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A BRIEF REFLECTION ON THE BIENNIAL CONVENTION
OF THE UNION FOR REFORM JUDAISM
by Rabbi Henry Jay Karp
Temple Emanuel
Davenport, Iowa
February 1, 2008
3 Adar I, 5758

In December, our congregation was fortunate to have 6 of our number in San Diego, attending the Bien­nial Conventions of both the Union for Reform Judaism and the Women of Reform Reform Judaism.  It may not have been easy for us to get there, seeing that we were scheduled to leave on the day of the big ice storm, but once there, we not only basked in the California sunshine, but also in the glow and warmth of Reform Jewish worship, learning, and most important of all, ruach, spirit or enthusiasm.

Tonight, we will be hearing brief reports from our delegates as they share those aspects of the Biennial that especially touched or inspired them.  I will first call upon our congregation’s vice president, Jim Farber.  After Jim speaks, then we will hear from the vice president of our Sisterhood, Joann Hill, followed by Katie Franks, Janet Leman, and Cantor Karp.  After they have spoken, I will conclude with some brief reflections of my own.

REPORTS

I want to thank Jim, Joann, Katie, Janet, and the Cantor for sharing their insights and experiences with us.  Now it’s my turn.

There are many reasons why, as a rabbi, I look forward to attending URJ biennials.  First and foremost is that I get a great deal of professional satisfaction witnessing the reactions of my congregants to this expe­rience.  For Jews of such a small Jewish community as ours, it can be both overwhelming and wonderful to almost instantaneously be immersed into such a totally Jewish environment, with 5,000 Jews gathered together for expressly Jewish purposes.

It always makes me smile when, after experiencing biennial Shabbat services, our congregants, filled with enthusiasm, ask, “Why can’t our services be like that?”  Well, they could.  All we would need is a capac­ity crowd of Jews committed enough to a their Judaism that they would be willing to sacrifice time, money, and travel many miles to pray.  Then add to that a choir of cantors and songleaders, and a rock band or two, and there you have it.  Of course, we really don’t need all that to make our worship more biennial like.  But we do need the crowd of Jews committed enough to make Shabbat at the Temple a high priority on their list of possible Friday night activities; Jews who wish to get into the spirit and the joy of worship.  Numbers do matter when attempting to create a sense of communal spirituality, for we do feed upon each other’s enthusiasm.  Like they say about the lottery - “You’ve got to play to win!”  On Shabbat, we have to be willing to pray to win.

Another major reason I attend biennials is to network, especially with colleagues.  As important as are the programs that are conducted, the resolutions that are considered, and the workshops that are held, very often more important are the personal discussions that follow those events or center around some of the pressing issues of our movement and of synagogue life.  For example, I went to this biennial with one major issue on my agenda - to get a better handle on how to more effectively transition our congregation from GATES OF PRAYER to MISHKAN T’FILAH, our new prayer book.  While experiencing the ser­vices and attending work­shops on the new prayer book were helpful, far more helpful for me were my conversations with rabbis who have already introduced it into their congregations.

One of the recurring themes of this biennial was that of Shabbat and spirituality.  Indeed, Rabbi Eric Yoffie, the President of the Union for Reform Judaism, called upon our movement to strive to recapture Saturday as Shabbat.  If I were to rank the various workshops that I attended, without question or doubt, I would rate as my favorite, one entitled “Reform Reforms Shabbat: Promoting Personal Observance.”  The presentations given were moving testimonies to how we cannot and should not solely rely upon wor­ship in the creation of our Shabbat spiritual experiences.  If we truly desire a Shabbat spirituality, we must start with ourselves and focus on non-service Shabbat activities in such a way as to truly make the day sacred, and not just the hour or two, drawing ourselves closer to God.  For the spirituality of Shabbat can start with worship but most certainly should not end there.

There is so much more about the biennial which I would love to address - such as the call for Jewish-Is­lamic dialogue, and the moving award presentation to Michael J. Fox, but as I have asked the rest of our presenters to limit their remarks to 4 minutes, so I must limit mine.  Ask me during the Oneg.

Shabbat Shalom!

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