Retirement Party Remarks (part 1)

MAY 12 REMARKS

Several short thoughts for this bitter…sweet moment

First was triggered by Tuesday’s Op Ed by Eugene Robinson about European Austerity
He tried to make the case: Europe needs to grow… that the solution to it’s problem.
And: We know about Kehilat Shalom’s austerity literally over the last 4 years

Short term, like Europe, we cannot grow our way out of our fundamental fiscal conundrum
We do have a small window of opportunity once we sell our School building to try to rejuvenate
I am not without hope

That hope comes from here (hold up Tanach) and from Jewish history
Communities have faded from the map but Judaism creatively evolves especially in hard times
The 1st Temple was destroyed >2500 years ago and Judaism should have died out like the 10 tribes – but prophets and the first synagogues saved the Jewish pathway to God
When the 2nd Temple was destroyed @1900 yrs ago, the rabbis made Jerusalem portable through study of torah and acts of loving-kindness, which we still live today. We have found creatively radical solutions to challenges that should have erased our legacy.
In the 30s, sociologists predicted the end of Orthodoxy in the US and in the 50s the end of Reform Judaism. Both are still going strong. And for the past 20 years the “experts” have predicted the end of Conservative Judaism and we’re hemorrhaging … but still alive and kicking. Yes… We’re in crisis, but like our ancestors we quest for new solutions to our present day challenges.

It begins here (Tanach) Bereshit…
God creates the world in an act of unconditional love. God is creator. God organizes, God is intentional, God is creative and God evaluates creation. How absolutely radical when compared to the pagan myths of gods! We are not whims of the gods, we are partners in the on-going work of creation – to repair our imperfect world. And in the middle of Genesis through the rest of Exodus and the Torah, the patriarchs and then Moses become God’s hands in the world… organizing, being intentional, and evaluating their creation of sacred community and inspiring a model of ethics and holiness to the whole world. Being created in the image of God means: we do God’s creative process for the well-being of ourselves and our community.

Technologically and sociologically in just the last 10-15 years the world has changed radically. Synagogues in the next decade across the liberal spectrum will be grappling with those changes…
But we’ve evolved before and we can do it again.
To connect with the “emerging adults” we’ve going to have twitter and use the internet and only God knows what else will be the next technology. I know those mediums are fundamentally about sharing information and expanding connections, not about relationship and depth. But the ability to share the wisdom of Judaism / and to build connection / and to connect people questing … is an untapped potential for those willing to invest in the process.
The next decade is going to be hard for shuls. For shuls: Technology,/ economics,/ kinds of affiliation/ and use of facilities/ will all see experimentation and the stress that goes with the risks of transitioning to something new and better