This is the second in a two-part portrait of the Waukesha Jewish community, which the “Jewish Community Study of Greater Milwaukee 2011” showed to be a larger than expected proportion of the Milwaukee-area Jewish community.
The first article explored factors accounting for the growth of the Waukesha Jewish community, and documented the strength of Waukesha Jews’ religious identity and their commitment to their synagogue, the center of Jewish life in the community.
Rabbi Steven Adams, spiritual leader of Congregation Emanu-El of Waukesha, acknowledged that, as in the past, synagogue life in his community continues to rely heavily upon the work of volunteers.
“We still need a lot of lay involvement, and we invite people with different areas of expertise to lead programs,” he said. “But we’re constantly aware of the need for balance – how do we ensure that things are done professionally and still keep our corps of volunteers.”
CEEW congregants confirmed the important role volunteers play in perpetuating the institutional life of the synagogue.
Elly Kraines, in a telephone interview April 12, said she served as CEEW treasurer for 15 years. Her engineer husband Nate “was in charge of buildings and grounds for a very long time — they still call him today — and he also served as president of the congregation for three or four years.” she said.
She also said she thought their volunteerism had been a good thing for their children to see.
“You participate, and your participation matters,” she said. “Our children saw us working at it — we didn’t take it for granted, as people do in the large congregations — and they were always delighted when they got to meet other Jews.”
Mary Schuman, chair of CEEW’s membership committee, in a telephone interview April 12,spoke of how important it is for the community to see the synagogue as a place that invites participation.
“We know that people can be put off when they call the synagogue and only get impersonal voice mail,” she said. “But we can’t afford to have someone here all the time to answer the phone.
“So, I’ve put my home number on the synagogue voice mail, and if people are calling about membership, they can call me at home and be able to speak to a real person.”
The Milwaukee Jewish Federation’s “Jewish Community Study of Greater Milwaukee 2011” explored how connected Jews in the various regions of the Greater Milwaukee area felt to the larger Jewish community.
“When we talk about ‘feelings of connection,’” said Jane Avner, MJF community study consultant, in an interview at MJF April 10, “we’re asking if people in their daily lives and/or religious practice feel connected to the religion and/or to other Jews.”
Overall, 76 percent of the Waukesha Jewish population said they felt somewhat or very connected. However, this feeling of connection can be measured in various ways, and the degree of connection Waukesha Jews feel to the wider Jewish community depends upon the variable measured.
For example, the Waukesha Jewish community has the lowest percentage of the area population displaying a mezuzah on the front door (52 percent), participating in a Passover seder (36 percent), and participating in adult Jewish study (20 percent).
Waukesha is second lowest in lighting Shabbat candles every Friday night (eight percent) and lighting Chanukah candles (52 percent).
However, if connectedness to other Jews is measured by the importance of Israel to members of the Waukesha Jewish community, the numbers reflect a much stronger sense of connection.
Some 92 percent of Waukesha Jews regards Israel as somewhat or very important. Further, to 95.8 percent of Waukesha’s Jewish community, it is somewhat or very important that the Greater Milwaukee Jewish community support Israel and Jews overseas.
For some Waukesha Jews, Adams said, the major, and sometimes only, connection to synagogue is through their children who attend CEEW’s religious school.
Said Mary Schuman: “More people are joining to get their children into Sunday school. Many of them are in mixed marriages, want to raise their kids Jewish, and need Jewish education for their kids close by.”
Jewish couples often regard Jewish education for their children as an imperative, as it was for Elly and Nate Kraines when they arrived in Waukesha 46 years ago.
”We were very fortunate to have really good [religious school]educators all along,” Elly said. “Our daughter, who lives in New Jersey, and our son, who is in Pennsylvania, both belong to Reconstructionist congregations now.”
Enrollment in CEEW’s religious school numbered 70 students in 1999, but appeared to have dropped to 40 in 2011, according to the “2011-2012 Milwaukee Jewish School Census,” prepared by the Coalition for Jewish Learning, MJF’s education program.
Adams said the 2011 figure is misleading because it represents a time when families were leaving Waukesha due to the recession and consequent job loss. More recently, he said, there has been an influx of new families, and religious school enrollment is approximately 60 students today.
The cost of CEEW’s religious school is $300 per student, per year.
Yet another measure of the extent to which Waukesha’s Jews feel connected to the Jewish community is the frequency of attendance at synagogue services.
According to the 2011 study, 56 percent of Waukesha Jews attend synagogue a few times a year, eight percent attend weekly, and 24 percent never attend.
As is true for many Jewish congregations nationwide, attendance peaks at the High Holidays.
“We don’t issue tickets for the High Holidays; I take reservations,” said Mary Schuman. “We get 10 to 15 individuals or families who want to participate but are not members. And we have 15 to 30 families who join but only come on the High Holidays.”
The 2011 study also collected data on how “included” individual Jews felt they were in the larger Jewish community.
“People may say they feel included when they see the Jewish community as reaching out to them, making them feel they are part of the community,” said Avner.
While 44 percent of Jews in Waukesha reported feeling somewhat or very included in the larger Jewish community, 56 percent reported feeling not very or not at all included.
Asked if she thought the larger Milwaukee Jewish community cared about the community of Jews in Waukesha, Elly Kraines said, “We’re starting to make them care — the population study is showing that we’re bigger than they thought.”
She added, however, that, years ago, “I don’t think they even knew we existed.”
Mary Schuman said she believed the Waukesha community thought of itself as a separate group, like communities in Sheboygan and Green Bay.
While acknowledging that she and her husband do have ties to Milwaukee and do attend Jewish events there, she said, “I think very few [from Waukesha] participate in Milwaukee Jewish life. The strong connection here is to Waukesha — it’s tied to what goes on at the synagogue.”
Active CEEW member Cindy Levy said in a telephone interview April 15that some at CEEW “feel they have tried to participate in Milwaukee Jewish life, but feel they are seen as outsiders.”
Cindy and her husband Mark described themselves as part of the Waukesha group that does participate in the Milwaukee community.
Cindy has served as co-president of the Coalition for Jewish Learning, and with MJF’s Women’s Division. Mark has served on the MJF board.
In addition, they sent their daughter to the Milwaukee Jewish Day School, and they are members of the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center.
Nevertheless, the Levys said they thought MJF has not adequately fulfilled its responsibility to the Jewish community in Waukesha, and that people in Waukesha would appreciate MJF providing some programming in their community.
“Traditionally, it’s true that Milwaukee has not been interested in us,” Mark said, “and it’s now up to the new leadership of [the MJF] to change this.”
Cindy pointed out that that CEEW draws its members from a wide geographical area, and that asking congregants to travel to Milwaukee for Jewish events can be burdensome.
“In Milwaukee, people are often 10 minutes from their synagogue,” she said. “But people come to the synagogue in Waukesha from Johnson Creek, Wauwatosa, Franklin. The average person coming to synagogue in Waukesha lives a half-hour away. And to ask people from Johnson Creek to come all the way in to Milwaukee is a burden.”
According to the 2011 study, 16 percent of the Jewish population of Waukesha reported donating to MJF; eight percent reported donating to another Jewish federation; 20 percent donated to both; and 56 percent donated to neither.
Lynne Kleinman, Ph.D., a retired teacher and journalist, is currently working with a group developing “Jewish Neighbors in Wisconsin: A Web-based Curriculum,” a project of the Wisconsin Society for Jewish Learning, Inc.
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