Scholar-in-Residence Weekend with Rabbi Sid Schwarz

RE-IMAGINING AMERICAN JEWISH LIFE

Friday, January 24

Shabbat Service at 6:00 p.m.

Shabbat Dinner at 7:00 p.m. (approx.)

followed by Scholar Presentation 7:45 p.m.

Re-Imagining the American Synagogue

Cost: $25 per person for dinner

Rabbi Sid’s 2000 book, Finding a Spiritual Home: How a New Generation of Jews can Transform the American Synagogue helped to shape the synagogue transformation efforts of the past two decades. In this presentation Rabbi Sid will share insights about how to re-think the paradigm of the American synagogue in a way that might help congregations do a better job of engaging the next generation of American Jews. 

Saturday, January 25

Traditional Shabbat Service at 9:30 - 10:30 a.m.

Davening out of the Box, promptly at 10:30 a.m. - Traditional Service will continue in the Alan and Vivian Levine Family Chapel

Davening out of the Box

You should attend this prayer experience if: a) you are often bored at services; b) you have no idea why anyone would willingly attend a worship service: c) you are a deeply spiritual person but services don’t always work for you; d) you want to go where prayerful Jews have never gone before. Through discussions, song, movement and sharing, participants, from young to old, will walk away with a new appreciation for the Shabbat liturgy and the transformative power of prayer. This experience will not include a Torah service. Important note: If you want to participate in this experience, you must be in your seat by 10:30 a.m. While people may leave whenever they choose, it will be impossible to appreciate or understand the experience if you are not there at the beginning. Participants are encouraged to attend both experiences.

Scholar Presentation following Kiddush Lunch

What is Prayer? Talk Back and Text Study

This will be a chance to reflect on the morning’s prayer experience with Rabbi Sid through the prism of classical rabbinic texts on prayer. It will challenge your assumptions about what forms of worship are closer to the intentions of the rabbinic tradition.

Sunday, January 26

Breakfast and Scholar Presentation

at 10:00 a.m.

The New Face(s) of American Jewish Life

In a pioneering new national project called Kenissa (entrance-way): Communities of Meaning Network, Rabbi Sid is uncovering an array of organizations across North America who are literally re-inventing conceptions of Jewish identity and Jewish life. Many of these organizations are operating under the radar screen of the organized Jewish community, yet they are attracting the next generation of American Jews who are, for the most part, bypassing the legacy institutions of the organized Jewish community. Come hear more about what makes this project tick.

Rabbi Sid Schwarz is a social entrepreneur, author and teacher. He is currently a Senior Fellow at Hazon, based in New York, and is the founding rabbi of Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation in Bethesda, Maryland, where he continues to teach and lead services. Dr. Schwarz holds a Ph.D. in Jewish history and is the author of two groundbreaking books; Finding a Spiritual Home: How a New Generation of Jews Can Transform the American Synagogue (Jewish Lights, 2000) and Judaism and Justice: The Jewish Passion to Repair the World (Jewish Lights, 2006).

Rabbi Sid directs the Clergy Leadership Incubator (CLI), a program which trains rabbis to be visionary spiritual leaders. He also created and directs the Kenissa: Communities of Meaning Network, which is identifying, convening and building the capacity of emerging new models of Jewish identity and community across the country.

Rabbi Schwarz was awarded the prestigious Covenant Award for his pioneering work in the field of Jewish education and was named by Newsweek as one of the 50 most influential rabbis in North America. His most recent book is Jewish Megatrends: Charting the Course of the American Jewish Future (Jewish Lights, 2013).

This program is supported by the generosity of the Joyce and Ramie Tritt Family Foundation.