Members of the minyanim are looking for “redemptive, transformative experiences that give rhythm to their days and weeks and give meaning to their lives,” said Joelle Novey, 28, a founder of Tikkun Leil Shabbat, whose name alludes to the Jewish concept of tikkun olam, or repairing the world. It is an experience they are not finding in traditional Jewish institutions, she said. . . .
“Established synagogues are worrying about how to attract and engage younger people, and younger people are looking for a sense of sacred community, and they are going elsewhere,” said J. Shawn Landres, director of research at Synagogue 3000, an institute for congregational leadership and synagogue studies. “For a lot of people, it’s like two ships passing in the night.”
--from NY Times article, Challenging Tradition, Young Jews Worship on Their Terms
Hat tip my uberfriend Susan who alerted me to this article in the NY Times. These quotes could have been about followers of Jesus longing for a fuller expression of being church (like me). I was really struck by these portions of the article because they highlight the similiarity in longings between us, this desire to see God's people live in a way we know is available but experience far too rarely. This is more than interesting to me, this shared desire for "sacred communities" and the growing disconnect between the insitutional and the more relational expressions of faith and mission. Gets me thinking that perhaps God is moving in a profoundly deeper and more complex way than I imagined. But then, that's not all that surprising, heh.
Turns out this "Jewish Emergent" movement is old news, I'm just slow on the uptake. When I did a short Google search, I found there's been dialogue and meetings between Christian and Jewish emergents for at least a couple of years. For more info on Jewish emergents, see Synagogue 3000. For more on Christian-Jewish emergent dialogue, see this. And for this blog's take on the emerging movement among Christians, go here.