Over the years the Kansas City Jewish community has become known for its cooperative endeavors. In that spirit, Congregations Beth Shalom and Ohev Sholom have agreed to join together for morning minyan three days a week at Village Shalom. The Conservative congregations will pray together for Shacharit services on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
“We screamed for help and Beth Shalom threw us a lifeline,” explained Ohev’s Rabbi Scott White about his 150-member congregation. “We were not consistently achieving our 10.”
Beth Shalom Senior Rabbi David Glickman said the congregation has been reasonably successful in getting a minyan every day, estimating attendance averages in the “neighborhood of 13 to 15.” However, he said even with a congregation of about 700 families, putting together a daily minyan “is a lot of work.”
“We have a group of dedicated volunteers who recruit people for daily minyan literally every day of the week. So to be able to collaborate and share jointly the responsibility of creating an egalitarian, traditional daily minyan is a welcome opportunity,” Rabbi Glickman said.
Members of both congregations are supporting the joint prayer effort.
“I think it’s wonderful that Beth Shalom and Ohev Sholom are sharing their morning minyan. Not only will it strengthen the minyan, it will strengthen the community. I have long believed that the Jewish community has invested too much in brick and mortar and not enough in building a vibrant community without walls. Our shared minyan is an excellent example of how we can collaborate,” said Joel Goldman, who coordinates Beth Shalom’s morning minyan with Blanche Sosland to make sure there will be enough people to make the minyan.
Richard Helfand, a member of Ohev, believes the joint minyan is a good thing for both congregations.
“As with any daily minyan, critical mass is very important. By joining forces, both congregations help to insure that a minyan of at least 10 adults will be present. In communities with smaller Jewish populations, cooperation between synagogues allows for the continuation of services to the Jewish community in a more effective manner. I am all for any opportunity for the Conservative congregations in Kansas City to join together to provide for the needs of their members and the overall Jewish community. It just makes good sense,” said Helfand, who is also a board member and past international secretary of United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism (USCJ), the national organization of Conservative congregations.
How will it work?
All weekday morning minyans at Village Shalom begin at 7 a.m. The congregations chose to meet on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays because attendance on those days is typically smaller than on Mondays and Thursdays, when Torah is read.
“Our minyan was more tenuous on those days that we will now meet together,” Rabbi White commented.
Beth Shalom uses an online registration program called Minyan Maker to keep track of who will be attending minyan. Ohev members have been instructed how to use Minyan Maker and the website will soon feature the logos of both congregations, not just Beth Shalom’s.
“We have a volunteer, Howard Gerson, who has worked on this for a number of years,” explained Rabbi Glickman.
In the congregation’s weekly e-blast last week, Rabbi White asked Ohev members to begin utilizing Minyan Maker for the joint minyan.
“If you are a minyan regular on Tuesday, Wednesday or Friday (or any combination of those days) and plan to continue attending minyan at Village Shalom on the same day(s), I gently urge you to visit Minyan Maker as soon as possible and sign up for relevant days. By the same token, if you have not been a minyan regular on one or more of those days, I encourage you to consider becoming one by visiting the site (www.minyan10.com/bethshalomkc/login.php) and signing up.”
Each congregation will be fully integrated into all relevant elements of the morning service, including leading prayers, reading Torah, receiving aliyot, and the reading of yahrzeits and their inclusion (upon request) in the chanting of the memorial prayer.
About 33 people from the two congregations got together for a trial morning minyan a few weeks ago — a robust number for both shuls according to Rabbi White — before presenting the idea formally to each congregation. The rabbis agree there was “a good vibe in the air” and “people stayed for a long time afterward visiting and having a good time together.”
Both congregations’ services are very similar. Aside from the change of geographic location for Ohev people, Rabbi White said, the only significant change is that a different prayer book will be used. But, he pointed out, the prayerbook has a Kanas City connection.
“It’s the ‘Hadas Siddur,’ featuring the translation of former Beth Shalom Rabbi Gershon Hadas. I have personal sentiments about this book because Rabbi Hadas was a friend and a guide to me around the time I was considering becoming a rabbi in the early ’80s. ... So that to me is a sentimental plus to use the siddur. And it’s also a great translation.”
Ohev will conduct morning services in its building located at 75th and Nall on the four days of the week there is not a joint minyan — Monday, Thursday, Shabbat and Sunday. Beth Shalom holds morning minyan at Village Shalom except for Shabbat and Sundays. Beth Shalom also holds evening services at Village Shalom at 6 p.m. except on erev Shabbat and Shabbat. All Beth Shalom services not held at Village Shalom take place at its building located at 142nd and Lamar.
Village Shalom conducts its own services at 4 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. Saturday. No service is scheduled there on Sunday mornings.
A service to the Jewish community
Congregation Beth Shalom has been holding weekday minyans in the Appelman Synagogue at Village Shalom following the sale of the building on Wornall in 2013. Rabbi Glickman pointed out that meeting at the senior living community is a nice service the congregations are providing the residents of Village Shalom, as well as the Jewish community as a whole.
“If there is ever a resident who needs to say Kaddish for a loved one, they don’t need to ask for a ride from somebody, they don’t need to impose on somebody … regardless of their mobility, they can get to a daily service to say Kaddish for a loved one,” Rabbi Glickman said.
He added that anyone is always welcome to attend either or both morning and evening services.
“Just like for any service at any synagogue, you don’t have to be a member of either synagogue to go and pray. If there is somebody who wants to pray or needs to say Kaddish for loved one and happens to be nearby Village Shalom, it’s a wonderful, central location.”
“It’s a very easy and convenient way for someone to fulfill the obligation of saying Kaddish,” Rabbi Glickman continued. “I know when I’ve had to say Kaddish for yahrzeit I’ve gone to other synagogues that I’m not a member of and it’s a great comfort to know that you can do that. The doors are open and it’s not unusual for this minyan to get visitors either from other synagogues, people who are unaffiliated or fairly often visitors from out of town.”
The collaborative spirit
Rabbi White said Rabbi Glickman was “unhesitatingly positive” when approached with the idea of combining minyans. He said that stems from the community’s collaborative spirit.
For Rabbi Glickman, he said it’s easier to collaborate when you have a pre-existing personal relationship.
“I have built a friendship and a relationship with Rabbi White,” Rabbi Glickman said. “It’s a lot easier to do something together when you know each other. That’s one of the benefits of the Rabbinical Association of Greater Kansas City.”
USCJ board member Helfand pointed out that in Kansas City there’s been a lot of cooperation among all the denominations through the Rabbinical Association such as the community Passover seder and Shavuot program. Individual congregations have also planned events and services together on occasion.
“It’s what makes Kansas City vibrant and unique,” Helfand said.
Helfand doesn’t think it’s that common to see such cooperation between congregations across the country, but he sees that changing.
“Some congregations are having more difficulty maintaining a minyan and are now more open to working with other congregations as partners rather than seeing them as competition. Joint minyanim are also taking place among Conservative congregations in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, and Syracuse, New York, just to mention a few,” Helfand said.
He added smaller communities nationwide are learning that “working together is a better way to maximize resources and make sure that the needs of all of their congregants are met long term.”