URJ Biennial 2013

My URJ Biennial San Diego 2013 experience – things seen and things learned

I’m standing in a room with 5000 people.  Its Shabbat morning.  The Rabbi asks us to close our eyes and raise up our hands in a special movement to bless God through the words of the Shema.  The 100 person choir begins to sing, the 9 piece band begins to play, voices swell in volume and I’m entranced by the power of this moment of prayer.  Juxtapose that to Shabbat afternoon, I’m sitting on top of a mountain in the hills outside San Diego.  I am completely alone, as the group dropped us off one by one for some solitary prayer.  In the distance the sun is setting.  I hear the wind softly blowing through the canyon.  I can hear off in the distance the crunch of other hikers on the gravel paths though I cannot see them.  I contemplate prayer, without a 9 person band or 100 person choir or 5000 worshippers, yet feel the same sense of awe.

This was my Shabbat at Biennial 2013 in San Diego.  The conference brings together Reform Jews from around the world for prayer, music, learning and networking.  I get a chance to do all in equal measure.  as with most things, the sense of connection is what first draws me to Biennial.  I love getting together with my classmates and friends from rabbinical school at HUC-JIR who are spread out throughout north America and whom I get to see only at these type of get-togethers.  We share best practices, recall fond memories of school and catch up on our newest family developments. 

I love attending the variant worship opportunities.  Thursday morning we were led by a group from Tel Aviv, from Beit Daniel, who have created wonderful new music and participatory practices.  During Birchot Hashachar, after a few prayers from the liturgy, they invite people to offer their own prayer of thanks out loud and then everyone says amen.  They adapted Beatles tunes to our prayers and mix Hebrew with English.  The 4 prayer leaders sing in beautiful harmony with multiple musical instruments, its was absolutely beautiful.  I’m hoping to bring some of their ideas here to SBE.  Shabbat evening and morning were so inspiring. We have wonderful worship leaders in our community, Friday night was the clergy team from Beth Elohim in Boston and Saturday morning it was Rabbi Jacobs along with Rabbi/Cantor Angela Warnick-Buchdal.  We also had the storah-tellers, making the story of Jacob blessing his children and grandchildren come alive, including the missing Dinah.  They selected beautiful musical pieces, some we knew, some brand new, all set with choir and instrumentation.  There were moments went people jumped up and danced.  There were a dozen torah scrolls around the room so everyone felt they were part of the reading and I received two group aliyot, as an HUC alum and as a NFTY youth group alum.  Perhaps my favorite moment is the Friday evening song session.  I was up at the front with some good friends, dancing and singing.  I almost got caught up with the nfty kids whose enthusiasm and energy made me feel like a kid again. 

In terms of speakers and learning, I was particularly inspired by the words of Anat Hoffman, who runs the Israeli religious action centre in Jerusalem. She said,

"Together we are negotiating a new reality for all of us at the Wall. This is not going to be a slightly cleaned up second-rate area for the misfits.  It will be the first time that the Israeli government will offer everybody a real choice at the Kotel. I know Israelis are going to get used to the flavor of choice and they are going to demand freedom of choice in all other areas of religious life, such as marriage, divorce, conversion, and education. Once you have 31 flavors, you can’t go back.

For too long, the face and character of Judaism’s holiest site has been in the image of one extreme minority, but we are changing that. It is time that Israelis got to know some other faces of Judaism, like that of our very own Rabbi Miri Gold, or that of Ariella Finklestein, our orthodox 14-year-old client who personally sued the bus driver who told her to go the back of the bus in Beit Shemesh.

We must plant our values the same way we have planted trees. This will require all of us to get our hands dirty since there is no other way to plant.

Our success at the Kotel must become the engine pulling the train of religious pluralism. The next car is the end of gender segregation in Israel and the exclusion of women. We bring you news of great achievements, but we also know that the rights of women in Israel are under attack, and it is falling on us to provide the response

Other cars in the train are freedom of choice in marriage, in conversion, and the full equality and recognition of our Rabbis and institutions.

Anat then asked us to do 4 things to help, to roll up our sleeves and get to work.

1. Read - At least once a week read something about Israel that is not about security.
2. Use your financial support to create an Israel that reflects your values.
3. Visit Israel, and make your visits count. Make time for the Israel Religious Action Center. (Less Roman ruins and more freedom rides.)
4. Refuse. Refuse to choose between your liberal values and your commitment to Israel. Let your frustration motivate you to action. Action is our middle name"

We also heard a wonderful charge from Rabbi Rick Jacobs, giving us focus for our movement and defining clearly what Reform Judaism stands for and what we have to offer that Jews want and need. 

“There are those who would say the trend is from more observance to less, from deep and serious about Judaism to entertaining a passing fancy for it, as if Reform is a watered-down "something else." But look around you. Have 5,000 people come to this convention because we believe in doing less, caring less, achieving less, or being less? We came because we want to do more.

Our Judaism is for everyone. Our Judaism is inclusive, egalitarian, intellectually rigorous, joyful, passionate, spiritual, pluralistic, constantly evolving and relevant. Soul elevating spiritual practice, life-altering Torah study, courageous practice of tikkun olam, loving care for our community, especially the most vulnerable--that's what we are. Just look at this Biennial if you want to see Judaism that is all of the above and more. I believe with the very fiber of my being that young Jews are hungry, but not for a Judaism frozen in a distant time, no matter how loving and warm the purveyors - including Chabad, in particular - might be.

We have what people are looking for, but we've been reticent to get out and say so, partly because we have yet to articulate an audacious vision of what the world can become. God bless Chabad and all outreach organizations for getting out there and sharing their beautiful expressions of Judaism with those who are interested. But theirs must not be the only voices defining Judaism. It's time to speak our minds. Let's be clear about who we are and what we have to say.

We believe that our understanding of Judaism is right: that God did not literally hand down sacred laws in the Bible and the Mishnah at Sinai, but rather that from our encounter with the Divine, Jews have written our sacred texts, striving to understand in their own time what God called them to do.  That process has continued through the centuries, and it continues today. We are not the way out, but the way in, the way to being fully Jewish and modern, Jewish and inclusive, Jewish and universal, Jewish and compassionate, Jewish and deeply committed also to science, the arts, and the human community in its constant evolutionary spiral toward sustaining the planet and bettering life for everyone who lives upon it. "

Overall it was a wonderful, enriching and invigorating experience for me, something I hope many others will come along next time in Orlando 2015.