A few years ago, I had the good fortune to help lead a group of insightful, dedicated people through a process of reimagining the mission, structure and strategic focus of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. Our team included United Synagogue leaders such as myself, representatives of our affiliated congregations, and members of a coalition of rabbis and synagogues that had been deservedly critical of USCJ.
Together we worked with outside consultants to create a road map for the future, outlining in detail a series of sweeping changes that would allow our organization to refocus, streamline operations and devote the lion’s share of efforts toward strengthening and transforming Conservative synagogues for the 21st century.
Heady language, indeed. Yet after more than two years of laboring to realize the compelling vision of our strategic plan, we are beginning to see results. Thanks to our intense focus on training synagogue leaders, we now have hundreds of next-generation members who are deeply engaged in congregational life and interested in assuming leadership positions. Additionally, we have new synagogue presidents who feel inspired and prepared to lead their communities in making far-reaching changes. And we have hundreds of congregational leaders joining us to explore new models for dues and financial sustainability.
What’s been most gratifying is the positive feedback, support and, yes, constructive criticism we have received from clergy, synagogue professionals and lay leaders who appreciate the seriousness and dedication with which we’ve worked and the amount we’ve accomplished in a short time.
I share all this background to explain why I was saddened by the opinion piece “Sadly, Conservative Judaism’s lead ship is sinking fast” (op-ed, June 21). Beyond its distortions and unfounded assertions, what was disturbing is that the author sat with us at the table, where for 18 months we collaborated on the strategic plan that led to the new vision and mission I’ve described. My co-chair during this process, Rabbi Ed Feinstein, recently joined several of his colleagues — all former critics — in writing a letter acknowledging all that we’ve accomplished in becoming the organization that our synagogues need us to be. (You can read the letter, as well as our year-end report, at www.uscj.org.)
No one said this work would be easy. Indeed, we have faced serious financial challenges, primarily because many Conservative congregations, whose dues have supported our work, are facing financial challenges themselves. In response, we have made a dramatic shift in our revenue model, increasing by an extraordinary rate the amount we raise through phil-anthropy.
Still, our first-ever fundraising effort failed to make up for the drop in revenues from dues, and we were faced with a deficit. Then came the time for some tough decision-making. Over a year ago, we convened a meeting with the heads of a number of our sister organizations in the Conservative Jewish world to discuss our longtime campus program, Koach, and proposed a joint initiative to provide operational support. However, the necessary funding — and partnership — never materialized, and we were faced with the difficult decision of deferring Koach while we worked toward a balanced budget. As a professor at a college with a significant Conservative Jewish population, I did not make this decision lightly.
In a perfect nonprofit world, every worthy program receives the funding it deserves. The reality is far different. In the real world, leaders have to make choices. We felt that if we could not do everything we wanted, we had to focus on our core mission of strengthening synagogues — the kind of focus, I would add, called for by our critics.
Deferring Koach was an especially painful decision because we spent the last year working with outstanding leaders and scholars to develop a new blueprint for a major, innovative college outreach program. We look forward to the day that we can implement our plan with robust funding.
We also look forward to continuing this important conversation and to addressing other compelling matters at our centennial Oct. 11-15 in Baltimore. Indeed, we are counting on participants from all facets of Conservative Judaism, and beyond, to voice their questions, concerns and dreams at this event, which we are calling “The Conversation of the Century.”
I especially hope the vocal critics of United Synagogue attend our event so we can engage in fruitful dialogue about how we might collaborate to build the future of committed, centrist Judaism. I look forward to a productive conversation about how we can strengthen and transform Conservative Judaism in the 21st century.
Jack Finkelstein is on the board of directors of United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.