Membership
Featured: Kehillah Builders: Inreach, Outreach and Membership
This article connects effective inreach and outreach in the process of community growth. Thinking about how to grow can help a congregation figure out how to better serve its current members as well.
Becoming a Reconstructionist Affiliate
Since 2001, Temple Beth Hatfiloh of Olympia, WA has been affiliated with the Reconstructionist Movement. This article chronicles their process and also the reasons for why their congregation overwhelmingly chose to join. This article is a great resource for prospective affiliates.
Topics: Affiliation Process, Congregational and Organizational Life, Congregational Development, Membership, Reconstructionism Today Type: RT Article
Ways to Welcome New Members
A list of ways to warmly welcome new members into your community, from partnering new members with veteran members to running special programs for members' uninvolved partners and families.
Topics: Community Building, Congregational Development, Membership, Synagogue Administration Type: How to
Dues and Financial Policy: Our Tax for Jewish Citizenship
This article brings a historical perspective on biblical taxation, suggesting that synagogue dues are a tax for Jewish citizenship. It also introduces the idea of "fair share" dues, where individual members' dues vary based on their income.
Topics: Community Building, Congregational Development, Membership, Money and Values, Synagogue Administration Type: Article
Resources on Community Building
A list of books and periodicals about congregational growth, outreach and inreach.
Topics: Community Building, Congregational Development, Membership, Synagogue Administration Type: Bibliography
Synagogue Membership As a Requirement For Religious School Enrollment
In 2001, there was discussion on the EdTalk listserv about whether families of religious school students should be required to be congregational members. This is a transcript of that conversation.
Topics: Congregational Development, Education, Membership, School Administration Type: Listserve Thread
A Jewish Approach to Obligatory Giving
This 2001 article explores our discomfort with money, offers some historical perspective and some contemporary solutions of how American congregations have set up their dues structure.
Topics: Capital Campaigns, Congregational Development, Fundraising, Membership, Money and Values, Synagogue Administration Type: Article
A Group Discussion About Money (RT Winter 1999/2000)
This article from Reconstructionism Today contains a transcript of a conference call involving Rabbi Shawn Zevit, JRF board members and synagogue representatives from the West Coast Region about the Torah of Money workshops.
Topics: Capital Campaigns, Congregational Development, Fundraising, Membership, Money and Values, Synagogue Administration Type: Article
