New Membership & Financial Alternatives for the American Synagogue

Avi S. Olitzky, Kerry M. Olitzky

Description

Open wide your mind and your community to fresh concepts of synagogue financial and spiritual success.
"[A] welcome addition.... Replete with examples of synagogues, independent minyanim and spiritual communities that have developed creative and sometimes surprising strategies ... that ameliorate what many observers believe are obstacles to recruiting and engaging Jews into their spiritual communities."
from the Foreword by Dr. Ron Wolfson
The concept of the "dues-based membership model" in synagogues was once an innovation. Now that model is in decline and sweeping change is required in order to reverse the downward trend in synagogue participation. This groundbreaking book provides synagogue and communal leaders with a useful process and the ingredients necessary to consider important changes in the synagogue, including:
Thoughtful new models for membership and synagogue finance
Examples from successful synagogues, bolstered by illustrations from the private sector
Practical steps for change and implementation
With checklists for exploring and adopting alternative models from nationally recognized congregational consultant Debbie Joseph.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Judaism
• Jewish leadership
• Religion

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 06 février 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781580238281
• Langue: English

Extrait

Praise for New Membership & Financial Alternatives for the American Synagogue
“The Rabbis Olitzky have faced head on what many of us are afraid to look at: for synagogues to survive they must change. Their compelling book is rooted in their love of synagogues, and it is their optimism about what is possible that allows them to examine models that, however radical, all suggest a vision of Jewish communal survival.”
— Rabbi Mychal Springer, chair, professional and pastoral skills and director, Center for Pastoral Education, The Jewish Theological Seminary
“A very helpful, thorough guide for synagogue and Jewish communal leaders, clergy and prospective clergy.... A veritable playbook that addresses the key questions involved with each model, the pitfalls to be avoided and the process synagogue leadership must utilize to implement them.... A must-read for all who care about the future of synagogue affiliation and its financial stability ... in essence, the future of Jewish life in America.”
— Rabbi Norman Cohen , professor emeritus of midrash, Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion; author, Masking and Unmasking Ourselves: Interpreting Biblical Texts on Clothing and Identity
“Offers new thinking and new models of affiliation. Whether we are committed to old ways or searching for new ones, this work will provoke reflection and open possibilities.”
— Dr. Steven M. Cohen, research professor of Jewish social policy, Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion
“Finally, a book that not only explains the challenges facing American synagogues today, but actually offers realistic, creative and constructive ways to overcome them.... Give[s] synagogues of every size the tools and the confidence to look beyond what is—to what needs to be.”
— Rabbi David Rosen, senior rabbi, Congregation Beth Yeshurun, Houston, Texas
“[The] Rabbis Olitzky ... ask critical questions and suggest bold solutions, all in the service of vitalizing synagogues.... A helpful sourcebook for important conversations.”
— Rabbi Deborah Waxman, PhD , president, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and Jewish Reconstructionist Communities
“Packed with clarifying ideas and refreshing experiments, encourages us to get ahead of the curve, to be ambitious in our aspirations.”
— Rabbi Yael Splansky, Holy Blossom Temple, Toronto, Ontario; author, URJ’s “Reform Voices of Torah: 2012 Commentary on Deuteronomy”
“Instead of focusing on the doom and gloom of synagogue life, the Rabbis Olitzky write a practical and common ‘cents’ book about how our temple communities can grow and thrive.”
— Craig Taubman, musician; founder, Pico Union Project, Los Angeles, California
“Honestly, lovingly and productively examines the difficult issue of synagogue membership.. .. An intelligent and well-balanced book, based on careful research.... Should be a requirement for all rabbis, lay leaders and rabbinical students to read, ponder and begin to think about what the future of their organization should look like.”
— Rabbi Asher Lopatin, president, Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School
For Sheryl Olitzky and for Sarah Olitzky, our life partners and best friends


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Contents
Who Should Read This Book
How to Use This Book
Foreword by Dr. Ron Wolfson
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. The Shifting Relationship of the Synagogue and the Jewish Community
2. Voluntary Dues
3. No Dues or “Gifts of the Heart”
4. Transactional Membership
5. Open Membership
6. The No-Membership Model
7. The Tiered Model
8. Special-Interest Membership
9. The Community Campus: An Approach to Financing Institutional Physical Structure
10. The Co-op Model
11. The Hybrid Model
Conclusion
Afterword by Rabbi Dan Judson
Appendices
Determining the Appropriate Model for Your Synagogue—A Checklist
Prepared by Debbie Joseph
Ten Things to Do Following the Decision to Adopt a New Membership or Revenue Model—A Checklist
Prepared by Debbie Joseph
Twenty-Five Reasons to Join Synagogues
Notes
Resources
About the Authors
Copyright
Also Available
About Jewish Lights Publishing
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Who Should Read This Book Synagogue board members Synagogue professional staff, including rabbis, cantors, educators, and executive directors Jewish communal leaders, especially Jewish Federation planning directors Jewish communal service and rabbinical students Anyone interested in the future of the North American Jewish community and the synagogue
How to Use This Book Use this book as a stimulus and guide for your own synagogue’s discussion of change in membership models and dues structures. Devote time at synagogue board meetings for a discussion of each model in this volume. Use the table of contents as a broad outline for a synagogue board retreat. Provide the opportunity for discussion of each model by describing them in an interactive section on your synagogue’s website. Include the book as required reading in a class on Jewish communal planning and the future of the synagogue.
Foreword
Build for Me a sanctuary, but I will dwell in your midst.
Exodus 25:8
You should not appear before God empty-handed. Every person should give in accordance with how he [or she] has been blessed by God.
Deuteronomy 16:16b–17
Congregations are a lot like homes; you get what you pay for ... there are no substitutes for investing in and maintaining something of quality and lasting value.
Rabbi Lawrence Kushner 1
Rabbi Ishmael said: One who wishes to acquire wisdom should study the way that money works, for there is no greater area of Torah study than this.
Babylonian Talmud, Bava Batra 175b
Of the many challenges facing synagogues, securing the financial resources to sustain them is often at the top of the list for congregational leaders. After all, if the congregation fails to raise the dollars to pay for the organizational infrastructure, facilities, schools, programs, clergy, educators, and staff, the synagogue could very well face merger or even closure. For more than a century, the North American synagogue has depended on annual dues from members to fund these costs. Increasingly, synagogue leaders report resistance to this model of collecting revenue. Are there other options for raising the money? Indeed, are there even new ways to think about the very idea of “membership” in synagogues?
These two compelling questions are at the heart of this welcome addition to the growing conversation about synagogue membership models and financial alternatives. Rabbis Kerry M. Olitzky and Avi S. Olitzky have done their homework. Not only do they cite interesting revenue-generating models from the general culture, but the book is also replete with examples of synagogues, independent minyanim, and spiritual communities that have developed creative and sometimes surprising strategies for rethinking both the concept of membership and how congregations can build revenue streams that ameliorate what many observers believe are obstacles to recruiting and engaging Jews into their spiritual communities.
The most cited obstacle to synagogue membership is the cost. “Why do we have to pay to pray?” asks the potential member. I once heard Rabbi Edward Feinstein of Valley Beth Shalom in Encino, California, answer the question bluntly:
You don’t have to pay to pray. But, if you want heat in the building on Hanukkah and air-conditioning on Yom Kippur, there is a cost. If you want a prayer book, there is a cost. If you want a rabbi and a cantor to be there for you, there is a cost. If you want teachers for your children, there is a cost. For 362 days of the year, our doors are wide open for anyone who wants to pray—without cost. For a synagogue to provide these services, there is a cost ... and it is our members who generously offer gifts from their heart—we call them “dues”—to support this effort. 2
This is a cogent argument, but there is a necessary next step. Synagogues are notoriously reticent to reveal their budgets to anyone other than the boards of directors and senior staff. There may be a general discussion of the budget at the congregational annual meeting, but often it is not well attended. Very few congregations post their balance sheets on the synagogue website. There is no need to publicize individual salaries, but synagogues would be well served to be more transparent about the real costs of running the organization. Unlike 501(c)(3) charities, synagogues are classified by the Internal Revenue Service as religious institutions, excused from reporting their financial condition.
There are, of course, deeper issues in play. Our authors are unafraid to ask the fundamental question: Why membership? They point to Chabad—the best-known, most successful Jewish outreach and engagement organization in the Jewish world—which turned the membership-and-dues model upside down. Instead of “Pay dues and be served,” their strategy is “We will serve you, and then we’ll ask you for money”—which Chabad rabbis aggressively and often effectively do.
The Olitzkys then turn to another important question: What is the relationship between member and organization? Is it simply transactional? The member thinks, “The synagogue offers me a ‘product’ and a ‘service’ that I pay for ... and when I no longer need or want your produc