Passing on the Faith: Transforming Traditions for the Next Generation of Jews, Christians, and Muslims

BJ: A Portrait of a Revitalized Synagogue

BJ: A Portrait of a Revitalized Synagogue Rabbi J. Rolando Matalon I am pleased to be here to talk about the work that my congregation, located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, has been doing for the past eighteen years. Congregation Bnai Jeshurun (BJ) was founded in 1825. Until then, the only synagogue in New York City was a Spanish-Portuguese synagogue, which observed Judaism according to the customs of Sephardic Jews. In 1825, there were enough Eastern European Jews to permit the founding of their own synagogue, where they could observe Judaism according to their own customs. Originally Orthodox, this active and prominent community was eventually served by rabbis belonging to the three major religious movements in Judaism: Orthodox, Reform, and Conservative. In the 1970s and early 1980s, Bnai Jeshurun suffered a severe decline and was faced with having almost no members, a beautiful but decrepit building, and almost no life. In 1985, a remarkable rabbi was invited to revitalize this community: Rabbi Marshall Meyer, who was my teacher and mentor. He had been a disciple of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, one of the great Jewish thinkers and activists of the twentieth century. Rabbi Meyer had spent twenty-five years in Argentina , creating new Jewish life, including a new-paradigm synagogue and a rabbinical seminary that trained rabbis who eventually spread throughout the continent, attracting thousands of Jews to an exciting and relevant Judaism, especially young people who brought their par- 126 / Rabbi J. Rolando Matalon ents to a meaningful Jewish religious life. Rabbi Meyer was very active in the struggle for human rights in Argentina from 1976 to 1983 during the years of the military dictatorship that caused the disappearance and the murder of thousands of people. He incorporated into religious life what is known as spiritual activism. After twenty-five years in Argentina , Rabbi Meyer accepted the challenge of reviving Bnai Jeshurun and returned to New York in 1985. I had the privilege to work with him almost from the beginning and he was a great mentor and teacher. I shared the spiritual leadership of BJ with him until his untimely death at the age of sixty-three in 1993. This community, which regenerated itself in 1985, experienced rapid growth, particularly a few years after its new beginning. BJ’s sanctuary was very pretty but it had been abandoned and was damaged. The sanctuary was filled with pews, was dark, and had a very high podium: it was not conducive to an uplifting communal spiritual experience. In 1991, a large section of the plaster ceiling collapsed and the synagogue building had to be closed. Two blocks away, a Methodist Church with which we had been in conversation about sharing some social-justice programs invited us to gather in their large sanctuary. We all thought it would be for just a few months and we moved into the Church of St. Paul and St. Andrew, whose congregation welcomed us with generous hospitality and tremendous warmth. That was the beginning of a wonderful and fruitful cooperation between the church and the synagogue which continues today. From the time we moved into the church in 1991, our growth became geometric: every week more and more people came. Several years later our own sanctuary was repaired, the high bimah was removed, and the pews were replaced with chairs so we could rearrange the space in any way we wanted. However, there wasn’t enough space to accommodate the increasing number of people, so we were forced to hold two overlapping services, one in the synagogue and one in the church. Now the most salient point about this revitalized congregation is not the number of people but rather the level of commitment and involvement of the people who come. That is unusual, compared to other liberal Jewish congregations. The number of people who report that BJ is central to how they organize their lives and the way they define their identity is high, and includes people who decided to remain in Manhattan, some under financial pressures and others with expanded families in small apartments, so as to be able to remain part of the BJ community. A BJ: A Portrait of a Revitalized Synagogue / 127 number of families decided to move out but commute in from Westchester or New Jersey; among those there are some that moved back to the neighborhood for the sake...