Chabad* masked as hipster synagogue
With Yoga, Comedy and Parties, Synagogues Entice Newcomers:
The pioneers of outreach to secular Jews are the Chabad-Lubavitchers, members of an Orthodox Hasidic sect that is based in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn. Although their tactics have sometimes drawn controversy, their work has become a model for many Jews.Also, watch the The SoHo Synagogue video.
Dovi and Esty Scheiner, a young Lubavitch couple who moved from Crown Heights to TriBeCa several years ago, are trying to bring Judaism to the cool and hip in Lower Manhattan.
In order to reach the downtown audience, it was necessary to rethink the traditional synagogue approach, said Rabbi Scheiner. "This is a very anti-establishment, anti-organized-religion type of community."
Instead of holding religious services, they gave fancy cocktail parties in art galleries and lofts. In the middle of the events, Rabbi Scheiner would offer a few words of Jewish teaching.
The parties have now given way to the SoHo Synagogue, which they believe is the first Jewish house of worship in the neighborhood. About 250 people attended a dedication party last month for the synagogue's first home, on Varick Street near Canal Street. It is a stylishly decorated 5,000-square-foot space, complete with chic couches, a lacy flora-and-fauna-patterned curtain that functions as the mechitza separating the sexes and an avant-garde sheet-metal ark to store the Torah.
*For the record: it has been pointed out that the SoHo Synagogue is not officially a "Chabad establishment."
posted by Goldie at 8:24 AM
8 Comments:
As far as I know, this is not a Chabad establishment. The rabbi and wife are both luvabitchers, but their project is totally independent of the shluchim office so I don't think Chabad should have to answer for them.
You say you saw the video. Was it the 9/11 one? How dramatic, lol!
Good point, perhaps that's why they were careful to specifically avoid using the word "chabad."
I was actually referring to the video feature of NYtimes article. But I did see the 9-11 one a while back too. It's cute :).
hey--
this is in fact not a chabad establishment. it probably gives them a lot more freedom and perhaps a wider appeal?
I guess...It's funny how Chabad has become a real franchise...I mean, their goals are assumingly the same as those of Chabad, and they were both raised as "Chabadnicks," yet because they haven't been officially "assigned" by the shluchim office, it becomes really important that they're not mistaken to be "Chabad."
Actually, it *is* important not to mistaken them as Chabad for the same reasons it's important not to mistaken Berg or Boteach as Chabad. Being raised Chabad would incline someone to do outreach work, but that doesn't make the movement responsible for their actions. The franchise analogy works well - this is classic damage control. Chabad has a reputation to uphold and just can't afford to let any random outreach-oriented orginization run under its banner. In the same breath, Shlomo Carlebach was shunned by Chabad establishment for his very unconventional kiruv method, and all the better because he was enormously effective in his niche.
You're absolutely right. Thanks for clarifying.
But it's still funny to think of Chabad as a franchise much like Starbucks or Gap... And what I find even more interesting is how Chabad has spawned a whole array of diverse offshoots: from Malkie Schwartz to Shmuly Boteach to the more conventional SoHo synagogue to whole communities of Xlubis...Chabad (Lubavitch?), yet not Chabad at all...
So complicated... isn't that why we love it :) or maybe hate it?
p.s. The soho shul is on my list of places to visit next. It just dawned on me that it isn't all that unconventional-- rather it's an updated sefardi shul. Couches in semi circles instead of rows of benches? That's ancient! I bet you the designer was familiar with sefardic shul traditions.
isn't that why we love it :) or maybe hate it?
Or just simply constantly amazed...
Is it Sephardic-like, or closer to conservative/Egalitarian style?
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