Something was missing for Jeff Spitzer-Resnick and other Madison Jews.
Spitzer-Resnick, now in his fourth term as president of Congregation Shaarei Shamayim, recalls attending High Holy Days services in the 1980s at Gates of Heaven synagogue in Madison led by Hannah Rosenthal, the current CEO/President of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation.
Although he considered himself a disillusioned Jew, he and his wife Sheryl “went there for years and enjoyed it. But … at the end of Yom Kippur, it was over until next year and we weren’t jelling as a community. We needed more than just the High Holy Days.”
Eventually about 30 people met and decided in 1989 to form a congregation.”
Twenty-five years later, Congregation Shaarei Shamayim celebrated its silver anniversary with a June 2015 weekend that included completion of the Torah it had commissioned from a woman scribe from Sweden and placing it in a new ark crafted by a congregant who is a carpenter.
Shaarei Shamayim rents space on the near west side of Madison from the First Unitarian Society in a building designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.
Soon after its creation, Shaarei Shamayim became affiliated with Reconstructionism. “We did some research and it seemed like a good fit for us,” Spitzer-Resnick said.
It thereby became Wisconsin’s only Reconstructionist/Renewal congregation and one of only two in the state affiliated with the Reconstructionist movement. (The other is Congregation Shir Hadash in Milwaukee.)
The congregation, guided spiritually by Rabbi Laurie Zimmerman, 41, welcomes interfaith couples, gays and lesbians and Jews by choice.
“There’s a strong strand of feminism in our community — a significant number of members are women,” Spitzer-Resnick said. “And we have a strong view of egalitarianism. We made a conscious effort to have a woman write our new Torah.”
Zimmerman said the congregation realized several years ago that its Torah needed repair. “We applied for a grant from the Goodman Foundation, hoping to make repairs or buy a used Torah,” she said. “But the foundation gave us enough money ($45,000) and said we should commission a new one.”
Zimmerman said very few women are involved in Torah writing. “We were open to all different options, but it was very appealing for us to have a woman write it,” she said. “We felt like it was important to support women in doing that kind of work.”
Yonah Lavery-Yisraeli, 29, became that woman. She came to Madison in June for the dedication. She had left off seven letters, and members chosen from the congregation symbolically helped complete the Torah by touching her hand as she wrote.
Approximately 150 people attended the celebration weekend June 26-28, and Zimmerman said, “It was a really great experience to reflect back from where we came and look forward to where we can go.”
Sari Judge, a member of the congregation for about six years, was a member of the 25th anniversary committee.
“When we found out our new Torah would be ready in late June 2015, coinciding with our 25th anniversary year, we said, ‘Let’s have a party,’” Judge said. “It was a milestone for us, so how could we not make a big deal of it?”
“Now we’re 25 years old, we’re now an adolescent, not a baby, and we wanted to show off how we’ve come of age as a congregation,” Judge said.
The founding members at first created their own services and prayer book. “Each of our services were creative and energizing, but exhausting,” Spitzer-Resnick said. “We eventually settled on a Reconstructionist siddur and we brought in rabbis, such as student rabbis from Philadelphia, once in a while.”
Shaarei Shamayim hired its first resident rabbi, Brian Field, in 1996. But the congregation was not fully prepared for him.
“When he showed up, he asked, ‘Where’s my office?’” Spitzer-Resnick recalled. “There wasn’t one, so his first office became some space in my law office.
“You learn as you go, and there were bumps in the road, but we’ve survived all these years. There was never a point that I can recall when we thought we weren’t going to make it much longer.”
Shaarei Shamayim not only survived, but it has grown steadily. It has 135 member households today, and 40 students enrolled in the religious school in 2014-15.
When Field left in 2002, Zimmerman was a year away from ordination at the Recontructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia. Zimmerman was born and raised in Cincinnati, studied history as an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and considered pursuing Jewish education or social work.
While at UW, she attended services at Shaarei Shamayim, helped create the religious school and ultimately decided to become a rabbi. For a year after Field left, Zimmerman came from Philadelphia to Madison once a month as a student rabbi. Upon ordination, she became the congregation’s second resident rabbi, eventually working full-time as rabbi and educator.
She was attracted to Reconstructionism “because of its focus on community and because the congregations in general were smaller, more intimate,” she said. “People get to know each other better, it’s less formal and people are willing to tackle controversial issues.”
There were only 65 to 70 member households when Zimmerman came to Shaarei Shamayim. “But the people were so committed,” she said.
Zimmerman helped create more organization, consistency and programming. “I spend a lot of time talking about volunteers and how to help them feel good about what they’re doing and help make things more manageable,” she said.
The congregation’s staff consists only of the rabbi and a part-time office manager. “The fact that we have relied so much on volunteers and have continued to grow says a lot about our membership,” Spitzer-Resnick said.
Reconstructionism involves “intentional Judaism,” Spitzer-Resnick added. “You just don’t show up — you have to be part of the process. When you put your heart and soul into it, you get a lot more out of it.”
Spitzer-Resnick said there is a wide range of religious practice at Shaarei Shamayim. “Some members are very observant, keeping kosher, while others come only for the High Holy Days,” he said. “A challenge we have is keeping a community of that diversity together.”
The congregation created a five-year strategic plan in 2013, and part of the discussion involved the question: “How big do we want to be?” Although Zimmerman dreams of 200 member households, Spitzer-Resnick doesn’t think that is realistic.
But who knows? One of the strategic plan’s goals was to reach 135 member households in three years, and that goal was exceeded when it happened in two years.
“We are a caring community in which most people know each other, which is nice,” Spitzer-Resnick said. “But if you’re too small, there are some things you can’t do.”
Judge, who grew up at a large Reform synagogue in Washington, D.C., and later lived in Chicago, added, “Bigger can be better, but much bigger is not necessarily much better. We’ll find our sweet spot.”
The strategic plan also included doing better with structure and organization, keeping a healthy budget and managing reserves.
What about the congregation having its own building? Zimmerman said that would mean putting money and energy into a building instead of things such as programming. “Now we have a very nice relationship (with the Unitarian Society) with very little downside,” she said.
Spitzer-Resnick added, “We were once offered a lot of money to get our own building, but it came with a lot of conditions, so we passed. I suppose if someone would offer us a million dollars now to build our own place, we would consider it. But right now there is zero desire to fundraise for a building.”
As membership has increased, so have adult education and intergenerational programming. “We have amazing people who care deeply about what they do and who we are,” Zimmerman said. “I am lucky to be here.”
“When we started Shaarei Shamayim a generation ago, I don’t think any of us imagined we would be as strong and vibrant as we are 25 years later,” Spitzer-Resnick said. “We are truly blessed.”
Lee Fensin, retired sports editor of The Freeman in Waukesha, contributes to the Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle.
Loading ...