Dear Colleagues:
I recently requested guidance on materials on "running a synagogue"
and was asked to post the replies. With thanks to all, here they are:
Suggestions on "How to run a synagogue"
- I don't have a title, but I have found
useful materials from the URJ Press. They have several titles that
might fit your needs.
- There is a great book by Ron Wolfson,
called - The Spirituality of Welcoming. Ron spoke to our Board
several years ago (after we all read his book) when I was on the
Board and more recently he spoke to the whole congregation. His book
is well worth reading. You might contact him and see if he has other
books on related topics. This book is not a "cure-all" but it does
address some of what you are looking for very well.
- So far, my best materials have been
Christian or non-profit in general (How to Run a Non-Profit, for
example). Not a single board member recommends the UJR books; I only
got one to read one of the books all the way through.
-The URJ has several publications:
http://www.urjbooksandmusic.com/home.php?cat=9 , as do United
Synagogue: http://www.uscj.org/Publications_and_Res5407.html
- Rabbi Lawrence Hoffman: Rethinking
Synagogues; Dr. Ron Wolfson: The spirituality of welcoming; Erica
Brown: Inspired Jewish Leadership
- There's a new book called: Sacred
Strategies: Transforming Synagogues from Functional to Visionary, by
Isa Aron, et al. It's published by The Alban Institute.
-Yours is an interesting question, and
rather than recommend titles, I strongly suggest that you go to
Amazon.com and do a book search on "synagogue" or "synagogue
administration." All sorts of titles will come up, and you can scan
through and see which ones look appropriate.
- The key source for the most relevant info
about temple management and development is
NATA:http://natanet.org. In addition, I found some good non-profit
board governance materials that deal with these issues more generally:
http://www.boarddevelopment.org/Welcome.aspx
http://www.boardsource.org/
http://www.idealist.org/
http://charitychannel.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big Hairy Audacious Goal
http://www.hurwitassociates.com/1 qa nonprofitgovernance
bylaws.php
http://www.compasspoint.org/boardcafe/details.php?id=67
- The Berman Jewish Policy Archive. A big
part of our mission is to be kind of a storehouse for the collected
wisdom of the community and of organizations, so that good
information doesn't get lost. All our resources are free to
download. You can browse under our community building, synagogues,
management andadministration, congregations,
NK"http://bjpa.org/Publications/results.cfm?TopicID=15&SortBy=PublicationYear&SortDir=DESC&MaxRows=20"fundraising
and philanthropy, or leadership topics (which are sorted in reverse
chronological order), and the site also supports both basic and
advanced search if you're looking for more specific things or to
limit the time/scope somewhat.
- This House We Build, by Terry Bookman and
Bill Kahn; Sacred Strategies by Aron, Cohen, Hoffman, and Kelman. I
believe they were both published through the Alban Institute, which
is also a good resource. They have resources for synagogues and
churches, and most of the books about church congregations are very relevant
Messages and opinions expressed on Hasafran are those of the individual author
and are not necessarily endorsed by the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL)
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