After 40 years, Jewish congregation reinvents itself

By Cindy Mindell

Selah’s music director Nurit Avigdor leads a group of children in song

STAMFORD – With the economic challenges and demographic changes that have marked the last decade, many synagogues today must find creative ways to stay viable, sharing resources and merging congregations. So it is unusual to see a congregation pull through a difficult period intact.
A Stamford chavurah has done just that, reinventing itself on the occasion of its 40th anniversary, and marking the transition with a new name, a new rabbi, and a new denominational affiliation.
The Fellowship for Jewish Learning was founded in 1973, a small unaffiliated chavurah that was led by Rabbi Emily Faust Korzenik until 2004, when she retired and was appointed rabbi emerita. For the next six years, the congregation was led by several scholars and teachers, among them Rabbi Howard Handler, Rabbi Phil Schechter and Rabbi Allison Berry. Rabbi Eric Hoffman took the pulpit in 2010.
“By 2012, the Fellowship faced the same challenges as other congregations — aging and declining membership, increasing expenses, waning leadership, and financial stress,” says former board president Marie Orsini Rosen, whose family has been involved with the Fellowship for 22 years. The board decided to disband the Fellowship after its signature open-door High Holiday services led by Korzenik, which
attracted a record turnout.
Many Fellowship members and non-member visitors requested that the board explore ways to keep interested congregants together, either through joining or merging as a group with another synagogue. With no decision to continue as an independent congregation, Orsini Rosen and fellow former board chair Griff Trow met with area synagogues, and the Fellowship board proceeded with the formal dissolution process.
In January, the board, led by Orsini Rosen, voted to affiliate with the Reconstructionist movement, a step that had been considered several times since the congregation’s founding.
“We had a long but unofficial relationship with the Reconstructionist movement,” Orsini Rosen says. “Rabbi Korzenik was one of the first women rabbis from the Reconstructionist movement and she incorporated many of its practices — social justice and independence — into our services and practices. Over the years, our other rabbis suggested affiliating with one of the established movements, but the Fellowship membership at that time prized its independence.”
The decision was bolstered by the arrival of Rabbi Nicole Wilson-Spiro, dubbed the group’s “Chanukah miracle” by Trow. She had just moved to Stamford with her husband and three children, and was introduced to the Fellowship by the group’s music director, Nurit Avigdor. “The one alternative we hadn’t considered — moving forward as an independent synagogue — suddenly not only presented itself but also presented itself as the strongest way forward,” says Orsini Rosen. “Rabbi Nicole’s scholarship, warmth, and passion won everyone over and we did what we never thought we’d do again — become a singular voice in our beautiful and diverse Fairfield County Jewish community.”
The group chose the name “Selah,” a word found throughout the Psalms. “Its meaning is somewhat esoteric,” says Wilson-Spiro, appointed spiritual leader in January. “Scholars believe it was a musical notion, meaning ‘exalt’ or perhaps ‘pause and consider.’ “When I first met with the group, I was struck that, although they had no official ties to the movement, they were so Reconstructionist in their approach,” says Wilson-Spiro, who was ordained in 2006 by the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. “Their commitments to egalitarianism, to highly participatory worship, to Jewish study, to communal democratic process, and to meaningful social action matched the Reconstructionist movement perfectly. The transition felt very organic.”
Wilson-Spiro comes to Selah from Congregation B’nai Israel in Bridgeport, where she worked as founding rabbi of the Young Families Havurah since 2009.
At Selah, the Purim Megillah-reading was held at a new local microbrewery, following a beer-tasting. To prepare for Passover, the congregation discussed the concept of liberation with Fernando Bermudez, an exoneree who served 18 years for a crime he did not commit and was finally released with help from The Innocence Project. To prepare for Shavuot, when Jews traditionally eat dairy foods, Selah will host Jason Sobocinski of Caseus, a cheese bistro in New Haven, to teach a cooking class. This spring, the congregation will create an edible garden to help feed and educate children in transitional housing in Stamford.
No doubt, part of the resilience demonstrated by the Fellowship and Selah is due to the fact that neither congregation owned a building, with the former group holding services at the Meeting House in Stamford. Selah continues to avail itself of locations throughout the community, gathering for a weekly Shabbat celebration at the Bartlett Arboretum in Stamford to share communal meals, study, and prayer. In addition to the more traditional services, Selah also holds a monthly Shabbat yoga service, co-led by the rabbi and a certified Kripalu instructor. The yoga service makes use of traditional Jewish meditation and texts, as well as techniques offered by the discipline of yoga, to help participants find Shabbat rest.
As a reflection of the congregation’s commitment to Jewish values, the Selah board set the congregation’s dues structure by studying biblical and rabbinic discussions of t’rumah, the financial contributions collected from the ancient Israelites to build the Tabernacle. There are no “rollover memberships” from the Fellowship, Rosen says, just new members, currently numbering 15 families.
As a Reconstructionist congregation, Selah focuses on building intentional Jewish community as a core Jewish value, says Wilson-Spiro. “We thoughtfully welcome guests and new members. We also take care of each other and celebrate milestones together. Our members are actively involved in helping to lead our community and keep it vital.” For example, during services, congregants serve as teachers, reflecting on verses from “Pirkei Avot” (Ethics of the Parents), based on their personal histories. “As Reconstructionists, we don’t consider any question or idea too dangerous for discussion, and we don’t try to mandate uniformity of beliefs,” Wilson-Spiro says. “We recognize that our members hold a wide range of political opinions and also beliefs about God and religion, and we celebrate that diversity in an atmosphere that fosters great, respectful discussion.”
Wilson-Spiro points to Selah’s diversity as a unique aspect of the congregation. “We embrace young professionals, young families, interfaith families, empty-nesters, seniors, singles, couples, and LGBT Jews,” she says. “Our diversity is one of our greatest strengths.”

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