Jewish Renewal & Kehilla  

By Rabbi David J. Cooper

Kehilla is an active part of the Jewish Renewal (“JR”) movement, an organized stream in Judaism that emerged out of the spiritual and political quests of the 1960s and 1970s. Now at the beginning of the 21st century, JR is positioned to integrate the input, experience, and leadership of those who have come of age in the 1980s, 1990s and the current decade.

Judaism has always been an evolving civilization. In Jewish Renewal we are more conscious of our evolution, and we embrace the reality – even if it seems paradoxical – that the process of innovation is a long-standing Jewish tradition.

The life of a member of the Jewish community today is quite different from that of people in the Jewish hamlets and shtetls of the previous centuries. How is our Jewishness affected by the emancipation of Jews as citizens? How is it affected by the fact that our religious affiliation and degree of observance has become a matter of personal choice? How has the multicultural and interfaith reality of our community redefined its Jewishness? How have our changed gender roles altered the way we live in Jewish community? How do we interpret Judaism’s traditional values of justice and compassion for an unprecedented era of egalitarianism and feminism? How do we preserve our connection with the Jewish past while we break new ground for the Jewish future?

For four decades, Jewish Renewal has been instrumental in raising essential questions facing us as Jews, as spiritual seekers, as people dedicated to the healing of the world. Rather than create new doctrines, JR has addressed these questions through a process of experimentation and innovation. A few of the many successful outcomes of our process have included:

• alternative forms of community organization, often with deeper democratic processes
• in integration of tikkun olam/world healing into our spirituality and vice versa,
• in tikkun olam, an emphasis on approaches that are anti-racist, anti-sexist, non-ethnocentric, and environmentally concerned;
• a promotion of the feminine and feminist in Jewish theology, liturgy and practice;
• an acceptance of the equality of gay/lesbian and transgendered within our communities;
• the removal of obstacles to participation for people with disabilities;
• a variety of flexible approaches to Jewish Law (“halakha”)
• a reintroduction into worship of movement, dance and jubilant celebration;
• a development of religious music geared toward the aesthetics of a more modern congregational setting;
• a different aesthetic in prayer spaces and prayer garb.

Origins of Jewish Renewal

Jewish Renewal was invented independently in hundreds of places during the 1960s and 1970s. The zeitgeist of the time called upon many to question authority in its many manifestations. Do we follow this practice simply because we are supposed to or because it actually corresponds to something that is needed? Do we recognize this rule because we are supposed to follow authority, or does it serve a purpose? Such questions opened the flood gates of conscious redesign of how people led their lives and chose their values.

Some early Renewalists came from strong Jewish backgrounds and were seeking a more flexible path, but one that was still deeply spiritual. Others came from backgrounds that were more assimilated or secular and wanted something Jewishly spiritual in their lives that was also true to their egalitarian values.

Kehilla and Jewish Renewal

As a rule, no two Jewish Renewal congregations follow precisely the same practices or have the same religious outlook or politics. Kehilla is generally more politically progressive than many Jewish Renewal congregations, for example taking an outspoken approach to Israel/Palestine issues that embraces the national aspirations of both sides. Kehilla led the way in Jewish Renewal for gay/lesbian/transgender inclusiveness, and has also developed new Jewish liturgy that is accessible to those who have traditional conceptions of God, to those with non-traditional beliefs, and to those who do not define their belief as a belief in God.

When most Jewish Renewal groupings in the 1970s and 1980s were organized as chavurot or prayer circles, Kehilla was the flagship Jewish Renewal congregation to be organized specifically as a synagogue serving multigenerational needs. Kehilla has always had a school program, a Bar/Bat Mitzvah program, adult education and tikkun olam activities. Kehilla was intended for the variety of family forms in our community and for people in single-member households as well.

Kehilla leadership and members participate in various national and regional Jewish Renewal gatherings. These include the bi-annual Kallah, a grand week-long series of events, classes, workshops, and prayer circles; smaller versions of the same, such as the annual Ruach Ha Aretz summer retreat; annual conferences for Renewal-ordained and ordination candidate clergy; and periodic leadership development workshops and seminars.

As the largest Jewish Renewal congregation in the world, Kehilla plays an important role in this grand experiment of Jewish innovation. For us, it’s just our shul; for many others, it is the leading edge on the crest of change. That said, Kehilla continues to change and further the process of renewing Renewal itself with the leadership of the next generations.