“Even the traditional clerical roles — teaching and preaching — have grown more complex. ‘Paternalistic,’ ‘lone-rangers,’ and ‘hierarchical’ are some of the words scholars today use to describe the way rabbis worked under the former model of religious leadership.
“These days, however, unquestioned authority does not pass muster. A growing number of American Jews no longer see traditions, organizations, institutions, or even highly certified leaders as inherent sources of authority. They refuse to be bound by categories of the past — such as denominational labels — and instead seek their own personal spiritual paths, drawing from whatever and wherever they find inspiration.
“And while these trends are especially true in the non-Orthodox denominations — Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist — even some of the most traditionalist, cloistered ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities are affected by them in some, albeit less blatant, ways.”
Kress goes on to paint a picture of today’s Jewish community. “Some have referred to this new reality as the ‘religious marketplace,’ where individuals go ‘shopping’ for the faith or denomination that fits them best — or, more likely, the various pieces of different faiths or denominations that they then cobble together into their own individualized religious practice, often with little regard for the traditions or denominations in which they were raised.
“In this ‘consumerist’ model, rabbis must be able to lead their congregants along a highly individualized spiritual path, guiding them without being too heavy-handed, leading congregants to their own conclusions about belief and practice while keeping them in the fold.
“At the same time, many Jews’ reduced sense of obligation, especially among those who are not Orthodox, means that rabbis are often competing with kids’ extracurricular activities, stressed-out parents’ relaxation time, and any number of other pursuits that eat away at Americans’ shrinking amount of down time. And rabbis must somehow engage these people as well while also handling the day-to-day demands of congregations, which continue to function as spiritual homes, community centers, schools, and safety nets.”
For Kress, the successful synagogue is one where congregants are “highly engaged in religious learning and serious about their practice. This reduces the divide that may have existed between rabbi and congregant in the past, when rabbis often felt they were leading a passive congregation not looking for personal transformation.”
He does not see this as an easy path. “The challenges, however, remain great. The potential for burn-out is massive, as rabbis work harder to retain congregants’ interest and lead them in highly individualized paths, while also, in many cases, running day-to-day operations for the synagogue, playing a role in budgeting and fund-raising, leading and/or teaching in the Hebrew school, and, of course, maintaining traditional roles of counselor and lifecycle-ceremony officiant.”
Such is the modern rabbinate based on the model of rabbi and congregation working in partnership. Kress calls it “a tightrope act, but one that few rabbis today can escape.”
The future belongs only to those congregations who look seriously at themselves and create the genuine working partnership of rabbi and community that empowers even while having to navigate the unavoidability of change.
Rabbi Tamar Crystal is the interim rabbi of Beth El Ner Tamid Synagogue. This article originally appeared in the synagogue’s January bulletin.
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