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

how can the American Jewish community foster more Empowered Jews?

We may understand everything in the English prayer, but the mystery and power of the Hebrew text is completely absent.

We are calling it a yeshiva to reclaim the cultural valence of the term—an intellectual and spiritual center where Torah radiates forth into the broader community, and the community feeds back into the yeshiva.

“Why are we preserving this institution in the first place? What is so essential about it, and are there new institutions that could do a better job at the same goal?”

Understanding prayer as an opportunity to express a range of emotions and allowing the space for those emotions to come to the fore is a transformative way of relating to prayer.

the vision of Empowered Judaism is no dream—it is a fledgling reality they can connect to and help build.

Again, a line that seemed to be a human attempt to describe God becomes—when seen in its biblical context—an ethical charge for how humans should treat other humans.

An Empowered Judaism framework recognizes that demand is strong among the general population and responds to that demand by building communities and institutions that offer direct engagement with Jewish life. Responding to this demand is the real challenge of our time.

immersion is one of the most effective ways to transform people.