Timely Program Ideas

Timely Program Ideas
Department of Congregational Programming
United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism
155 Fifth Avenue,
New York, NY 10010
212-533-7800 ext 2620

TPI 8: Building A Morning Minyan

The Weekday Minyanim

There is no experience quite like a weekday morning prayer service. Yet it is not easily accessible to the uninitiated. The morning minyan welcomes those saying Kaddish, those with a yahrzeit and everyone desiring a spiritual wake-up.

The minyan may appear like a private club. Yet, every minyan would love an infusion of new people at whatever level of knowledge or personal commitment they enter. Synagogues must insure that their members understand that they are welcome at the minyan and should help the uninitiated feel comfortable participating in the minyan.

Ask regular members of the minyan to be sensitive to new people that attend the service. New attendees may not be able to follow the quick pace of the service, nor be familiar with the weekday service. The regular attendees can help them to follow in the siddur. A gesture of welcome will also help new attendees feel that they are wanted and not intruding on a "closed" club.

Encourage all members of the synagogue to participate in the weekday minyanim. Assign each member a day that they are expected to come to a minyan, either in the morning or the evening. Send them a personal letter informing them of their assigned day. Include with the letter a refrigerator magnet with their day printed on it.

Consider other means of encouragement as well:

• Some type of quick refreshment (or a full breakfast on Sunday) following the minyan may encourage members to attend. Refreshments might include juice, coffee, tea and bagels and a sweet roll.
• Prior to the service, distribute some of the aliyot and other honors (on Mondays and Thursdays) to people who may not often attend as a means of encouraging attendance.
• Be sure that your minyan is scheduled at the best time for members who are likely to attend. If you have many retirees in your community, they might prefer to attend a later minyan than members who still work. Be flexible (within acceptable halakhic constraints) with the times of the services.
• Find a very public way to honor regular minyan attendees.
• Be sure to encourage members of the s ynagogue to lead the services, and encourage participation, where possible, among the young people of the community.

The following approaches were adopted by some Conservative congregations for weekday morning or evening minyanim.

• To help strangers feel welcome, the gabbaim introduce all newcomers to the rabbi and cantor following the service.
• Parents of the upcoming Bar/Bat Mitzvah attend. The child receives his/her first aliyah during the service at the Monday or Thursday minyan.
• Plan a monthly special minyan breakfast with a speaker or discussion after the service.
• Parents of religious school children attend the Sunday minyan. This encourages some of them to attend the weekday services.
• Synagogue leaders regularly attend. They become role models for the rest of the community.

Be sure the regular minyaners spread the word that the morning minyan is a warm caring, comfortable Jewish and spiritual service of 30-45 minutes.

Create a Welcoming Atmosphere

The synagogue atmosphere itself must serve as a vehicle for outreach. We must be sure that when people come to our synagogues they feel welcomed and comfortable. If the atmosphere is cold, and uncaring, then no matter how strong our programming, people will not come back.

• Have a committee of synagogue members whose job it is to welcome unfamiliar people to services - showing them the correct page in the siddur, where they can sit, and perhaps even sitting, with them throughout the service.
• Welcome guests from the Bimah, and welcome them personally after the service.
• Be sure that visitors are not isolated during the oneg Shabbat or Kiddush.
• If possible (and appropriate), give visiting Jews honors during the service.
• Have information packets, describing the synagogue and all its activities.
• Invite unaffiliated guests to participate in upcoming synagogue activities.

The more that people feel welcome during a service – often the first time that nonmembers come into the synagogue and meet its members - the greater the chance that they will chose to affiliate and become committed Jews.