Engagement

JR is proud to be a community that was built by volunteers, and nurtured and developed by them throughout the years.

 As generations change, people's needs are different and as the Jewish population moves around, JR is facing new challenges and great opportunities. JR now needs to build a new path for leadership and engagement, and to make key decisions about its future.  We aim to do that through Project Mishkan.  Launched at Rosh Hashanah last year, from the Hebrew word for “dwelling”, it mirrors the portable sanctuary constructed by Moses as a place of worship for the Hebrew tribes during the period of wandering that preceded their arrival in the Promised Land. 

 Since the High Holy Days, a team of members from across the community, have been meeting to research and work out the best way possible to hold these conversations.  You can find details of the group under the "About Us" page on this website.  We have held constructive meetings and alongside leaving the Jackson’s Row building and settling into our new temporary home, we are ready to start stage one of the project. It is important that we chart the right pace for this engagement project so we can keep momentum and make sure we are holding the most constructive of spaces. And we are grateful to the Movement for Reform Judaism’s practical support and advice for this project.

The first stage of Project Mishkan will be a Listening Project amongst our members to build relationships and discuss what JR means to you so that we can plan its future.  Through holding house meetings across the community, as we did 4 years ago, we hope to understand more about our community and its needs and also find leaders to help make this possible.  The timeframe has not been finalised, but it’s hoped the meetings will start before the end of this month and the plan is to hold a bigger meeting (Shema session) to feedback the findings after Pesach. Shortly you will be hearing more for us, asking for volunteers to host and facilitate these meetings and inviting you along to hear your thoughts.

A team of 12 volunteers is taking part in the project that will comprise 3 main stages and will take around 12 months:

Stage 1: Reach out to 25% of our adult members to engage in 1:2:1 conversation or house meetings.

Stage 2: Research good practices- based on the needs of our community and the input from the listening, we will carry out research amongst synagogues in the UK and the US. We will learn from their leadership development practices and be inspired from the solutions they found to leadership.

Stage 3: Suggest bespoke programmes and recommendations for a new leadership development programme.