Town Hall Meeting Recap and Or Hadash Mission, Vision & Values

Rabbi Lauren shared these remarks at Sunday’s town hall meeting to look back at our community’s origins amidst a changing Jewish landscape and share the work we’ll be focusing on going forward. 

This month, we’re journeying through the story of B’nai Yisrael leaving Egypt, which comes to a climax in the parsha we read yesterday, Beshalach, where the Israelites cross through the sea into their new lives as free people. Often, this is where we stop telling the story. But in reality, this was only stage one of B’nai Yisrael’s formation into a nation. 

We learn in this week’s parsha, Yitro, that just before reaching Mt. Sinai, Moshe reunites with his father in law, Yitro. Moshe proudly shares with Yitro all of the great highlights and successes as well as the hardships they’ve experienced on their journey so far. But the next day, Yitro notices something that perhaps only a newcomer can notice. The Israelite community is still operating under a model of Moshe’s charismatic leadership that was necessary for leading the people out of Egypt, but is now holding the community back from its next stage of evolution.

Yitro says to Moshe: this is not sustainable. “What is this thing that you are doing to the people? Why do you act alone, while all the people stand about you from morning until evening?” He’s saying - not only is this not good for you as a leader, it’s not good for your community either. You are inhibiting their growth and responsibility by making all of the judgments yourself. You need to seek out capable, trustworthy, aligned leaders each with their own skills and talents to contribute, and create a new model and structure for organizing the community. The same strategies and tactics that served you, Moshe, to lead B’nai Yisrael out of Egypt are not necessarily going to be the ones that are most needed in this next chapter. 

Moshe realizes that Yitro is right, and they begin to build a new model, one of shared leadership and responsibility. Moshe’s job is to keep B’nai Yisrael aligned with their mission and purpose as God’s beloved people, teaching them and caring for them every step of the journey. But now, many more Israelites are invited into the process of leading and co-creating the community. It is the only way for them to be able to strengthen themselves and grow.

I had the opportunity to learn last week from a leader in the field of Jewish philanthropy, Andres Spokoiny, who shared with our group of Jewish young professionals his perspective on the dramatic changes in Jewish life over the past century and how we need to adapt going forward. Click here to read more…

Essentially, we live in a time of almost unlimited choice. To buy a pair of jeans, you used to have 3 kinds of Levi’s - now, you have hundreds of brands and styles. Anyone who’s on the dating market can open up their app and see hundreds of potential matches. And with that much choice comes paralysis - what if I’m making the wrong choice? I can’t commit if something better might be another swipe away. Having this much choice seems at first like freedom - but is in fact a trap. This has led to three concurrent crises in the Jewish world. First, a crisis of meaning - because when you have to create your own identity for yourself, you’re always asking yourself, what is the meaning of my life? The answers aren’t given to you anymore - you’re always searching. Second, a crisis of belonging and community - because fewer people want to limit their choices by committing to being part of a particular synagogue or Jewish community - why would I do anything to limit my freedom? But as a result, there is a crisis of belonging. And finally, a crisis of organizational structures - because the structures created in the 20th century were top-down, pyramid hierarchies - but the structures that work best in a 21st century world are platforms and networks that allow people to connect to each other horizontally, from the ground up. 

Our congregation was born at the dawn of the 21st century, straddling these two eras, pulled between the old and the new. A small group of committed, forward-thinking lay leaders and rabbis envisioned a new kind of Jewish community here in Sandy Springs that was vibrant and full of energy. They dreamed and they gave and they shlepped and they built to form this beautiful, holy community that we have today. 

And then we had our own challenges that compounded the already existent crises of modern Jewish life: a major transition in spiritual and rabbinic leadership, followed by COVID, and then the crisis of October 7th. Each of these moments in their own way accelerated the crisis of meaning, the crisis of belonging, and the crisis of organizational structures - our need for community grew, but our choices for ways to access community grew as well. 

We knew that this was a time for collective discernment: who are we as Or Hadash called to be in the midst of such dramatic change? About a year ago, we began to talk about the necessity of a strategic plan to guide us forward and help us co-create a new vision for Or Hadash’s next chapter. We found consultants in the broader Jewish community who understood our community’s uniqueness, and last summer, we began to listen to your hopes and dreams, through surveys, interviews, and communal conversations.

What we heard was a hunger for more and more ways to connect, belong, and find meaning.

You want to see more programming for tots, kids, and teens, and families as a whole. More ways for parents to connect with each other and learn. Renewed and strengthened interfaith connections and more opportunities for shared tikkun olam work. A deepened and broadened engagement with Israel, and ways for us to strengthen our relationship that honor the diversity of our commitments to Israel, to the Jewish people, and to our core values. More communal singing! Expanded Jewish learning at more times and in more places, learning that meets us where we are and challenges us to grow. Spaces to explore our core differences that fundamentally honor what unites us. More meditation and spiritual practice together that will soothe our souls. More ways to gather in each other’s homes and connect deeply. More people to do all of these things with. 

We learned that you deeply want to give back. You want to be asked to help. It’s counterintuitive, maybe, but in a time of so much overwhelm, in our personal lives and at work and out in the world, you want to give the gifts and talents that you uniquely possess to build this sacred community too. You’ll say no if you don’t have the bandwidth, but you so deeply want to be asked to grow and sustain this community. And I have to say, this is something that has been hard for me to learn - because like so many of you, it’s hard for me to ask for help. But I’m working on it. 

When our board, staff, and strategic planning committee came together in August to analyze all of the data we collected, our consultants led us in an exercise where we first dreamed together about our future. We envisioned a full sanctuary, packed for services and events, with children everywhere, young families and elders connecting, a physical space that reflects the soul of the community. We imagined hearing voices singing together, children laughing, lively hallway chatter, sounds of tikkun olam in action. We could taste the home-cooked meals, the menus reflecting the broad diversity of our people, with herbs picked fresh from our community garden. 

And then we asked the hard questions: What’s holding us back from achieving that vision now? Why aren’t we there yet? What do WE have agency and control over, even as so much in our broader communal landscape is beyond our control? 

Our four strategic directions that you’ll hear more about in a few moments emerged from how we responded to those challenging questions. 

First - we realized that Or Hadash has a unique identity in the landscape of synagogues here in Atlanta. We appeal to a very wide range of people and backgrounds: Jews from all denominational backgrounds and those who love Jews, new seekers and long-time involved congregants, cultural, religious, spiritual. And so yes, while we find that our most authentic expression of Judaism comes through the centrist vision of the Conservative/Masorti movement, those particular labels don’t always convey the uniqueness of our identity to people who are searching for their spiritual home. How might we share our values and our stories more widely with our broader Jewish community? 

Second - we learned that we do a terrific job at welcoming newcomers - the vast majority of people said in the survey that creating a welcoming and inclusive environment was one of our greatest strengths. But we don’t have clear pathways to help you move from feeling like a beloved guest to fully belonging and feeling a sense of ownership in the larger community. Can we make it far easier to find belonging here? 

Third - we learned that while our flexibility and organic start-up spirit helped us build Or Hadash during the first two decades of our congregation‘s life, we’re actually craving a little more structure now. People need clarity about how work gets done, how processes at Or Hadash happen, and we need a real system of diversified leadership and committees to help us provide all of the resources that our community needs. Can we hone our systems and structures to become the optimal 21st century Jewish community that we crave, without losing that organic feeling that makes us who we are?

And finally, we learned that we need to grow. We can’t just be this niche, best-kept secret in Jewish Atlanta. In order for our entire community to thrive, our numbers need to grow. Our religious school needs to grow, our young families need to grow, and we also need to grow our financial resources in order to be able to offer the kinds of programs and relationships and infrastructure that are going to support our collective flourishing. Can we do that while holding onto our intimacy and warmth?

If we have the courage and persistence to address these challenges head-on, to take our future into our own hands by sharing responsibility for the community with one another, we will flourish for generations to come. It won’t be easy. And it won’t happen without intentional work. But with each and every one of us offering up the gifts and talents that we can uniquely contribute to the greater whole and seeking out those gifts and talents in one another, we will thrive. 

B’ahavah (with love),

Rabbi Lauren

Or Hadash Mission, Vision & Values

Or Hadash - Mission, Vision, and Values

Our mission is to create a welcoming and inclusive Jewish community in Atlanta through joyful prayer, compelling lifelong learning, and creative pathways for spiritual connection.

Our vision is to be a thriving, multi-generational spiritual community that is rooted in Jewish tradition, embraces innovation, inspires meaningful living, and brings light to the world.

Our kehillah, sacred community, is guided by these values:

מסורה חיה - Mesorah Chayah – A Living Tradition

We inherit a tradition that is alive and unfolding. We engage Torah, prayer, and Jewish practice with kavanah - depth, intention, and respect, bringing ancient wisdom and history into active conversation with our lives today. We actively invest in building a strong Jewish foundation for our youth and families, and we are committed to lifelong learning, curiosity, and growth.

אהבת ישראל - Ahavat Yisrael – Love for Israel and the Jewish People

We are inextricably linked with the whole of the Jewish people and to the land and the people of the state of Israel. We are a Zionist congregation that makes room for each of us to explore, ask questions, feel, and express our love in ways that are authentic and rooted in our values.

שותפות - Shutafut – Partnership

We create our community through shared leadership, creativity, and care. Each person's contributions shape our Jewish life together. We honor our responsibility as partners—with God and with one another—in tikkun olam. We are committed to imagining, building, and nurturing the community and the world we wish to inhabit.

ערבות - Arevut – Mutual Interconnection

We honor the dignity and belonging of every person and every family. We listen for many voices, lift one another with care, and weave a multigenerational community bound by warmth, generosity, and shared responsibility.

לב פתוח - Lev Patuach – Open-Heartedness

We show up with open hearts—present, kind, humble, curious, and joyful. This spirit inspires us to live lives of chesed - compassion and generosity. Music is a key practice in our community to support us in opening our hearts and cultivating a sense of awe.