It has been some seven years since the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations has held a conference focusing on smaller Orthodox communities or on the needs of small synagogues in large communities, according to Rabbi Mayer Waxman, OU director of community services.
But Rabbi Shlomo Levin, spiritual leader of Lake Park Synagogue in Milwaukee, among others, felt it was time for another.
“There’s no forum for addressing issues that are of particular significance to smaller synagogues,” Levin told The Chronicle. “Most of the existing conferences cater to the needs of the larger communities.”
“I felt it would be useful to have a conference that would put the issues of the smaller communities first,” Levin said.
So Levin and Lorraine L. Hoffman, LPS president, urged the Orthodox Union “to rekindle this,” Levin said. And the OU responded — as did Milwaukee’s Helen Bader Foundation, which gave LPS a grant of $10,000 for hosting the conference.
The result is scheduled to occur on Sunday, Sept. 11, through Monday, Sept. 12 at the Marriott Courtyard Hotel downtown, where LPS will host the OU Conference on Synagogue Leadership with Emphasis on Smaller Communities.
The program is primarily geared for synagogue leaders, both rabbinical and lay, which Levin said is unusual but in this case necessary.
“Most conferences are only for rabbis or for administrators,” Levin said. “In the context of smaller communities, it is important to have lay leaders and rabbis together. It is an important feature of small communities that lay leaders are responsible for more of the continuity and leadership.”
Levin and Waxman said they expect some 100 people to attend the conference, primarily from the Midwest, but also from all over the U.S. and Canada.
The conference will also include events that are open to the general public. One of them is the keynote event that will take place at 8 p.m. on Sunday.
Titled “The Future of Small Town Orthodox Communities in America,” it will feature Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hirsh Weinreb, OU executive vice president, and Rabbi Michel Twerski of Milwaukee Congregation Beth Jehudah. Admission to this event is free.
Weinreb also will be scholar-in-residence at Lake Park Synagogue for the Sabbath before the conference, where he is scheduled to discuss such topics as “The Case for Modern Orthodoxy in the Modern World” and “Israel as the Crossroads.”
While this event is not technically part of the conference, conference participants and the general community are welcome to attend.
Other topics to be covered at the conference will include, according to the tentative schedule on the OU Web site:
• Halachic considerations for small or isolated communities.
• Political action through the synagogue.
• Programming for youth.
• Conducting a search for a rabbi.
• Increasing membership and fundraising.
• Web site design and synagogue software.
Levin said he hopes the conference will be full of practical suggestions for its participants, “where we could have practical achievements by virtue of collaborating together.”
Waxman added that the conference “is also significant in that it gives small communities and small synagogues in bigger communities an opportunity both to share with each other and to have the directed help of major organizations.”
“We don’t want anyone to be forgotten,” said Waxman. “We want everyone to know that all communities are of equal importance.”
For more information about the conference or Weinreb’s schedule as scholar-in-residence, call Lake Park Synagogue, 414-962-5508 or visit www.ou.org.
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