Jack Wertheimer’s Critique of American Synagogues is On-Target—and Woefully Off

As a preeminent scholar of American Jewish history, Jack Wertheimer has shaped the thinking not only of his academic discipline but also of thousands of rabbis, cantors, Jewish educators, and professionals. From my student days onward, I have been one of his beneficiaries—and so, in more recent years, have been the congregants of Park Avenue Synagogue in New York, where I have the honor of serving as rabbi and where on several occasions he has been a welcome guest speaker.

This alone may help explain my eagerness to read his recent essay at Mosaic, timed to coincide with the arrival of the High Holy Days and based on dozens of interviews with mainly non-Orthodox rabbis of North American synagogues. (Full disclosure: I was invited to participate in this project, but unfortunately our schedules could not align.)

Wertheimer’s essay offers a full inventory of the diverse tactics employed by clergy to engage Jews who attend synagogue only once or twice a year, almost exclusively on the High Holy Days. Reading this catalog of common practices, gathered and organized by Wertheimer under a variety of thematic headings, I couldn’t help being struck by how many of his findings reflect communal practices in my own synagogue. To name a few: our efforts to be warm, engaging, and inclusive, to innovate both liturgically and musically, and to make our services relevant and personal. From the ushers who greet congregants at the door, to the prayer book we use (with updated translations, transliterations, and readings), to the message delivered from the pulpit, we recognize that people are accessing Jewish life from a variety of vantage points, and we welcome them all. And, yes, to enhance the message we also adhere to what one of Wertheimer’s interviewees calls “high production values,” not least when it comes to the music.