When you see a plastic bottle, do you think of a container for your favorite soda? Or do you think of
What about when you see your synagogue? What do you see? If you could change anything in your synagogue, what would that be?
For 60 years, synagogues were the central institution to the Jewish people and to ensuring Jewish continuity. The Synagogue Leadership Initiative (SLI), a project of the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey and the Henry and Marilyn Taub Foundation, was formed to help synagogues remain strong and vital, with leaders equipped to serve the needs of congregants in a changing environment. Programs focused on skill-building for lay and professional leaders and clergy and capacity-building programs for congregations.
In recent years, however, the idea of the synagogue as that central institution has waned. To remain/become relevant and necessary to a vast array of Jewish consumers, synagogues must change; they must adapt; they must innovate.
Under the paintbrush of this new landscape, SLI’s focus has changed to helping synagogues imagine a new vista. SLI coaches synagogues through assessment, determining trajectory, and implementing innovation and change. SLI helps synagogues imagine what’s next.
We invite you to join us on this journey. Provide us with your thoughts, your ideas, your feedback. In thinking about the future, we’re asking you to set aside pre-conceived notions of what a synagogue is and what it should be in its most traditional structure. We’re asking you to explore along with us what others are doing that is outside the proverbial box. We ask for introspection, dialogue, and innovation. We ask you to imagine Synagogue Next.
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