Madison-native Robert Barkin knows very well the kind of Jew that he would like to help attract to Reconstructionist Judaism. He was one himself.
The head of a communications consulting firm in Bethesda, Md., and a former journalist, Barkin spent his teen years in Shorewood and had a “nice bar mitzvah” at Beth El Ner Tamid Synagogue.
But for a long time after that, “I didn’t have much interest in formal Judaism,” Barkin, 55, said during an interview last week.
“I knew theology as a 13-year-old,” Barkin said. “There was a God sitting on a chair, and you pass before Him on the High Holidays — it did not strike me as believable.”
Then during a stint of working in Washington, D.C., a friend invited him to High Holiday services at a Reconstructionist synagogue. “I had no idea what it was,” he said, but after that service, “I fell in love with it.”
“The rabbi there spoke differently about religion, about Judaism,” he said. Moreover, there was much more congregational participation. “The discussion about the Torah portion for the week would not just be a lecture, but an open discussion. People would stand up and talk.”
Barkin became increasingly involved, until “Lo and behold, I became president” of that synagogue. And last November he became president of the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation, leading the lay board of the movement’s national organization.
Last week, he visited Milwaukee to speak at the city’s only Reconstructionist synagogue, Congregation Shir Hadash, about the future of the movement, before going to Chicago to help the movement there honor the previous JRF president, Dan Cedarbaum of Evanston, Ill.
In that capacity, Barkin is seeking to use his communications and marketing skills “to raise the profile” of the movement and show it has something to offer to other unaffiliated, synagogue-shy Jews similar to the way he had been.
“The Jewish world needs the Reconstructionist way of thinking,” Barkin told The Chronicle. Today, some “60 percent of Jews are unaffiliated. I believe we could speak to a lot of them if they knew more about us.”
And throughout his involvement with the movement, Barkin has met “people who couldn’t feel comfortable in the other branches for whatever reasons,” but who were able to “find a home” in Reconstructionism, he said.
Such Jews aren’t only found in the United States. Barkin traveled to Israel during the first two weeks of February, partly on a mission with the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, partly to tour and to meet Israelis who are or could become interested in the movement.
“I think there is a strong role for us in Israel, not necessarily as a denomination,” but as a “Jewish alternative,” he said. “We want to make connections with Israelis sympathetic to the way we approach religion” and to “help them, rather than to graft Reconstructionism onto Israeli society.”
Reconstructionist Judaism was born from the thought and writings of Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan (1881-1983), especially “Judaism as a Civilization” (1934). As Barkin put it, “It is easier to talk about Reconstructionism in terms of viewing Judaism as a civilization as opposed to a religion.”
Jewish civilization is “bound by tradition, but one that evolves and changes,” he said. “The community becomes more a definer of Jewish practice than a formalized structure.” Reconstructionism “allows the community to have much more participation in what Judaism means.”
But while the theology of Reconstructionism is often liberal — it challenges such ideas as the existence of a supernatural God and the “Chosen People” concept — in practice it is “very traditional in lots of ways,” Barkin said. Services use much Hebrew and “almost every Reconstructionist synagogue I’ve been to” follows the dietary laws.
In fact, Barkin said he believes that “younger Jews in their 20s and 30s who often move away from religion might find Reconstructionism attractive because of the way we practice.”
Barkin earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of Michigan and a master’s degree in journalism at Columbia University. His journalism career took him from Providence, R.I., to Miami, Fla.
While he was editor of the Miami Herald’s weekly business magazine, he found that “I liked business so much I decided to go into it myself.” He obtained a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Miami, then worked at a financial services company before starting his consulting firm, Arkos Group.
He and his wife Cathy have two daughters, one in college, the other in high school; and the oldest worked as a counselor at the Steve and Shari Sadek Family Camp Interlaken last year, he said.
Barkin also likes to cook, making “a mean brisket” and “outstanding” hummus. One of his dishes earned praise from Joan Nathan, author of “Jewish Cooking in America,” a moment that Barkin said was “one of the highlights of my life.”
Barkin said that the Reconstructionist movement has about 17,000 households, or about 50,000 people, who belong to 110 congregations, and that it is growing by “two or three congregations a year.”
Loading ...