I

World

BIENNIAL NOTEBOOK

Reforming Reform

Liberal Jews look at successes of the movement and its needs.

Ben Harris
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

San Diego

R

abbi Eric Yoffie earned only
a handful of chuckles in his
Saturday, Dec. 15, sermon during
the biennial convention of the Union for
Reform Judaism Dec 12-16, but one of the
heartiest came near the end of a plea for
Reform Jews to support state initiatives on
health insurance.
As a final point,
Yoffie noted that con-
gregations don't always
provide the most
healthful food options
at synagogue func-
tions, prompting the
6,000 in attendance to
burst out laughing.
Rabbi Yoffie
Most of Yoffie's
speech was no laugh-
ing matter, calling for
more dialogue with Muslim Americans
and greater support for Israel in advance
of its 60th anniversary. But the centerpiece
was urging Reform Jews to revive Shabbat
observance.
Yoffie was unflinching in diagnosing
the problem: The prevalent bar mitzvah
culture in Reform synagogues has made
Shabbat morning services more about
worshiping a child than worshiping God.
Yoffie's solution: more Shabbat obser-
vance and a reclamation of Shabbat morn-
ing services from the bar mitzvah crowd,
a call that's sure to prompt the expected
round of comments that Reform is becom-
ing more traditional.
Perhaps in anticipation, Yoffie promised
that the new Shabbat initiative would not
result in a return to "neo-frumkeit" and
the movement would not attempt to dic-
tate personal practice. That line didn't earn
any laughs, but it did produce scattered
applause.

Muslim Dialogue

One of the more heavily promoted ses-
sions of the biennial was an appearance
by Dr. Ingrid Mattson, president of the
Islamic Society of North America.
A Canadian-born convert to Islam
and the society's first female president,
Mattson is something of a trailblazer. She
showed that in August when she invited

A18 December 27 2007

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role in the ceremony. A tribute concert, in
Yoffie to become the first major Jewish
which several of the movement's leading
leader to address her organization, an
musical lights performed her songs, and a
umbrella group of eight Muslim organiza-
video in which movement leaders celebrat-
tions.
ed her contributions — Yoffie called her a
Mattson spoke at the biennial's final
"treasure" — preceded a very short speech
plenary on Sunday. Organizers must have
by Friedman herself. At the end of the eve-
expected a paltry showing because the
ning, Friedman performed two songs.
hall was smaller than the one used for the
Friedman in recent years has suffered
major plenaries, but the room was packed.
from a debilitating illness that causes her
Her faced swathed in an Islamic heads-
muscles to twitch
carf, Mattson
uncontrollably. On
spoke in a clipped
stage at the bien-
and sober tone
nial, she appeared
about the Muslim
to have aged
constituencies in
considerably since
North America
the youthful-look-
she represents
ing woman sing-
and their readi-
ing in the video
ness to engage
just a few years
in dialogue with
before.
Jews. Her society
The evening's
and the URJ are
most moving
launching a series
moment came
of dialogues that
when Rabbi
are pairing 10
Daniel Freelander,
mosques and syn-
the URJ's vice
agogues across
Musician Doug Cotter I eads participants in
president, led
the country.
the Union for Reform J udaism's biennial
the audience
Though she
convention in a Friday night song session.
in singing "Mi
never paused
Shebeirach,"
for applause, the
Friedman's iconic
URJ crowd could
prayer for healing. Friedman, her eyes
barely suppress their impulse to cheer
moist, sat silently on the stage. For the
Mattson. They applauded when she spoke
prayer's final lines, the musical accompa-
about the Muslim responsibility to con-
niment fell away, and it was just 6,000 Jews
front the terrorists and extremists in their
singing a capella to the woman who had
midst. They stood when she promised
given them the melody
to confront any Muslim who denies the
truth of the Holocaust. And betraying the
Political Reformers
crowd's liberal inclinations, they cheered
If it's true what they say about mixing
when she said it was possible to support
the Palestinians without being anti-Jewish. religion and politics, no one seems to have
told the Reform movement. There was
politics galore at the biennial, mostly of
Debbie Friedman Honored
the liberal variety.
Of all the hundreds of songs sung in the
At the opening plenary, Berkeley Law
course of the five-day biennial, more came
from the inspiration of one composer than Professor Goodwin Liu delivered a scath-
ing indictment of the U.S. Supreme Court,
any other. Debbie Friedman's melodies,
which he described as the most conserva-
many combining traditional liturgies
tive in 30 years. If a Republican is elected
with English lyrics, have become deeply
president next November and appoints a
embedded into the movement's sum-
justice — John Paul Stevens, a liberal, is
mer camps and worship services, and on
87 years old — Liu predicted we are "des-
Saturday night she was honored with the
tined
for a period of constitutional dark
first Alexander M. Schindler Distinguished
ages:'
Service Award.
The message seemed clear: Elect a
For a woman who figures so promi-
Democrat
at all costs. Reform leaders,
nently in the fabric of Reform worship,
perhaps
mindful
of nonprofit laws that
Friedman herself had a relatively minor

prevent them from endorsing candidates,
vigorously denied that was their intention.
But at one session, Albert Vorspan, a
former director of the URJ's Commission
on Social Action, blasted the Bush admin-
istration for preventing Middle East
peace, fomenting "nativist hostility" to
new immigrants, tolerating torture at
Guantanamo and damaging America's
standing in the world so severely it will
take generations to overcome.
Vorspan encouraged his audience to be
nudniks for conscience."

"

Mega-Church Ideas

In a darkened room at the San Diego
Convention Center, nearly 1,000 people
clapped, sang and danced to evening
prayers, with the words projected on two
large screens.
Featuring a five-piece band, a small
vocal ensemble and a charismatic, story-
telling leader, the weekday evening service
could have been held at any of the growing
number of mega-churches in America.
But the service was in Hebrew; the
prayers were lifted from the new Mishkan
T'filah siddur.
Ideas borrowed from evangelical mega-
churches were in abundance at the five-
day biennial, a trend championed by Ron
Wolfson, co-founder of Synagogue 3000, a
Los Angeles-based organization dedicated
to synagogue revitalization.
For more than a decade Wolfson has
been studying the success of Saddleback
Church in Orange County, Calif., and has
developed a close bond with its pastor,
Rick Warren. "Where do you think we got
the idea?" Wolfson said of the service.
In the 19th century, the architects
of Reform Judaism, seeking a more
enlightened, rational and modern style
of worship, borrowed heavily from their
Protestant neighbors. They held weekly
services on Sunday, cloaked rabbis in
long black robes and worshiped in a high-
cathedral style.
While the movement today is increas-
ingly embracing Jewish traditions it once
shunned, Reform leaders insist they must
remain open to innovation. And again
they are finding inspiration in Christian
churches, the most successful of which
hold boisterous music-driven services,
expertly utilize new technologies and offer
a warm and welcoming atmosphere.
"If the mega-churches can do it, maybe

