Sim Shalom Havurah of NYC

Sim Shalom Havurah of New York City's Kabbalat Shabbat Online synagogue services are exactly as Rabbi Blane has always envisioned perfect liberal Jewish worship services to be. As a Rabbi and Cantor who has spent more than 20 years in the pulpit of several traditional synagogues, the majority of who's membership was very liberal in practice- he had often felt sad for anyone outside of the regular synagogue service attending community who came in search of comfort or joy.

According to Rabbi Blane, traditional services and liberal Jews are obviously not meant for each other on a regular basis. Says Rabbi Blane, "In the mainstream movements, if we ever welcomed a new attendee to our services to celebrate a Life Cycle Simcha or to say Kaddish, chances were very high that after we all fumbled over them in an attempt to get them to join, or we bored them with very, very long services, we would never see them again until the High Holidays. Maybe." Still this cycle of meeting the needs of the few regular attendees and choosing not to adapt to meet the needs of the larger communities that synagogues serve is endlessly perpetuated. Boards and committees and rabbis become enmeshed in political wrangling that exhausts many a community.

But at Havurah Sim Shalom of New York City, synagogue services are joyful, musical, participatory, and one-hour total in length. On Fridays from 7-8PM EST each week, Rabbi Blane plays guitar (or ukelele) and leads the online (and once monthly in person NYC Havurah) community in prayer, adds explanations of our liturgy and rituals, and lights Shabbat Candles. Online and in-person we sing, smile, welcome each other, and pray from the siddur that is projected on the screens of our online Havurah's computers. The entire International Sim Shalom community says Torah Blessings and then reads from the Torah and the portion of the week, using the traditional trope (melody). We also sing a prayer for the sick and say a Mourner's Kaddish for those who have passed. Come to an International Synagogue Service. Come to Sim Shalom! Online Kabbalat Shabbat Services are every Friday at 7pm. Please RSVP HERE for our Online Kabbalat Service. A "link" will be emailed to you so you can join us live!

Rabbi Steven Blane http://www.SimShalom.com