The results of a survey conducted by the New York Times on the rise of Judaism in the suburbs of New York City were published by the paper today, indicating that the shift of the Jewish population from the city to the suburbs has increased the number of synagogues in the area.
The report showed that: Since 1947, a total of 68 new Conservative temples have been opened for worship in the suburban area: since 1946, the Reform movement has opened 57 temples in the area; aid, since 1949, the Orthodox synagogues have been increasing, about 35 of these having- been established, most of them recently.
The report points out that the Reform organization, the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, provides grants and loans, as well as a portable Ark and the Torah used in services, to get the new temples under way. The Conservatives, through the United Synagogue of America, provide staff aid but no subsidies. All three denominations–Keron. Conservative am” Orthodox– supply rabbis for the initial services and help the new group to engage a rabbi of its own.
Reform relies heavily on student rabbis from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. Conservative supplies some student rabbis from tie Jewish Theological Seminary, but urges the new congregation to get a full-time spiritual leader J possible. Orthodox requires ordained rabbis, and in the suburbs most of these come from Yeshiva University theological school. Yeshiva University, according to the survey, maintains a full-time “organizer, ” the only full time functionary whose job it to help develop Orthodox synagogues.
The survey established that here is an “interdenominational warm the” today between Protestants and Jews in suburbia, and that Judaism has brought new customs to the suburbs. “Jewish congregations,” the New York Tines report says, “have sprung up in firehouses, banks and even Protestant churches. Building drives have led to tie construction of some of the most modern looking temples in the country.”
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