Synagogues as a User Friendly Place
This past Monday night I had the zechus to speak to 80 young men at Yeshiva University. That was the good news. The bad news was that it started at 10:30pm and finished at 1:30am and I am on a different time zone from when I was in college years ago. Amidst yawns I spoke about the importance of Kiruv and how one can become good at it. The response to my talk was incredibly positive.
The problem with Kiruv at YU, Stern, Touro and other assorted institutions of higher learning is that the students view the Kiruv work that they do on campus as almost a summer fling and they do not view it as a serious career possibility or a lifetime pursuit. So many dedicated advisors in NCSY get married and appropriately focus on their synagogue and their children’s day schools. But, what about the thousands of children that are still left with no knowledge of who Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov are?
We need these ex-advisors to advocate for their synagogues to be involved in outreach. I am always astonished by how few Orthodox Synagogues have kippot boxes in their lobby. Even if an unaffiliated Jew were to walk into most Orthodox synagogues there are very few provisions for them. We must make our synagogues more user friendly to all. A great example of a welcoming synagogue is Bnei David Judea in Los Angeles. Every week at the conclusion of Shabbat davening someone gets up to announce that anyone who does not have a Shabbat meal should come over to one of the Synagogue leaders and they will find that person a meal for Shabbat. I don’t know if anyone ever approaches that person for a Shabbat meal. What I do know is that my lunch always tasted a bit sweeter knowing that invitation was out there.
Next entry: The True Purpose of Tikun Olam
Previous entry: Teens in Santiago, Chile