Take a trip to the Jewish Museum Milwaukee, and look at what the staff calls the “family tree” of the Milwaukee area’s history of synagogues. You will see the earliest congregations, beginning in the 1850s, which merged and divided and merged again.
Why? Consult John Gurda’s book “One People, Many Paths: A History of Jewish Milwaukee” to learn about the doctrinal divisions, the personality disputes, and the inevitable changes when the community moved to different neighborhoods.
Today, we have congregations or minyanim on Milwaukee’s East and West Sides, in Glendale and the North Shore suburbs, in Mequon, and in Waukesha. For fifteen years (1900-1915) a Reform congregation existed on S. Fourth and Mineral Streets, but presently, no shul serves Milwaukee’s south side or southern suburbs.
When our telephone survey questioned respondents in 2011 on whether they were members of a congregation, more than 60 percent indicated that they were. These numbers seem quite high — the highest in any comparable city
Cincinnati registered at 60 percent in its 2008 study; Minneapolis-St. Paul and Pittsburgh were in the 50 percent range earlier in the decade. The national average in the 2012 Jewish Values Survey of the Public Religion Research Institute was a mere 35 percent.
There was no way to verify our respondents’ claims. Did they actually pay dues at a particular congregation in 2011?
Still, given the high level of positive responses in other areas, such as feeling “connected,” observing rituals, and support for Israel, we should be encouraged by the number. Or should we?
Two factors should be considered beyond membership, however it is defined: synagogue attendance and geography. First, let’s look at attendance numbers.
In the telephone survey, more than 51 percent stated that they attend a few times a year; 14.4 percent about once a month; 10.5 percent a few times a month; 10.1 percent weekly and 4.3 percent several times a week or daily.
Our local rabbis, have struggled with these kinds of numbers for well over a century: congregants who do not attend services much more than during Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur.
The numbers also tell a different story when we examine the second factor, the geographical distribution of synagogue membership.
If the respondents live in the North Shore (e.g., Glendale, Shorewood, Mequon, Fox Point, etc.) only 22.7 percent were not members of synagogues. In the City of Milwaukee (which excludes zip code 53211), a little less than half were unaffiliated.
In the Milwaukee County Ring (St. Francis, Wauwatosa, Franklin, Hales Corners, and West Allis, for example), only 39 percent were affiliated, and just over half in Waukesha County were unaffiliated.
It would seem, therefore, that we are doing a good job of serving our community where the population is most concentrated — on the North Shore where there is a whole spectrum of Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist congregations and where 44 percent of our community resides.
In the City of Milwaukee, we are serving our Orthodox neighborhood clusters on the West and East sides, but not our growing number of Jewish families in Bay View.
In Waukesha we have one Reform congregation — in fact, the second oldest Reform congregation in the area, founded in 1939.
Many community members report that they feel “connected,” and respondents throughout our geographical area feel proud to be Jewish. The numbers do change when respondents are asked if they feel “included.”
What is the difference between “connected” and “included?” The former comes from the respondent’s inner feelings; the latter involves feelings towards the community’s actions.
Now that we know that there are individuals who are unaffiliated throughout Milwaukee, the County Ring and Waukesha, it would seem that there should be more choices available.
Building synagogues is expensive, and, at this point, the demand is not there. Perhaps our existing congregations can develop programming to include fellow Jews outside of the synagogue and where they live — at a private home or a local center.
Why not offer a study session, a learner’s minyan, a Shabbat potluck, a chavurah, a Jewish themed movie night, or a Hebrew class?
This is the time for synagogue leaders to find creative ways to attract those who feel connected, but not included.
Jane Avner, Milwaukee Jewish Federation Community Study Consultant, has been writing and presenting to the community about the “Jewish Community Study of Greater Milwaukee 2011” for the past six months. The study documents were recently finalized and can be downloaded and viewed at www.milwaukeejewish.org.
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