(RNS) — Congregation B’nai Amoona in St. Louis is expecting some 3,000 people for Rosh Hashana services next week, and the 137-year-old congregation, which prides itself on inclusion, wants to be welcoming.
The building is fully accessible to people with disabilities. It has a wheelchair ramp leading up to the bimah, or sanctuary stage, and Bluetooth headsets for the hearing impaired.
This year, it’s also taking another step toward inclusion. For the first time anyone can remember, nonmembers will not be required to buy tickets for High Holy Day services.
B’nai Amoona Rabbi Carnie Shalom Rose said the change is in keeping with the way its 800 member families want to see themselves.
“It’s an attitudinal orientation to being open,” Rose said.
People participate in the Selichot service at Congregation B’Nai Amoona on Sept. 21, 2019, in St. Louis, Missouri. Photo courtesy of B’Nai Amoona
The timeworn tradition of selling tickets to High Holy Day services — once a staple of American Jewish life — is fraying. Synagogues in places such as Durham, North Carolina; Savannah, Georgia; Hartford, Connecticut; and Oklahoma City have been dropping the practice.
Long a source of revenue for synagogues and a way to manage the rush of one-time visitors that stretches sanctuaries to maximum capacity during the High Holy Days, the ticket system is a victim of the times.
Much like Christian churches, synagogues have seen declining membership. Only one-third of Jews (31%) said they belonged to a synagogue, according to the Pew Research Center’s 2013 report on U.S. Jews.
As that number continues to decline, charging people to attend services seems counterproductive.
“For the regular Jew, there are enough barriers to practicing Judaism,” said Rabbi Steven Henkin of Congregation Agudath Achim in Savannah, which does not charge for tickets. “We don’t need to put up an additional barrier.”
A Congregation Shaarey Tphiloh High Holy Days ticket from 1973 in Portland, Maine. Photo courtesy of Maine Memory Network
For decades, budgets at the country’s estimated 3,500 Jewish synagogues have depended both on members who pay annual dues and nonmembers who attend once or twice a year — the so-called “High Holiday Jews” — who contribute through the ticket system. (Jewish law forbids handling money on the Sabbath, so there is no collection plate in synagogues.)
But tickets to High Holy Day services aren’t cheap. Some synagogues charge $100 a service, and others range from $350 to $500 for a package that allows a person admission to all the High Holy Day services.
(The High Holy Days services typically refer to the so-called 10 Days of Awe, that begins with
While rabbis say they will not turn away those without means to pay, asking for an exception is often considered humiliating.
The UJA Federation of New York publishes a list of both ticketed and free High Holy Day services in all five New York City boroughs as well as Connecticut and New Jersey to help unaffiliated Jews find the services that meet their needs and pocketbooks. Chabad, the Hasidic movement within Orthodox Judaism, typically offers free services.
Free tickets are avaialble online for services at Temple Beth-El in St. Petersburg, Florida. Screengrab
College students are typically exempted. Synagogue Connect allows Jews between the ages of 18 and 26 to find a congregation near them that will allow them to attend services for free. Since it started four years ago, the network has grown to 1,149 congregations willing to offer a free ride to young people.
But the program’s co-founder, Rabbi Ronald Brown, acknowledged he’d be happier if synagogues dropped the ticket system entirely.
“It’s an investment in the future of the Jewish people,” Brown said.
This year, some synagogues are sticking to the ticket system for security reasons. With the Pittsburgh and Poway, California, synagogue shootings on everyone’s minds, congregational leaders feel safer requiring all guests to have a ticket with a name on it.
Some synagogues have found a way around that, too.
B’nai Tikvoh-Sholom, a Conservative synagogue in Bloomfield, Connecticut, a suburb of Hartford, eliminated paid tickets four years ago. But it still requires all participants in High Holy Day services to bring a preprinted pass as a way of ensuring the safety of all worshippers.
Nonmembers who want to attend are asked to call ahead of time and give their name, address and email. They are then mailed a ticket free of charge or they can ask the synagogue to hold a ticket for them at the door.
Congregation B’nai Amoona anticipates large crowds filling the sanctuary for Rosh Hashana services in St. Louis, Missouri. Photo by Zach Dalin Photography, courtesy of B’nai Amoona
Rabbi Debra Cantor said many Jews no longer feel a communal obligation to contribute.
“The assumption is not, ‘Of course, I’ll buy a ticket.’ The assumption is, ‘I’m not going to go,’” said Cantor.
In reality, she said, eliminating paid tickets has increased membership. Guests usually find services uplifting and once they find community, they’re more inclined to join — not always in the first year, but by the second year, Cantor said.
“It’s worked out very well for us,” she said.
Dropping High Holy Day tickets for nonmembers will mean a shortfall of $5,000 to $7,000 for Congregation B’nai Amoona in St. Louis. But with an annual budget of $3.3 million, it won’t hurt too much.
And then there’s the plus side.
“If we feel better about ourselves for being radically open and inclusive as a root foundational aspect of who we are, then we’ve changed ourselves,” said Rose. “This is a new level of consciousness.”
