Vision

We are creating a spiritual and political home for people bound together by a welcoming and liberatory Judaism. We aim to be a community that is multiracial and intergenerational, including families of all kinds and individuals, interfaith families and fellow travelers, people with a diversity of gender identities and sexualities, and people from a wide range of religious and secular backgrounds and practices.

Many of us have been part of very successful and nurturing lay-led Jewish communities. Through this project, we are seeking to build this sense of community in a sustainable institution, where there are multiple pathways to involvement and belonging - whether through prayer, learning, arts, justice, or community support. We envision our rabbi playing a multi-fold role as spiritual leader, community organizer, and educator, in close partnership with lay leaders from the community. Having a rabbi also helps new people feel welcomed and connected, and provides a resource for pastoral care and lifecycle events. For us, building a synagogue means that we aspire to create a stable and lasting community.

We will be meeting primarily in Petworth, a neighborhood in northwest DC. Petworth is re-emerging as a vibrant Jewish hub, though the closest synagogues are far away, across Rock Creek Park, up 16th Street, or downtown. Many of our community members live here or close by, and many others come from across the DMV. While our home base will be in Petworth, we plan to form havurot, or small groups, that will meet regularly in various other neighborhoods where our members live.

In our Petworth home, we are committed to grounding ourselves in values of social justice, and to reflecting on our predominantly white Jewish community’s presence in a once Jewish, then predominantly Black and Latinx, now rapidly gentrifying space. We are grateful to be connecting through local organizing and partnerships with Black-led institutions in the neighborhood (for example, Israel Metropolitan CME Church and First Baptist Church of Petworth, where we have our services).

The future is mysterious! It could happen, but it is not currently a goal of ours.

Nope! We are a pluralistic, egalitarian, non-denominational synagogue. People in our community like a variety of prayer and ritual styles, so we’re trying out different kinds of programs and services to meet our community’s diverse needs and desires.

The New Synagogue Project is a placeholder name. Our members will choose our official name down the road. Want a say? Become a member!

We are building a community focused on the liberation of all people. Many of the first movers of this project are people who are seeking a spiritual home congruent with their political commitments to end the occupation and act in solidarity with Palestinians. As a community, we do not fuse our spiritual practice with any form of political nationalism.

There is no litmus test to enter our community, all are welcome. We are not affiliated with a particular Israel/Palestine advocacy organization, although many of our members are active leaders in groups like Jewish Voice for Peace, IfNotNow, and JStreet, and we hope this will be a community where we can all explore our own beliefs and the movements we want to join. This community is a home for anyone who is working to end the occupation or doing Palestinian solidarity work, as well as anyone who is not working on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or affiliated with any political group.

Ritual

Our services are led by community members and Rabbi Joseph together. We also have a singing team composed of community members who love to sing, are excited to learn and contribute new songs/melodies, and want to help ground the community's singing during services and help elevate our collective spiritual experience. No experience is required! We welcome people of all singing abilities. Contact Miriam Ginsberg at ginsberg.miriam0@gmail.com to join the singing team list.

As of now, instruments will be used on Shabbat on an ad hoc basis. If you play an instrument and are interested in contributing your musical talents, please let us know! If you want to attend but instruments present a barrier for you, please email info@newsynagogueproject.org so we can help figure out how to make this space accessible.

Yes! All our prayer books include transliteration. Additionally, our prayer leaders announce the page numbers as we go, so it’s (hopefully!) easy to follow along. And no matter your relationship to Hebrew, you can always hum along, use the space to meditate, stretch, and take control of your own spiritual experience.

Down the road, we hope to celebrate most if not all the Jewish holidays together! For now, we’re building capacity to organize as many Shabbat gatherings as we can. We hosted a number of High Holiday events this fall. More information about that is here. As we continue to grow, we will add more events. If you’re interested in helping organize activities for a given holiday, please let us know!

Jewish tradition teaches us to mark transitions with intention. We’re building a community that aims to mark important life cycle events, from birth all the way to death, baby namings, b’nei mitzvah, gender transitions, weddings, name changes, conversions, losses, or other meaningful events. Rabbi Joseph is available to meet to talk about about life cycle event & issues as well as any religious or spiritual issues on your mind. We also have a Chesed (Community Care) Team that works to ensure everyone in our community has support through life transitions. Contact us for more info about joining this team or with requests for support.

Soon, we hope! We plan to offer an array of courses that will support our community’s interests, practice, and leadership!. If you’re interested in teaching a course, on anything from Jewish text study and leading ritual to singing or even knitting, please let us know!

Community

Anyone interested in being part of Jewish community! We welcome anyone who is committed to our mission of creating spiritually vibrant, radically inclusive Jewish community that reflects a vision for a world of justice, equity, and liberation. We believe strongly that there is no such thing as a hierarchy of Jewishness based on observance, Jewish background, or parentage. Judaism and Jewish culture belong to all of us! We are an inclusive, pluralistic community of families with kids, couples and single people, queer and trans people, interfaith families, Jews of color and white Jews, religious, secular, and atheist Jews, and anyone interested in exploring and experiencing Jewish life.

We are a spiritually vibrant, radically inclusive Jewish community that reflects our vision for a world of justice, equity, and liberation. The rest we will figure out as we build! Members will have a say in shaping our values. We hope you’ll join!

We try to meet only in spaces that are ADA accessible. The primary location we meet in (First Baptist Church of Petworth) has a chair lift at the side entrance. We are currently exploring options for ASL interpretation. If you have an accessibility need and are wondering if it can be met, please write to info@newsynagogueproject.org.

Not everyone likes praying. Most of our events, including on Shabbat, have multiple simultaneous programs so that anyone can find something to choose that speaks to them. We’ve experimented with parallel art or Torah study programs happening during services. And, of course, we almost always have time for food and schmoozing. Soon we’ll be launching learning, arts, and justice teams to lead a variety of programs beyond services. Please contribute feedback on what programming you’re looking for or join a team!

Yes! Interfaith families are completely welcome, and we won’t pressure anyone to convert or practice some specific way. We welcome non-Jewish members to participate and offer their gifts to the community in whatever form they choose.

Yes! We welcome anyone interested in exploring and experiencing Jewish life. We hope to offer Introductory courses to Judaism in the future. If you would be interested in this, e-mail us at info@newsynagogueproject.org.

Children of all ages are welcome. We regularly have kids’ services on Friday early evenings and Saturday mornings. And kids are welcome in grownup-oriented programs too, if that works for your family. We are exploring how we want to do young people’s programs and education in our community. If you’re interested in helping to shape that, please let us know! Write to info@newsynagogueproject.org.

All food served during potlucks and snacks are vegetarian, and we ask people to label ingredients. We use the two-table potluck system to welcome people with diverse eating needs, so we have a table for vegetarian food and a separate table for hekhshered (certified/supervised kosher) vegetarian food.

Most communal meals are potluck-style. We ask that attendees contribute a vegetarian dish and bring a prepared ingredients label. In the future, we will have some catered meals.

Yes, there are gender-neutral bathrooms at the venues where we host events, typically single-stall.

As a community grounded in a vision for a just and equitable world, we are committed to working alongside movements for racial, economic, and environmental justice and opposing the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Members will help shape how we live out our social justice values as a community. Let us know if you’re interested in helping to shape what our justice work looks like! Write to info@newsynagogueproject.org.

We have art and music activities at many of our Shabbat gatherings. Singing is folded into many of our rituals and services. After Friday evening services, for example, we have a post-dinner singing circle for those who want to keep singing together.

Our Singing Team meets regularly to learn and teach new melodies for our Friday night services. This is a great way to feel confident in the melodies we sing at services and help to ensure that our services are songful, soulful, and spiritual for all.

We are designing arts programming now. Let us know if you’d like to help shape this! Write to info@newsynagogueproject.org.

We are designing adult and youth education opportunities now. Let us know if you have an idea for a course you’d like to take (or teach)! Write to info@newsynagogueproject.org.

Leadership

Rabbi Joseph Berman initiated this project in 2016 together with our lay leadership team. He has been co-leading our initial services and gatherings this spring and summer along with lay leaders. We will officially hire Rabbi Joseph to lead and organize our community as soon as we are able. Learn more about Rabbi Joseph here.

We are a leader-full project! Our core leadership is called the Team of Instigators, which also serves as the legal board. They shepherd the New Synagogue Project’s vision and programs, manage finances, and oversee leadership structures, volunteers, and membership.

Our current Instigators are:

Lauren Spokane (chair) (laurenspokane[at]gmail.com) - leadership & volunteers, membership & fundraising
Leah Douglas (leahjdoug[at]gmail.com) - Shabbat events, inclusion, communications
David Wolkin (davidwolkin[at]gmail.com) - arts, education
Rebecca Ennen (rebecca.ennen[at]gmail.com) - families & kids, membership & fundraising
Kat Macías Cruz (kathrynmacias[at]gmail.com) - Jews of Color
Liz London (london.elizabethf[at]gmail.com) - High Holidays, Finance
Benjy Cannon (benjycannon[at]gmail.com) - membership & fundraising, arts and culture
Jesse Vogel (jesse.vogel[at]gmail.com) - justice

If you would like to take on leadership please reach out and contact one of us!

There are many leadership roles within NSP. Loosely, the Team of Instigators bottom-lines most programming and decision-making, with heavy delegation to and support from a long list of fellow leaders. Currently, teams & roles include:

High Holidays Planning Team, led by Liz London and Rabbi Joseph (london.elizabethf[at]gmail.com; rabbi.joseph.berman[at]gmail.com
Membership & Fundraising Team, led by Lauren Spokane, Benjy Cannon, and Sarah Novick (laurenspokane[at]gmail.com; benjycannon[at]gmail.com; sarah.novick[at]gmail.com)
Shabbat & Havdalah Team, led by Leah Douglas (leahjdoug[at]gmail.com)
Communications, led by Elana Simon and Leah Douglas (elanarsimon@gmail.com; leahjdoug[at]gmail.com)
Singing Team, led by Miriam Ginsberg (ginsberg.miriam0[at]gmail.com) and Atid Kimelman (atid.b.k[at]gmail.com)
Kids' Education Team, led by Josh Berer (olomachad[at]gmail.com) and Sara Schodt (saraschodt[at]yahoo.com)
Justice Team, led by Jesse Vogel (jesse.vogel[at]gmail.com) Chesed (Community Care) Team, led by Laura Beckerman (lcbeckerman[at]gmail.com) and Jennifer Liebschutz (jliebschutz[at]gmail.com)

If you would like to take on leadership please reach out and contact one of us!

Write to info@newsynagogueproject.org and an Instigator will be in touch!

Membership

All are invited to become members by filling out an online membership form and making a financial contribution according to your means. Sign up here!

If you’d like to talk to someone about membership, please write to info@newsynagogueproject.org.

We welcome anyone who is committed to our mission of creating spiritually vibrant, radically inclusive Jewish community that reflects a vision for a world of justice, equity, and liberation.

We ask all members to make a financial contribution according to your means and a contribution of time & talent to sustain this community’s needs. Only you can decide what to contribute, based on your own assessment of your capacity. More about membership and our thinking about dues is here.

No one will be turned away for lack of means. All members of our community will be honored equally, and no distinction will be made among members based on how much each of us is able to give financially.

Absolutely! Everyone is welcome to join our services, gatherings, and other programs. Some programs (e.g. classes) may have discounted registration fees for members, and only members can vote at our annual membership meeting (first one to come in spring 2019!). If you come to events and feel at home, we encourage you to consider becoming a member. More info here.

Giving

Yes! We are thrilled to have the support of friends and family and all those who care about liberation-focused, spiritually vibrant, radically inclusive Jewish community existing in the world and in DC. Click here to donate to the Friends of NSP Fund online!, or mail a check made out to New Synagogue Project to PO Box 43153, Washington, DC 20010.

Yes! Though we don’t have the paper to prove it quite yet. According to the IRS, all houses of worship (which are called “churches” in the tax code) are considered tax exempt whether or not they have formal acknowledgement of their non-profit status from the IRS. We have submitted our application for recognition as a 501(c)(3) organization. If you require an IRS letter confirming 501(c)(3) status to make your contribution, please write to info@newsynagogueproject.org, and we will let you know when it is available.

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