On Friday, I tagged along as my roommate Sarah Kate started her search for a nearby reform congregation. Her plan: to spend the summer Sabbaths at a few synagogues nearby and find one to join by the time High Holidays come around in September.
Inside a Near North Side synagogue with pretty blue and gold stained glass windows, we prayed and sung amongst a largely white-haired crowd. After the Kiddush (post-service blessing over wine and challah), we chatted with rabbis and members of the congregation, who told us about the young adult group they were starting and how as young, pretty (why thank you!), single girls we should get involved.
We left every friendly interaction with the same feeling: we weren’t just shopping for synagogues, they were shopping for us. We fall into the coveted demographic. Just what they’re looking for: unaffiliated, unmarried 20-somethings.
Rabbi Laura Baum writes about the effects of changing culture and technology on the next generation of Jews: only half of Jews in the U.S. are affiliated with a congregation and a majority of the Jewish population identifies as secular or somewhat secular, she says on the site OurJewishCommunity.org, which means organizations have to reach young Jews in a different way.
While Sarah Kate may want to become a member of a synagogue so she has a Jewish home, a place to go for her religion’s most holy holidays – Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and Yom Kippur, the day of repentance—there are also opportunities for her to find Jewish community outside of a traditional house of prayer.
Here in Chicagoland, home to nearly a quarter-million Jews, there are local sites like Oy Chicago! and JChicago, plus the ever-helpful and thorough Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago offers events and info for young adults (like this list of synagogues who welcome non-members to High Holiday services).
Still, our synagogue shopping continues… likely through September, when most young things like us depart from their summer schedules to attend services and events more regularly. We’re looking forward to sharing Shabbat with more of Chicago’s synagogues – let us know if you’ve got a recommendation!
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Kate Shellnutt
I’m a freelance religion reporter and blogger for the Little Things. I majored in religion and journalism as an undergrad, and I'm now completing my master's in journalism at Medill.
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My husband and I have attended Chicago Sinai quite often and are planning to join this fall. We took the 'Intro to Judaism' class offered there last year (hubby's Jewish, I'm not) and really loved Rabbi Sternfield and his approach to Reformed Judaism. We've visited other congregations in the area, and we're definitely most comfortable there. You may have already visited, but give it a shot, if you haven't!
Thanks for the blog!
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