MOSAIC MAG
Jack Wertheimer’s Critique of American Synagogues is On-Target—and Woefully Off
by Elliot Cosgrove
September 17, 2018

…Wertheimer is right in his warning that if a synagogue seeks always to “meet people where they are” and “be all things to all people,” then at a certain point that synagogue will cease to stand for anything. Not every choice can or should find sanction within the Jewish community; not every liberal value is a Jewish value; and no synagogue, especially in New York where there are so many to choose from, should seek to accommodate everybody. A good synagogue—and there are many good synagogues—must define its mission, which means setting boundaries, which by definition means it cannot be all things to all people…READ MORE