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Beth El's challenge from within
By Jeff Brumley, The Times-Union
May 10, 2008
After about 50 years in the pulpit, Rabbi Eliezer Ben-Yehuda said he's confounded by changes blowing through his congregation, Beth El the Beaches Synagogue in Ponte Vedra Beach.
"This is a new day, a new era," Ben-Yehuda said. "I don't know what people want anymore."
What some of them want - a majority, the rabbi admits - is to switch affiliations from the tradition-minded Conservative movement to the more liberal Reform denomination. The congregation is set to vote on the matter May 18.
Beth El is the only synagogue at the Beaches (there is also a Chabad center, which is Orthodox, in Ponte Vedra Beach).
An independent group has been working for months to establish a new Reform synagogue at the Beaches. Its 150 members - residents who either drive to a Jacksonville Reform congregation, Ben-Yehuda's synagogue or are unaffiliated - are set to start holding services in an Episcopal church, and they'll hold an informational meeting Monday.
But leaders say they will instead join Beth El if its congregation votes to go Reform.
The new synagogue will attract more Jewish families, said M.G. Orender, a businessman, a founding member of Beth El and a leader of the outside Reform group.
The reason comes down to lifestyle. Worship services in the Reform tradition tend to be shorter, less formal and mostly in English. They also offer fuller participation to non-Jewish family members.
The more laid-back approach of the Reform tradition is a better fit with the Beaches culture, Orender said.
Ben-Yehuda said commitment, not denomination, is what matters. He is mystified by the push to change and doubts his Reform-minded brethren will be much better off by changing affiliations.
"Does it mean that people are going to flock to the door? Not necessarily," he said.
Landwirth joins effort
Leading the effort with Orender is Henri Landwirth, a philanthropist and Holocaust survivor who lives at the Beaches but worships at Congregation Ahavath Chesed, a Reform temple in Mandarin. He said he and many of the other group members are looking forward to having a Reform congregation closer to home.
A 2002 study commissioned by the Jacksonville Jewish Federation identified about 1,900 Jewish households in the Beaches area at the time, according to the Jacksonville Jewish News.
Jacksonville lawyer Steven Boyne, Beth El's incoming president, said Beth El leadership began exploring the move to Reform because its membership has hovered around 130 families even after its new building was completed three years ago.
Arrangements had already been made to begin worshiping at Christ Episcopal Church in Ponte Vedra Beach when it was learned Beth El was considering its switch, Landwirth said.
The new Reform congregation will be led by Ahavath Chesed's current spiritual leader, Rabbi Michael Matuson, Landwirth said.
Matuson did not return phone calls seeking comment.
If Beth El votes to change its bylaws to become Reform, the congregation will buy out Ben-Yehuda's contract and he will "leave the pulpit" to write and lecture.
And Jews who want a Conservative congregation will have to travel or go without, he said.
Claire Stoopack, a former Beth El president and, like Orender, a founding member of the 15-year-old Conservative synagogue, said she wants the congregation to stay as is.
"I need more tradition than I think Reform offers."
Rabbi defends synagogue
Ben-Yehuda agrees the mood in his congregation favors change. Two-thirds of members who voted in a February straw poll chose Reform over Conservative.
But he takes issue with the notion that Reform will better suit the Beaches mind-set. He described his synagogue as "liberal Conservative." It is traditional in worship yet open to religiously blended families.
And worship there tends to be about 50 percent English, 50 percent Hebrew, he said.
"This way we fit everybody," Ben-Yehuda said.
'Shying away'
Boyne, who favors the change to Reform, conceded debate is partly driven by perception.
The Conservative movement in recent years has made strides to open leadership and participation to women, and Ben-Yehuda's congregation is very welcoming of non-Jewish family members, he said.
In addition, Boyne said there are Reform congregations where more formal worship styles and traditions are being practiced.
Even so, some potential members are likely to shy away from the synagogue simply because of the Conservative name.
"In general, a number of people who walk through the door, new residents, most of them want to know whether we're Reformed," Boyne said. "The people moving here grew up in Reform temples."
jeff.brumley@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4310
Conservative, Reform
The Conservative movement is known for its loyalty to Jewish law and tradition, said Eugene Borowitz, professor of education and Jewish religious thought at Hebrew Union College in New York.
The Reform tradition has a greater sense of freedom in worship and on the law and pioneered the ordination of women.
As an example, Conservative Jews tend to keep kosher, while for Reform Jews it isn't an issue, Borowitz said.
Monday meeting
The Beaches Reform Congregation informational meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Monday at the Sawgrass Marriott, 1000 PGA Tour Blvd., in Ponte Vedra Beach. For more information, call (904) 562-7970.
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