Kol Nidre at Or Zarua

Andrew Frackman, the president of Congregation Or Zarua in
New York City, forwarded to me his Kol Nidre speech to the congregation.  It is an eloquent and interesting address.  Here are some excerpts:

We are a voluntary community of faith.  We choose to be here.  None of us — at least the adults — is compelled to be here.  We know that there are many alternatives.  Within easy walking distance, there are wonderful Orthodox congregations for those of us who want a traditional experience.  There are fine Reform congregations for those who feel that our services have too much Hebrew, are too long, and not sufficiently focused on social action.  There are also many other Conservative synagogues of varying types. 

The 600 of us here tonight have all chosen to be here rather than at those other alternatives because Or Zarua offers us something that they do not. . . .  20 years ago this winter, a small number of our visionary fellow congregants started Or Zarua.  Today, 20 years later, we have a vibrant congregation of almost 400 families, a beautiful, intimate synagogue, a wonderful Hebrew school, excellent programming, and a packed house for Kol Nidre.  We have done very well, indeed, and we should be very proud of ourselves and thankful to those who had the initiative and vision to found this congregation. . . .

We are a traditional, egalitarian, participatory congregation.  I place emphasis on all three adjectives.  I have recently been in a wonderful Orthodox synagogue — congregant led — but it is not egalitarian.  I have also over the past year been at bar and bat mitzvah services at Conservative and Reform synagogues in our area.  They all have their strengths, but their congregants do not lead their services, they do not read the entire Torah every Shabbat, and would not be what I would call either traditional or participatory, at least not in our sense. 

Or Zarua has succeeded over the past 20 years because we offer a different model.  And that model uniquely attracts congregants from the entire spectrum of Jewish religious life who want a serious and substantive religious experience.  

Let me take a few more minutes of your time tonight to illustrate my point with my own personal story.

I was raised in a secular home in
Greenwich Village.  While both of my grandfathers went to Conservative synagogues, I grew up with limited religious observance. . . . [M]y father, who had a strong libertarian streak and no tolerance for authority, had little patience for the organized religion of his father.  I therefore grew up in an ethnically identified, but not a very religious household.  My grandfathers’ observance was like a distant echo in my life — a sound that I heard but that had no clear definition outside of the major holidays. 

At college, my interests did not include religious observance.  I vaguely knew where the Hillel was located.  Of course, the Harvard Hillel then is not what it is today, but, nevertheless, I missed out on some opportunities.  The bottom line is that I was highly identified ethnically, but quite ignorant.

After college, I began down a path of increasing interest in and observance of Judaism, ultimately leading to a modern Orthodox congregation in
Englewood,
N.J., to which I went for 10 years.  In 1993, when Mimi and I decided to marry and I planned to move back to Manhattan to start a new life with her, one of my law firm partners, Benno Kimmelman, suggested I try a new small congregation called Or Zarua that he had recently joined. 

I was attracted by all three of our defining characteristics — after belonging to an Orthodox synagogue for a number of years, I would never have been comfortable in a community where the service was not traditional; I was looking for a more intimate religious experience; and Mimi and I needed an egalitarian environment . . .

These needs were all met by Or Zarua and our unusual Rabbi.  And our uncommon environment permitted me to progress even more rapidly towards greater knowledge and participation than I ever would have experienced in an Orthodox community. 

Many of us — indeed, most of us — have similar stories.  Some of us come from an Orthodox background, but wanted an egalitarian service.  Others come from a Reform background, but wanted a more meaningful, or authentic service.  Some even come from Conservative backgrounds, but found Or Zarua a tonic to the large, high Cathedral, suburban model that had come to dominate Conservative Judaism.

So, the answer to the rhetorical question with which I opened is that we are here tonight because of Or Zarua’s defining character:  Seriousness of purpose, traditional observance in an egalitarian setting, focus on Torah and learning, intimacy of prayer, congregant participation in and leading of services.  This is the DNA of Or Zarua. . . .

I believe there is a reason why Rabbi Wechsler and the other founders infused Or Zarua with this particular DNA.  Ultimately, as a community of faith, our mission is to help us achieve the highest level of kedushah — holiness — possible in our lives, and, through that, greater holiness in our world.  We believe that the way to accomplish this — or to enable it — is through our model of traditional, participatory, and egalitarian Jewish worship. . . . 

If our model were easy to replicate, you would see it elsewhere.  The reality is that our model is difficult to sustain.  It requires a core of highly educated congregants who can lead our services and engage in a knowledgeable discussion of our texts, and a Rabbi who can lead this disparate group towards higher spirituality.  Since we believe in a community of faith with this particular DNA, one of our paramount goals tonight and as we move forward over the next few years must be to protect and enhance our model in order to permit us to experience even greater kedushah in our lives. . . .

Let us all emulate Abraham and be men and women of action in connection with this community of faith, as we are in other parts of our lives.  The opportunities to participate meaningfully in our community are many, and we would benefit from far greater congregant participation. 

Now, I have the good fortune to be asking you for money at a challenging moment for the economy.  But . . . There is no one to take our places here tonight.  We are not Harvard with its billions of dollars.  We are not some of our neighboring synagogues with congregations many times the size of ours.  We are a small congregation, committed to a different path that we all believe is one worth sustaining because we have all chosen to be here tonight.

At its website, Or Zarua (the name means “light is sown” and comes from Psalm 97, Verse 11) has an excellent list of Internet links to sites on Judaism and
Israel, a direct link to the essential Daily Alert, links to essays by congregants and the monthly newsletter.