"To Be a Sanctuary": In the Synagogue and Online, American Congregations Respond to COVID-19

Abstract

Since the founding of the first Jewish congregation in North America in 1654, American synagogues have evolved substantially, often in parallel with changes occurring across the country. When the COVID-19 pandemic struck the United States in 2020, it simultaneously forced synagogues to close their doors and also created an environment that fostered innovation and experimentation in many Reform and Conservative communities. This thesis explores the effects of COVID-19 on non-Orthodox American Jewish congregations by presenting case studies of three communities: Park Avenue Synagogue, a large Conservative synagogue in New York City, New York; Temple Beth Or, a small Reform temple in Montgomery, Alabama; and The Neighborhood, an exclusively online Jewish community that is an extension of Central Synagogue, a large Reform synagogue in New York City, New York. I employ semi-structured interviews with congregants, clergy, and staff members to understand how each community has evolved as a result of the pandemic, and I argue that COVID-19 has exacerbated and accelerated trends that were already occurring in American synagogues prior to Spring 2020. The four trends I focus on are accessibility, digitization, decline, and megatization, each of which is evident in one or more of the three communities included in this study. Finally, I demonstrate how, in spite of the changes that have occurred in many American Jewish congregations because of COVID-19, individuals’ religious needs–and specifically, their desires for community and connection–have remained fundamentally unchanged by the pandemic, which suggests that there are some limits to how synagogues will continue to evolve down the line.