Interesting NY Times article yesterday about a group of young Jewish singles in the Boston area who started their own synagogue. (Hat tip to Philocrites)
Excerpt:
The congregation, Havurah on the Hill, was started in 2001 when a group of friends in their 20’s were trying to gather people their age for Sabbath services followed by a kosher dinner. They sent an Internet invitation to a few people and decided to hold the service in one of their apartments. About 35 showed up to a dinner with enough food to feed barely half of them.
The group’s founders, Dave Gerzof, Aaron Mandell, Mark Rubenfeld and Andrew Perlman, wanted to expand it. The goal, they said, was to provide a monthly service for young people who couldn’t commit to a weekly one. The services would be casual and friendly, so people could mingle and meet. The target age group was 18 to 35, but anyone was welcome.
* * *
Services are held on the third Friday of each month. An $18 donation is requested for further renovations of the building – the center wants to raise an additional $4.7 million for the work, including mural restoration.
"We’ve built a community here," said Jill Yanofsky, 31. "The names may change or be added or subtracted, but we have a community here that we don’t have anywhere else."
The typical gathering has three components: a service led by a lay leader or rabbi (it does not follow any particular branch of Judaism), a talk by a guest speaker and a full Sabbath dinner catered by a kosher restaurant.
Good for them!
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