Renewal and The Contemporary Jewish Community
Statistics on the number of Jews who identify themselves as "Renewal" are not readily available. Signs of Renewal influence can be found elsewhere; it is not uncommon for congregations not associated with the Renewal movement to feature workshops on Jewish meditation and various Judaized forms of yoga. Many melodies and liturgical innovations are also shared among the Reform, Renewal, and Reconstructionist movements. Even rabbis trained by one of these movements have begun to serve congregations with other affiliations.
Jewish Renewal is "part of the burgeoning world of transdenominational Judaism -- the growing number of synagogues, rabbis and prayer groups that eschew affiliation with a Jewish stream.".
Rabbi Marcia Prager writes:
- Jewish Renewal is a "movement" in the sense of a wave in motion, a grassroots effort to discover the modern meaning of Judaism as a spiritual practice. Jewish-renewalists see "renewal" as a process reaching beyond denominational boundaries and institutional structures, more similar to the multi-centered civil rights or women's movements than to contemporary denominations.
Some examples of Jewish Renewal-affiliated communities can be found at Beyt Tikkun in San Francisco, founded by Rabbi Michael Lerner in 1996; Bnai Or in Boston, founded by Lev Friedman and at one time led by Rabbi Daniel Siegel and Rabbi Hanna Tiferet Siegel; and Pnai Or in Philadelphia, founded by Reb Zalman in the early 1980s and now led by Rabbi Marcia Prager.
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