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| At a discussion at the recent Independent Minyan Conference, there was a discussion on increasing the Jewish knowledge of minyan leadership. Overall, the founders of independent minyanim on the whole were very knowledgeable, while the new generation of leadership does not have the same knowledge base. New leaders described that they lack knowledge in many areas, including: leading services, kashrut policies, reasoning behind egalitarianism/non-egalitarianism/other ideological issues, Torah reading, creating new services/rituals.
Some points raised in the discussion:
• Many in the new generation of leadership have feelings of inadequacy or intimidation in relation to minyan founders.
• Many mentioned a particular dearth of women in the minyanim who are knowledgeable and able to take on leadership roles within the service (e.g. leyning, leading services)
• There was a general feeling that the community does not have the same sort of stability when the knowledge base departs
• Founders had an ‘anchoring knowledge’ of why the minyan does certain things and could engage in halakhic decision-making, which is not necessarily the case for the new generation of leadership.
• What happens when the leadership has less knowledge than the community (e.g. the NY or LA communities where the community is comprised of many rabbinical students who are transient and the leadership is non-rabbinical students who are more permanent)?
• Many minyanim face the dilemma of divvying up responsibility within the leadership for items that are particularly a matter of skill/execution and those that require judgment/decision-making in complicated situations.
• Many felt that new leadership could strive to create a culture of learning—even if leaders do not know “as much,” they can serve as examples for the community of those who are continuing to learn.
Ideas to increase knowledge among leaders:
• “Boot camp”-type training for lay-leaders
• Hiring a scholar-in-residence
• Create a network for connecting leaders of the different minyanim through learning—e.g. weekly/monthly sessions via internet for study;
• Have leaders learn in hevruta at home and then connect with other leaders who are doing the same
• Select an halakhic advisor (not necessarily someone local) |
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