Synagogues and Independent Congregations Are Allies, Not Enemies

Image by Q Lam
I’m grateful to the Forward for reprinting the JTA story about the , a new partnership of communities that is attracting the young and unaffiliated. It is a great story, and there is one nuance I would like to lift up.
While the tempting story to tell is one that links the declining synagogue affiliation with the rise in attendance at emergent communities like Chicago’s Mishkan, that story is not nearly as interesting, inspiring or true as the story that traces the points of light where existing institutions, federations and, yes, synagogues, have helped seed, cultivate, support and nurture experimental emergent communities — and then work both independently and collaboratively with them to build a brighter future for the local Jewish community. This kind of brave, big-picture thinking is what’s birthing the future.
Mishkan, an emergent independent spiritual community, holds services monthly at the Anshe Emet Synagogue on the North Side of Chicago, and under Rabbi Michael Siegel’s big-picture vision, has enjoyed a relationship of uncommon mutual respect as we both pursue our missions with our respective populations, coming together to collaborate in the moments that enhance us both, and engaging more Jews in Chicago and beyond. I am also part of a larger conversation among synagogue rabbis in Chicago about how to collaboratively build a thriving Jewish landscape, drawing on all of our strengths and resources. The result is more Jews getting connected, engaged, inspired and motivated to do Jewish.
To come together to create this kind of fearless, forward-thinking momentum on a large scale requires the vision and commitment of the individuals running the institutions — synagogues, federations, emergent communities — to operate from a paradigm of abundance, collaboration, trust and possibility, instead of fear and scarcity of resources. The far more interesting story here recognizes that there are many synagogues nationally that are thriving, and asks what they are doing right, how they are learning from and working with new models of Jewish community building. To set up synagogues and emergent communities as opposites is to misunderstand the bigger picture.
The JEN Fellowship’s goal is not to create a generation of rabbis who will go out and start new communities, obviating synagogues. That would actually be a colossal tragedy. The goal of the Fellowship is to create the next generation of entrepreneurial, risk-taking, courageous change makers, whose skills will be valuable and hopefully valued inside of existing Jewish institutions and synagogues nationally. They will lead to the transformation, revival and renewed strength of the Jewish future.
We’re all playing the same game, just at different positions on the field.
Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann
Mishkan Chicago
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 2
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 3
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 4
Culture How two Jewish names — Kohen and Mira — are dividing red and blue states
In Case You Missed It
-
Film & TV Val Kilmer was the voice of my generation’s Moses (and God)
-
Fast Forward Cory Booker spoke at a synagogue on Yom Kippur. Its rabbi says Jews should learn from his 25-hour Senate speech.
-
Fast Forward Cory Booker’s rabbi has notes on Cory Booker’s 25-hour speech
-
Fast Forward Naftali Bennett is back: Former Israeli prime minister will make another run at Netanyahu
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.