By Leyna Krow, Assistant Editor, JTNews
Editor’s note: The Synagogue Chronicles is a new feature that will discuss the issues our local congregations face, one by one, from exciting programs to fluctuating membership to community building.
Last month, Emanuel Congregation, Seattle’s Northend modern Orthodox synagogue, began doing something that many consider to be, frankly, rather unorthodox.
After almost a year’s worth of deliberation, the congregation has decided to begin offering egalitarian services in which women will be (almost) equal participants to men.
“I see this as something really good and something that will help keep Emanuel alive and vibrant,” said congregation president Jay Wang.
According to Emanuel Congregation’s Web site, women will be allowed to “lead Kabbalat Shabbat, P’sukei D’zimrah, the Shacharit Torah service, and to read from the Torah, chant Haftarah, and receive aliyot to the Torah.”
They will not be allowed to lead the shacharit or musaf prayers.
The egalitarian services aren’t a full-time arrangement for Emanuel Congregation, nor are they necessarily permanent. For the duration of 2010, the synagogue will offer one egalitarian service per month. At the end of the year, the congregation will assess the effectiveness of the experiment and decide whether they want to continue.
Allowing women to complete a minyan is a weekly, regular initiative that will continue independently from the monthly service, however.
How will Emanuel Congregation determine if the egalitarian services ought to become a permanent fixture for the shul? Whether congregants, both male and female, find the services meaningful and engaging is the primary litmus test. But Emanuel leadership also hopes this change will attract new and younger members to the tiny congregation.
The shul’s first egalitarian service, which took place at the end of January, was the first time in several weeks the congregation had enough members present for a minyan.
“We had a higher turnout than normal, both men and women,” Wang said. “People are really pumped for this, I think.”
Wang stressed that he does not want the change to be seen as a political move on the congregation’s part, but rather as an opportunity for more people to be able to engage fully with their faith and traditions.
“One of the things we are trying to keep — even if we end up going completely egalitarian — is the heimish atmosphere,” Wang said, referring to the Yiddish term of being welcoming. “We want a true balance. This isn’t about politics or making a point. We are there to pray and to be a Jewish community.”
Although allowing women to read from the Torah, help lead services, and count for a minyan remain uncommon practices in the Orthodox world, Wang, after having done extensive reading and research on the matter, feels they are halachically sound.
“It’s not all cut and dry,” Wang said. “But if you go back to the Torah, there’s nothing that says women can’t do these things,”
He’s not alone in this belief. Congregation Emanuel has taken its model for egalitarian services from Kehillat Shira Hadasha, a synagogue in Jerusalem, which in 2002 became the first shul in Israel to openly embrace feminism alongside halachah. Today, 13 egalitarian Orthodox synagogues in Israel are based on Shir Hadasha as are a handful in the U.S., primarily on the East Coast. Emanuel is the first in the Pacific Northwest.
The ways egalitarian synagogues balance their commitment to both equality and Orthodoxy varies. Some synagogues require 20 participants for a minyan made up of 10 men and 10 women. Wang said that will not be the case for Emanuel Congregation’s egalitarian services, however.
“If you’re an adult Jew and you’re there, you count,” he said.
Indeed, Emanuel Congregation can’t afford to be choosy. The congregation currently has just 51 members, the majority of whom are well past retirement age, and many have difficulty making it to Saturday services with any regularity.
“I’m 64 and I’m one of the younger people,” Wang said.
As a result, change comes slowly to Congregation Emanuel. Wang admitted that not everyone is onboard with the idea of the egalitarian services and he believes there is a chance several members may leave the synagogue as a result.
“There are a few people, people we love dearly, who were not in favor of this,” Wang acknowledged. “But we couldn’t wait any longer.”
Emanuel board member Joel Rothschild put his reason for supporting the change succinctly.
“I didn’t see any other way for the shul to survive beyond the generation of the founders,” he said.
Rothschild, 31, has been a member of the synagogue for three years. He and his girlfriend are Emanuel’s youngest congregants.
If a crop of new members aren’t brought in within the next couple of years, Emanuel Congregation may be forced to close. But will egalitarian services be enough to attract young blood?
“There’s definitely an ‘If you build it, they will come’ outlook here,” Rothschild said. “On the other hand, ever since the rumor started that this might be happening, I’ve had people asking me, ‘Is it true? When’s the first service?’”
Rothschild added that he knows a number of individuals in the Seattle area who prefer the Orthodox liturgy, but are put off by Orthodox Judaism’s traditional subjugation of women. These folks, he hopes, will be prime candidates for Emanuel membership.