Rosh Hashana message from Rachel Sklan CEO Masorti Judaism
However difficult things are right now every time we see the news, however burned out we’re feeling from ongoing trauma, we have to resist the impulse to turn our faces away. As Masorti Jews, we need to keep engaging with each other and staying in the conversation. Particularly when we want to turn away. There is tremendous comfort to be found in working towards community. More than just comfort, community is also the antidote to the rupture we feel. It can heal us in these difficult days and provides a model for peaceful engagement.
Born out of the Jacobs affair in 1964, Masorti Judaism is no stranger to rupture. We are now the fastest growing denomination outside Haredi, having doubled our membership since 1990. We now support 5,500 people in 15 shuls across the UK.
This year was challenging as we needed to be there for all our members in the onslaught of October 07, 2023, and with the fallout that followed. We needed to hold space for everyone as we all worked through the trauma of that rupture together.
As always, we are determined to be there for all Jews who want a meaningful experience of their communal lives in the complicated space between tradition and modernity, between halacha and lived relevance. Between looking back and looking forward at the same time. Between fresh and familiar. Between unavoidable rupture and necessary repair.
Masorti Judaism holds that complicated space in many ways. We have a Beth Din, and we provide support for Rabbis at all stages of their careers. We run Noam and Marom for our youth, and we provide support for students on campus. We offer rabbinic support and lay leadership training for smaller communities. This year we ran a successful Yom Masorti conference, and we launched our new Tefillah skills website. We’ve got lots of ideas in the works for sharing resources and creating partnerships between our communities.
We want to offer everyone the opportunity for greater participation in our rich and enriching Jewish tradition as it evolves slowly through generations. We think everyone deserves a sense of belonging to a warm community of shared meaning.
Wishing all our members a Shana Tovah as we stand together doing the work of repairing what is broken and embracing the renewal that lies ahead. To see our impact report: https://masorti.org.uk/the-masorti-judaism-impact-report-is-out/
