Free Seats, Reconstructionist Style

Reconstructionist synagogues, like Bet Am Shalom Synagogue in White Plains, above, hope to fill empty seats with the unaffiliated who are curious about and open to their brand of Judaism.

by Merri Rosenberg
Special To The Jewish Week

For many Jews, synagogue membership translates simply to knowing they have somewhere to go for the High Holy Days of Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur.
Yet the steep price of congregational membership — and the often- prohibitive cost of individual tickets for High Holy Day services —may have meant in the past that the unaffiliated stayed home.
But this year, unaffiliated Jews in the New York area, including here in Westchester, will have a new option for free High Holy Day services.
Through a grant from UJA-Federation of New York, as part of a larger outreach initiative targeted to all the Jewish organized movements, Reconstructionist synagogues will offer seats during their High Holy Day services to unaffiliated Jews.
“What we see is that Jews

who are members of synagogues are more active Jewishly,” said Dru Greenwood, director of SYNERGY at the UJA-Federation of New York, who explained that the program came out of the Commission on Jewish Identity and Renewal’s Synagogue Task Force. “Our goal is to strengthen Jewish life by enabling movements to bring people in. That has a direct impact on the depth of Jewish identity.”
All 13 Reconstructionist synagogues in the New York area, which encompasses Long Island, New Jersey, New York City, Westchester and a New Paltz congregation, are either offering free seats or making seats available to non-members for a modest fee.
In Westchester, the four participating synagogues are Bet Am Shalom in White Plains, Congregation M’vakshe Derekh in Scarsdale, Hebrew Congregation of Somers in Shenorock and Mishkan Ha’am in Hastings-on-Hudson.
While the participating congregations hope this experience encourages some of the visitors to consider becoming members, they also feel that offering free or reduced-cost tickets is important, as an introduction to what Reconstructionism is, a tangible expression of its inclusive policies.
Granted, offering free seats to non-members during the High Holy Days is not necessarily new for many of these congregations.
Bet Am Shalom, for example, is known for its expansive and inviting tent, where non-members have been welcomed for many years. Similarly Mishkan Ha’Am in Hastings has also offered free admission before.
What the grant helps these congregations do, however, is let more people know about Reconstructionism and the movement’s individual synagogues.
“There’s a feeling people don’t know what Reconstructionism is,” said UJA-Federation’s Greenwood. “This gives them an opportunity to give that message, letting people know you’re there.”
For Susan Leon, chair of membership outreach at Bet Shalom, “The goal for all of us, by inviting the community in at a moment when Jews try to be Jews, is that something about it might inspire them. The whole outreach effort is designed to try and encourage unaffiliated Jews to take another look.”
For Audrey Sherman, president of the Hebrew Congregation of Somers, in Shenorock, which currently has about 90 member families, this initiative is a continuation of an effort launched last year to provide free holiday tickets, as well as a first-year free membership, in the synagogue.
“We’re a relatively small synagogue, and we’re benefiting in terms of exposure, in terms of people realizing where we are and what we offer,” she said.
At Mishkan Ha’Am Mark Rubin, chair of membership, said, “It couldn’t hurt, and gives us an opportunity to get the word out. We always had free admission for the High Holy Days. We’ve always been there for anyone who wants to pray with us. This is a way to let them know that we exist.”

For more information about seats for the High Holy Days, contact:
Bet Am Shalom, (914) 946-8851 or BetAmShalom@BetAmShalom.org; Mishkan Ha’am, (914) 478-4996 or www.mishkanhaam.org; the Hebrew Congregation of Somers, (914) 248-9532 or info@hebrewcongregationofsomers.org; Mvakshe Derekh, 914-725-3064, www.mvakshederekh.org.
To learn more about the “Open Seats” program, check www.highholidayopenseats.com. For more information about the Reconstructionist movement, check www.jrf.org

Westchester Jewish Conference

Westchester’s Jewish Community Relations Organization