‘Creating a cultural home’

BY JANE KAUFMAN

The Berkshire Eagle

NORTH ADAMS — Perhaps the word miracle might be too strong a word for the turnout at the Hanukkah celebration at Congregation Beth Israel on Monday night. But maybe not.

Fifty-nine people — many of them children — came from as far away as Bennington and Shaftsbury, Vt. The event included the lighting of three menorahs, singing songs around a fire pit in Hebrew, English and Ladino, then tucking in to a meal that included latkes and applesauce, as well as sufganiyot, the Hebrew word for doughnuts, traditional fare at Hanukkah. It ended with a dreidel spinning contest.

This congregation is in the midst of an experiment that is showing tentative success in attracting families, even if they don’t officially affiliate with the synagogue. The experiment was inspired by the Jewish Federation of the Berkshires, which challenged synagogues in the Berkshires to reimagine Jewish education and engagement for families with children.

Integral to Congregation Beth Israel’s potential transformation — from a synagogue with aging membership to a younger demographic— is a partnership with Nefesh, an initiative targeting unaffiliated families in Northern Berkshire County, southwestern Vermont and eastern New York.

Like churches and mosques, synagogues and temples across the country are in a decades- long trend of losing members that has resulted in closures.

“Small Jewish communities are literally disappearing across the map,” said Dara Kaufman, executive director of the Jewish Federation of the Berkshires. “If we want to ensure the Jewish future for this

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