Combining a need to attract more young people to congregational life with modern marketing techniques, the Union of American Hebrew Congregations has started two new programs to involve unaffiliated young people in Reform congregations.
“Half of American Jews are unaffiliated (with a synagogue),” according to Rabbi Alexander Schindler, UAHC president. “And while the Reform movement is the fastest growing movement, the ranks of the unaffiliated are growing at an even faster rate.”
Schindler noted that while up to 85 percent of American Jews belong to a synagogue at some point in their life, many drop out when they don’t need the temple’s services, like religious school, and come back when they do. He called these “revolving-door Jews.”
“The biggest leakage occurs when kids go off to college, and in young married couples,” he said.
Rabbi Renni Altman, director of programs for the UAHC Task Force on the Unaffiliated, added that the programs, called the Privilege Card and the Access Card, are part of an effort to “develop congregations that people feel part of. We have to find a way (for temples) to stop being service organizations and try and bring back a sense of membership.”
The Privilege Card and the Access Card, for adults age 22 to 30 and college students, respectively, are designed to make it easier to become involved with congregational life.
PERCEIVED COST OF MEMBERSHIP
Privilege Card holders enjoy reduced, even waived, temple membership fees for one or two years.
When a synagogue does charge a membership fee, it is usually $100 or $150 a year.
Altman said that “the perceived high cost of membership” is the primary obstacle cited by young people, who are just beginning their careers and families, when it comes to joining synagogues.
The Privilege Card is being distributed to graduating college students this spring, and to every son and daughter of a family affiliated with a Reform congregation.
In tandem with the card program, the UAHC is encouraging congregations to develop programming designed for young adults.
According to Rabbi Jerome Epstein, executive vice president of the United Synagogue of America, which represents Conservative Judaism’s 800 congregations, getting young people involved in synagogue life quickly is the key to a program like this.
In the early 1970s, United Synagogue had tried a program waiving dues for young congregants under the age of 30 or 35 but found it didn’t work because “we didn’t engage people in programs,” Epstein said.
“We got them into the synagogue without capturing their imagination. Engaging them in programs has been the focus of our efforts since then.”
Epstein plans to keep close tabs on the success or failure of the Reform movement’s new program. “Just because it didn’t work in the ’70s doesn’t mean that it won’t work today,” he said.
The Access Card, offering even more benefits to college students, is slated to go to 15,000 undergraduate and graduate students in the coming weeks.
With the card, the student gets a directory of the 200 congregations in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico which are participating in the outreach programs.
The directory lists each of the services that the congregation provides, from free tickets to High Holy Day services to adult-education courses, rabbinical counseling and a number to call in emergencies.
Many participating synagogues will also pair a student with a family for Shabbat meals, an occasional phone call and a ride to synagogue events.
The UAHC has designed the programs with marketing in mind. The Privilege Card is introduced to young adults through a peppy direct-mail campaign designed to attract the attention of “twentysomethings.”
Advertising and press materials are available to congregations to use locally.
The Access Card comes with a kit, in addition to the directory of congregations, which is printed on environmentally conscious recycled paper.
The kit includes a brochure and newsletter on UAHC-sponsored programs and information about Reform Judaism, including Israel and summer programs. The kit also contains instructions for organizing and conducting religious services and Jewish activities on campus.
Getting people involved in synagogue life early benefits the Jewish community as a whole in the long term, Schindler pointed out.
“All the research has shown that Jews who go to a synagogue have more interest in giving an intensive Jewish education to their children, are more likely to give charitably and are more likely to go to Israel,” he said.
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