SYNERGY Newsletter Online
Web-Based Synagogue Community Building: The Revolution is Under Way
Lisa Colton is founder and president of Darim Online, which has been awarded a UJA-Federation grant to develop a social-media “boot camp” for Long Island synagogues during the coming year.
Clay Shirky, a professor of new media at New York University and the author of Here Comes Everybody, describes the implications of social media in five words: collective action just got easier. More than simply putting the same content online, the new media revolution is creating a tectonic shift in how we produce, consume, share, and act on information and relationships. For synagogues, “collective action just got easier” does not mean putting your newsletter and calendar on your website; newspapers put their articles online years ago, and this tactical move has not positioned them well for success in the 21st century. We need to be asking ourselves much deeper questions.
In fact, the revolution that is now taking place works to our benefit. It values trust and authenticity above all, and provides new tools and approaches for organizing and educating. However, it challenges the top-down structure and culture of many synagogues, and thus our task is to refocus on our missions and rethink the structure, culture, and function of how we work to fulfill those missions. With these tools, individuals and groups are able to organize themselves without organizations (emergent communities and independent minyanim are evidence of this); therefore, organizations need to think creatively about how they will continue to add value above and beyond the role they’ve played in the past. And, conversely, there may be top-down roles they have played in the past that can be passed back to the community and save staff time. I’d like to give a few illustrations of how congregations are putting this into action.
Temple Sinai in Oakland, California, is using Facebook to listen to their congregants and build community among those with similar interests. Their membership liaison spends 10 minutes a day scanning the status updates of fans of their Facebook page. By doing so, she learns tidbits about their lives, therefore enriching in-person conversations when she sees them at events or at services. Furthermore, she can act on specific pieces of information, such as when she learned members were hospitalized after a car accident — she was able to immediately send a message of support, then inform the rabbis and caring committee; or when she discovered a family was seeking a preschool for their daughter and did not know about the synagogue’s program — she invited them to a tour, and now the child is enrolled. While she posts updates about the congregation from time to time, the greatest value is the ability to listen to the community and glean insights that otherwise would remain unknown.
Furthermore, by establishing multiple Facebook groups in cooperation with members in each of those demographics (empty nesters, singles, parents of preschoolers, LGBT, interfaith families, and so forth), the congregation has helped strengthen specific communities within the congregation. With limited time and attention to invest in forming and participating in community, helping members (and prospects) find those with whom they have the most in common — by ages of children, observance, neighborhoods, stages of life, and so forth — with the greatest ease, is in fact adding value.
Temple Israel Center in White Plains has used their website as a central address for helping unemployed congregants network for jobs, and Bet Am Shalom in Westchester County is using a LinkedIn group to connect members by profession.
New York City’s Congregation Beth Simchat Torah is using Twitter to reach not only members but also prospects to share news about the synagogue and about members of the congregation and the wider community that would be of interest. Sixth & I Historic Synagogue in Washington, D.C., has developed a particular personality on Twitter that resonates with the specific demographic they seek to attract — for example, attracting young adults by giving away a free wedding via Twitter.
The take-home message is that there are many levels to this communications revolution. Like the printing press, the impact is about not only the proliferation of books but also the rise of literacy rates and high education, libraries, the democratization of information, and thus shifts in social, political, economic, and religious systems. Learning the tools and the culture that goes along with them is important, but it is only a first step. We must begin conversations about the implications of this revolution on memberships models, where we invest our communal dollars, and how we keep our local congregations vibrant, relevant, and successful in this new age.
Furthermore, we must recognize that job descriptions and critical skills are shifting too. Every new employee should have social-media skills and experience, organizations should offer professional development to increase literacy and comfort for all staff, and leadership should examine all existing job descriptions to see where roles can be modified to support bottom-up organizing. For example, many “program directors” are transitioning into “community facilitators”.
Experts predict that the chaos stage of this revolution will last about 50 years, and we’re already five to 10 years into it. Thus, what we can expect in the next few decades is change and more change. Let’s adopt a nimble stance — like a tennis player on our toes, not on our heels — and get in the game in strategic and thoughtful ways.
Got a story to share? We’d love to hear how you’re using social media and aligning your work with the 21st century paradigm. Contact Lisa Colton at .