Thursday, August 04, 2022
Elder of Ziyon
In response to a tweet about Andy Levin, who touted himself during his campaign as a former synagogue president, Melissa Braunstein asked, "Why hasn’t an article been written about that synagogue? Are the members all like Levin politically speaking?"
The answer is that his synagogue is as fringe about Judaism as Levin is about Israel.
His synagogue is Congregation T'chiyah, a Reconstructionist synagogue. According to the 1990 National Jewish Population Survey, only 1% of Jews identified as Reconstructionist at the time. Since then, the survey has lumped them in with "others" which are at 4% total. About 2.5% of American synagogues in 2002 identified as Reconstructionist.
Either way, they represent a tiny slice of American Judaism.
The founder of Reconstructionist Judaism does not believe in a personal God. He defined God as "the sum of all natural processes that allow people to become self-fulfilled." This is not mainstream Judaism, or mainstream religion.
Levin's congregation describes itself in progressive word-salad style.
At this time, services - when they are held - are in a rented room of a Methodist church that is also considered progressive.
Their calendar does not mention Tisha B'Av this coming Sunday. Instead, they are having a yoga class.
My point isn't to slam Reconstructionist Judaism, although I strongly disagree with everything about it. I'm just saying that all the people who pretended that Levin was some sort of SuperJew for being the president of a synagogue are gaslighting the Jewish community, because a synagogue like this - that says nothing about Israel on its webpage and in its programming - is not at all mainstream.
