The Other Shul is built very much like the one in your own neighborhood. There are a number of committees, subcommittees, task forces, divisions, cliques, and groups within the shul, in order to serve the needs of the people. You may feel free to join any of these groups in addition to The Other Shul, or you may remain an uninvolved congregant - as you like.

Functionaries

1. Our beloved Rabbi is quite traditional, and he likes to discuss things with his peers.
2. The man who reads the Torah and his friend who writes Mezuzahs have a group of their own.
3. The president of The Other Shul and his colleagues in the other Jewish organizations discuss administrative Jewish leadership issues in this special group.
4. The Other Shul is the venue for a Hebrew school, and this clique for the teachers helps them plan lessons according to traditional Jewish principles.
5. Even those teachers sometimes have to brush up on their Hebrew, so now they talk with some native Israelis.

   Generational and family groups

6. The young adult group for congregants aged 18-25 discusses issues such as dating, relationships, and employment.
7. The senior citizens set up a special, slow-moving group to discuss the kinderlach in today's world. Things aren't the same as they used to be in the good old days, you know.
8. The parents try to keep a handle on their kids, who seem to know much more than they should these days.
9. The shul's Health and Welfare Committee helps the disabled congregants manage in society.
10. Even in such a lovely community, there are sometimes slight misunderstandings between husbands and wives. A committee was set up to resolve these issues.
11. The boys have a group of their own, since all the old guys will never understand them.
12. The girls finally have their own haven where they can avoid those show-offy boys.

    There is a continuing debate whether those previous two committees, for Jewish Boys and Jewish Girls, belong on the Gender groups or the Generational and family groups.

    Gender groups

13. The Shul's Women's Auxiliary discusses basic issues about the shul, while...
14. The Sisterhood has regular meetings that don't always stick to the topic.
15. The men's club decided to set up a scholarly group in the Shul in which they could discuss advanced sugyahs in Talmud.

    Ritual Committee

16. The shul's main ritual committee gets together to discuss the application of traditional Jewish law. Of course, there are several subcommittees:
17. Because of the problems involved in acquiring Kosher food, a special group was set up to help congregants find what they need.
18. Some of the congregants took a special interest in the special laws relating to the Land of Israel and they set up a special group to deal with these issues.
19. Some of the congregants have a somewhat weaker background in Judaism, so they set up a group in which they could ask basic questions.
20. Since many congregants work in hi-tech fields, they set up a special task force to discuss issues relating to Judaism and computing.
21. The Goodwill and Chessed Committee helps out Shul members in need.

    Building Committee

22. The Other Shul wanted to be sure that the construction was completed in the most ethical manner, so they set up a Business Ethics committe to resolve some issues.
23. No, the renovations in The Other Shul did not get completed according to plan, so it was necessary to set up a fundraising committee to get the work done.

All of these groups, taken together, make up The Other Shul - and perhaps a good deal of the Nation of Israel as well.

• Siyyata for young adults. Deals with dating, relationships, employment, and more.
• Rabbi For traditional Rabbis
• Leining For those who read or write Torah scrolls.
• Jewish Leadership also includes young Jewish leadership. Administrative - and not political - issues
• Jewish Teaching Teaching according to traditional Jewish principles.
• Eshet Chayil and Tisha Kabin Groups for traditional women.
• Chiddush For advanced Torah and Talmudic scholars. Men only.
• Shmitta Laws pertaining to the Land of Israel.
• Jewish Beginnings For those beginning their path to, or considering conversion to Judaism.
• Jewish Traditions A higher level group for those established in their Judaic studies.
• Kosher A study of Jewish dietary laws.
• Jewish Computing Jewish laws and issues pertaining to computing.

All of these groups are just the beginning. The Other Shul is structured so that everybody has a say in many Shul committees.

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Are you required to read this webpage for a course? Do NOT print out the article. It is copyrighted.
Your exercise for this article is as follows:
Look at the list of groups at http://www.geocities.com/jewishgroups
What Jewish groups - besides those listed above - may be of interest to those who subscribe to The Other Shul?

Click here for subject and title lists of articles by David Grossman

Copyright © David Grossman. World rights reserved. This article may not be printed, forwarded, reproduced, or copied in any way or in any medium without written permission from David Grossman.

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