Jackie Mason Not A Part of this story
WHAT I PROPOSE IS A RADICAL CHANGE IN THE SYNAGOGUE SERVICE FROM AS IT EXISTS TODAY.
Jewish Synagogue Service is on the ropes and it’s due partly because of old school ideas. I went to Florida a while back and wanted to attend a celebration of a relatives 85th Birthday at the shull..I was denied entry because I was not dressed properly in a suit & tie.I flew down there to be apart of that joyous celebration..It seems that my clothes are important than my Character.
Like Mordecai Kaplan who founded the Reconstructionist Judaism and Zecharia Frankel who founded the Conservative Jewish Stream its time for new fresh thinkers who can preserve Judaism in the most true traditional way that those Who Practice In The Orthodox Manner Can Accept
READY FOR CHANGE ?
THEN READ ON…..
1. Get rid of the Cantor and replace it with a Good Stand Up Comedian..You will pack the people in once again like in years past.
Today’s Cantor’s are old hat (no pun intended) On the High Holy Days they earn more than Sinatra did when he headlined back in the day at the Sands Hotel.
2..Let the People attending sit on comfortable leather lounge chairs like you’d find in an expensive Hotel Lobby.
3. Let the Congregants have coffee or any beverages including food available during the service .
4.Dress code let the Congregants wear whatever they choose so long as its cleanly washed or and pressed.
5.Shorten the length of the service .
6.Teach Hebrew exactly in same method as the Chinese or Greek Schools do when those groups send their kids to learn their Ethnic language.They do a first-rate job teaching their kids to speak their native tongue as if they grew up abroad.
For Jews let us take a page from those Greek and Chinese Language Schools and immediately stop teaching our children Hebrew phonetically. While many Jews can read Hebrew but don’t understand what
they are reading as it mumbled during the service faster than the speed of light.
7..End those big 6 six salary’s that Rabbi’s are receiving today and all the perks that go with it such as an all expense paid house to live in.If they earn a salary then let them pay their own living costs like everyone else. Before WWII many Rabbis lived off their own funds.The Synagogue should exist for the congregants to gather and pray not for Rabbi’s to make a living
8. Except any one from whether born from a Jewish Mother or Jewish Father into the Jewish Fold . Acceptance from a Jewish Mother is not Torah Based.In Judea Roman soldiers took liberty’s with Jewish Woman sometimes against their will…hence there was a question regarding the status of any offspring of this union.Rabbi’s of that time decreed that any children born if this union are to be considered to be 100% Jews and not illegitimate Kariates consider Paternal decent when determining the child’s status.Time to change all this..
While I believe in a Traditional Hebrew language Service. There remains no reason whatsoever why we must be uncomfortable while we Worship. Where is it written in stone (No pun Intended) That that’s the way it must be done? Listen do you want to see the Jewish faith continue and flourish or go to the wayside..Then wake up to change.
This goes for any and all denominations or Streams of Judaism from Orthodox to Reform & everything in between that’s my proposal ..take it or leave it..Moses Lerman.
MOSES LERMAN BLOG ADMINISTRATOR & EDITOR
THE LERMAN REPORT STAFF
