Summary: The Forward, a national Jewish weekly paper, published my op-ed that took issue with a Newsweek columnist’s stance that it costs to much to live Jewishly. My take: Temples never, in my experience, have asked me for money just to come through the door.
What a timely article, from my family’s point of view.
This post popped up in my reader immediately following a dinner conversation with my wife. We’re visiting various shuls in our neighborhood in central Brooklyn in the course of getting more involved with Judaism. At the same time, my wife is looking for a job, having recently received her MLS. If she ends up getting a job in a place that requires an awful commute, we’ll move in the spring when our lease is up. I was worried that this placed constraints upon how we can attend shul in the meantime. We don’t pay a couple of thousand bucks to join a synagogue we’ll no longer be able to attend in 6 months, and commuting to central Brooklyn with a 2 year old from Queens or the Bronx is not a realistic option.
My wife, on the other hand, didn’t see any reason to join a shul at all, saying that people often go to services for a year or more without becoming member when financial and other considerations (i.e. transience) obtain. And that’s what you explain here. Thanks!