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Religion will never be replaced by social media --- if we act now By Rabbi Shlomo Einhorn
Some are claiming "Facebook killed the Church". It certainly hasn't the Jewish star
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
New age psychologist / experimental theologian Richard Beck dropped a bomb on his blog, Experimental Theology.
In an article titled "How Facebook killed the Church" he grapples with the impact of Social Media on Church life. His conclusion is explosive. Generation Y, he claims, is leaving church life because the main perk of attending services was the social factor. Church is an opportunity to meet up with friends and plan when we're going out for a few drinks, shoot some hoops, or go dancing. Generation Y doesn't need the church event to plan the next social event, they can text, tweet, Facebook, doogle, meetup (I made up one those, see if you can figure out which). Religious leaders and psychologists have argued that we still need our deeper relationships. Those relationships are not being serviced through Social Media. Beck addresses that challenge quite nicely. The relationships are not being deepened through social media, but social media is the place where the friends (who already have a deep relationship or will have one) can make their quick fire arrangements. No need for church to make plans.
I feel like I am in a doubly good position to respond to the Beckian challenge. I am currently the Rabbi of West Side Institutional Synagogue on Manhattan's Upper West Side and I am also the director of a new Synagogue Consulting initiative of the Orthodox Union called WINGS. In my own synagogue, I have seen the congregation grow over the last five years by over 80%. The constituency of our synagogue is 70% Generation Y (young married couples and single individuals). As for the consulting work, I have seen struggling synagogues but by and large I am watching growth.
For example, take a look at some of the great work being done over in Boca Raton (BRS — Boca Raton Synagogue). Jewish Generation Y are coming back. This is not just about a spiritual revival but this is also about the synagogue being a place where a smorgasbord of social and religious needs can be met. You can get inspired, you can eat your lunch, you can have your kids entertained, you can laugh or pray with over fifty of your buddies, you can study, you can teach, you can debate, and you can sing.
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And by the way, Social Media presentations and webinars run by the Orthodox Union, Yeshiva University, and UJA for example, have paved the way for synagogues looking to build through the offerings of these vistas.
It irks me when religious leaders claim that Judaism is not afraid of modernity. We are afraid. We know the great challenges it has always posed. But what Judaism has said is that we have the shoes to dance with that fear.
The great Torah leader RabbiYaakov Kamenetsky (1891-1986) has pointed out that if we were to analyze the curriculum of Torah study in our yeshivas of modern day we would find that the format of study is drastically different than the curriculum recommendations of the Talmud. Doesn't the yeshiva community live by the Talmud? Yes, says Rabbi Kamenetsky, but the very nature of the mitzvah (religious duty) of Torah study is that we must learn to adapt our curriculum to method and mode of study that allows for maximize growth and success in that given point and place in history. Dance with the fear of modernity.
Rav Moshe Sofer (1762 - 1839), better known as the Chasam Sofer, once said (in a play on Talmudic syntax) "New is forbidden." But if you look at his legacy, at his wit, at his novel insights into the Torah you see that he wasn't a man ignoring the present. He meant that meeting Facebook as a foreign invader is dangerous and forbidden. But meeting Facebook as a way to build our communities, as a way to reinvigorate attendance at our classes on the sacred texts of rabbis, that's power. Meeting Facebook as a way to anchor our past into the modern world — that's dancing with our fear.
These new chachkes may be daunting and they may present a whole new set of challenges. The philosopher Schopenhauer has argued that any new advancement presents the world with more and weightier challenges than before. But still, while modernity does its thing — we continue to do ours.
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Comment by clicking here. JWR contributor Rabbi Shlomo Einhorn is spiritual leader of the West Side Institutional Synagogue in Manhattan.
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