also, thank you to the sponsors and community partners for their
tremendous support—
Beaumont Hospital, Providence Hospital, 3M, Bronner's Glove,
Farm Fresh Market, Yeshivas Darchei Torah, Zeman's Bakery and
Universal Bearing Company.
Jack Cherney
Chairperson
JFS Fall Fix Up Committee
Jewish Family Service
of Metropolitan Detroit
1333010
GLOBAL
WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS
D
.7)
0
Marty Rosen
Cellular Phones
Satellite TV
Send Global
International
Calling
5 Featuring
Motorola
Products
David Rogovein
Stop in and Save with
our Current Specials!
RIM 8830
Bring this ad in and also
Save 25% off any one ill stock
accessory of your choice.
4276 Orchard Lake Rd. (at Lone Pine)
West Bloomfield • (248) 681-7200
29815 Northwestern Hwy.
Applegate Square
248.357.1800
For results of the the 2007 Spiritual
Communities Study, go to
www.jewishemergent.org/survey.
Holiday Hours: AAonday-Saturday, 10-5 • Sunday, Noon-4
C
e r
, 20
A37