Synagogues

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May 20, 2025, 5:39 AM

Stop Singing in Synagogue

Singing stifles the “still small voice” (1 Kings 19: 11-13), and there’s no greater purpose in all Judaism than to hear and obey this voice of God. Moses went away from the camp to hear It without distraction (Exodus...

Peter Buchsbaum

May 18, 2025, 6:17 AM

Earlier in May, an event took place at the Reform Kehillat Ra'anan synagogue in Ra’anana, a mostly liberal town north of Tel Aviv. This event is an inflection point. Despite threats, the synagogue chose to proceed with a ceremony expressing...

Apr 28, 2025, 6:04 PM

Time to Rethink Candy Culture in Our Synagogues

Walk into almost any Orthodox synagogue on Shabbat morning, and you’ll see a familiar scene: young children, some barely old enough to sit still, eagerly crowding around the junior minyan leaders, their hands outstretched for a lollipop, taffy, or...

Austin Reid Albanese

Apr 17, 2025, 9:13 AM

When the Whole Town Showed Up at the Synagogue Door

Picture a Torah scroll carried through a town's main street—accompanied not by Jews alone, but by city officials, Christian clergy, and neighbors of every faith. Imagine an interfaith choir's harmonies echoing off synagogue walls as new doors opened to...

Michael Feldstein

Mar 26, 2025, 4:24 AM

Orthodoxy is Thriving on the Upper East Side

For several decades, post-college singles and young married who wanted to live in New York City mostly flocked to the Upper West Side, which had several synagogues in the area and a plethora of kosher restaurants nearby. An Orthodox...

Mar 12, 2025, 10:59 PM

Beth Shalom Synagogue: A Glimpse into Havana’s Vibrant Jewish Heritage

El Patronato (Beth Shalom), New York Jewish Travel Guide

Beth Shalom Temple, also known as “El Patronato,” is the largest Jewish congregation and community center in Havana, Cuba. Established in 1953 in the Vedado neighborhood, it became the center of Jewish life on the island. Designed by architect...

Mar 5, 2025, 9:06 PM

Terumah: The First Synagogue

'Entry of a Synagogue in Jerusalem' by Levi Meir Clancy (2021)

ועשו לי מקדש ושכנתי בתוכם Let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them. (Ex.25:8) Filled with intricate detail, Terumah introduces us to the Mishkan or the Tabernacle, the precursor to the Bet HaMikdash in which the nomadic...

Feb 27, 2025, 10:43 PM

Making Our Shuls Great Again

One of very first participants of the MJE Shabbat Beginners Minyan was a young woman by the name of Deborah. Raised on Long Island, Deborah’s family belonged to a local Reform Temple where they would attend services on the High...

Allen S. Maller

Feb 25, 2025, 6:31 AM

Why Synagogues are always Local and Self Governed

The Roman destruction of Herod’s magnificent Jerusalem Temple had one good outcome. The local synagogues that had developed in the diaspora outside the Land of Israel became the ongoing universal centers of Jewish life. Unlike the words church or temple,...

Feb 14, 2025, 2:26 PM

The custom that refused to die (Yitro, Covenant & Conversation)

There’s an enthralling story about the Ten Commandments and the role they played in Jewish worship and the synagogue. It begins with a little-known fact. There was a time when there were not three paragraphs in the prayer we call...

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