Empowered Judaism: What Independent Minyanim Can Teach Us about Building Vibrant Jewish Communities

Those engaged in a life of study know that the consummate orientation to the Jewish tradition is one in which you will never know enough.

The peer feedback group was our most successful strategy for improving skills (outside of a formal class). The group bonded beyond the content of the discussions, and they served as informal cheerleaders for each other when any of them led davening.

Yeshivat Hadar cannot be the only solution to the lack of Jewish empowerment education available to American Jews in the twenty-first century. In fact, if Yeshivat Hadar remains the only new institution in this field in the next five years, we will have failed to achieve our broader vision. American Judaism will thrive when it offers the most activ

in an Empowered Judaism framework, Jewish education is about much more than Jewish demographic continuity. It is about fostering literacy in your own culture and heritage.

The experience of prayer is greatly enhanced if the siddur is treated like so many other texts in Jewish heritage, as a starting point for interpretation rather than a surface statement of dogma.

what would it take to build the ideal learning community—one that fostered Empowered Jews in an environment where they didn’t need to compromise a core part of their identity? Fortunately,

we actively decided not to make Yeshivat Hadar a pluralistic environment. For instance, all the full-time students are expected to daven together in a single service that is egalitarian and traditional. Students must also commit to living a life engaged with Torah and mitzvot. All of the faculty we hired also support this form of prayer and commitm

With its dedicated volunteer culture, focus on inspiring traditional davening, high-level Torah study, and egalitarian, universal outlook, Kehilat Hadar attempts to live out a world of Empowered Judaism.

In Man’s Quest for God, Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote that a melody is even more powerful than words.