“Perhaps the time has come when we must think of shifting the center of gravity of worship from the public gathering to the home. If the family were to become the main unit in religious services, or the home the principal place for divine communion, the practice of worship might be given a new lease soon life. In general, it seems to be that if we want Jewish life to survive within the present political and economic framework, it will be necessary to decentralize it in certain of its aspects and well as to centralize it in others.” (Judaism as a Civilization)
From Joel Abramovitz
If the family were to become the main unit…
Our tradition is full of exhortations to localize Jewish education within the home, not outside of it. In the Haggadah, the central maxim is “teach your children.” In Kiddushin, we read that it is a parent’s obligation to raise their children by, in addition to teaching them professional skills and life skills, to give them a Jewish education themselves. As a Jewish educator, this is humbling. Kaplan’s words reconnect us to the idea that familial connection and time are the best way to educate for lasting Jewish personhood. A family who does more Jewish together, more of the time, is more likely to create children who are more invested in Judaism for themselves.
When I was a congregational educator, I was struck by how thirsty the parents were – not just for their own Jewish learning, but to create a rich Jewish life for their children. Yet many felt they didn’t know how. Over time I came to see that as professional Jewish educators, our primary learner is not the child – but the parents. Creating meaningful, engaging learning experiences for children is the icing; the cake is providing tools and confidence to the parents to be full Jews themselves, so they can create a meaningful and robust Jewish home life. Only through that can our students fashion a lasting and strong Jewish identity, a deep love of the Jewish people, an abiding curiosity to learn Jewish ideas, and a lifelong desire to be a part of a Jewish community.
Joel Abramovitz is the Director of the Wenger-Markowitz Family Education Initiative of Reconstructing Judaism.
From Rabbi Alex Malaynch
“Family” and “Home”
There are too many ways Jews connect for us to limit our divine access points to synagogues. But when Kaplan suggests “family” become the “main unit in religious services” or the “home” a center of divine communion, I am left wary. In tension with his radical call for Jewish futurity is a casual assumption that these words elicit both shared meaning and shared experience. Instead, they continue to be some of our least precise critical vocabulary.
At times we invoke Judaism through the lens of family without unpacking the connotations of blood, heredity, and ethnicity that float beneath. “Home” can evoke a particularism and independence—a boundedness that means exclusion as much as it means safety or meaningful tradition. This is to say nothing of the social exchange, the friction and familiarity we attach to home-life. Using “home” and “family” too casually brings the liability of forgetting the most vulnerable–the widow, the sojourner, the convert—for whom public gathering and institutional life are not the antithesis of home or family but where these values are found, cultivated and sustained. Shifting spiritual communion to the home and family comes with great opportunity but it does not solve the deeper issue of bridging and gathering. Perhaps then “kinship” with its complexities and difficulties and its connection to our sacred history is a tool for both families and institutions to make themselves more productively vulnerable.
Rabbi Alex Malanych is a college chaplain living in northeast Pennsylvania. When not buying craft materials for on-campus events, Alex is working toward a PhD in Jewish Studies at Gratz College focused on adult education and conversion.
From Karen Morris
Communal and Home Engagement Working Together
The goal of Kaplan over 90 years ago to emphasize Jewish practice and worship in the home remains worthy and applicable. I do not think the shift is for the home to take over, but to align in cooperation with communal practice. In the modern era, especially post Covid, people are engaging, in-person, hybrid & by streaming religious worship. This way the family is experiencing Shabbat in their personal space and also connecting to the larger community. Children are ever more busy with extracurricular activities and it can be challenging to attend synagogue. The educator role remains extremely important, as the knowledge base in the home from the parents can not be guaranteed. Many Jewish homes are multi-faith and there may not be a strong foundation present. The challenge is the motivation to engage. Why do so at all? The educator is essential in their role to bring spiritual meaning and Jewish connection within the given diaspora setting. Today’s rise in antisemitism has brought about a desire by many to connect more to the community.
It is the nature of humanity to be social and science has shown there is also a positive health effect. Community worship must remain central. We see progress in that we have many resources, Judaism is accessible online, and in multiple formats. The critical element is to generate a spark that will bring people together as well in communal settings and also will encourage meaningful at home practice.
From Rabbi Len Zukrow
The Jewish Home as a Mikdash Me’at
The home is where Judaism lives. Every activity within it can amplify, elevate, celebrate, and enrich Jewish ritual, learning, observance, and daily living.
A Jewish home becomes Jewish through the intersection of the people who reside there, the sacred objects they use, the sacred texts they study, and the meaningful interactions that shape Jewish life.
Legacy and heritage also meet within the home, imbuing it with holiness. In this sense, the Jewish home is truly a mikdash me’at—a small sanctuary—whose sanctity may equal, and perhaps even surpass, the sacred structures of our past.
The Jewish home is not made holy only by formal ritual moments, but also by the everyday choices that give those moments meaning. Lighting Shabbat candles, blessing children, sharing meals, welcoming guests, studying Torah, giving tzedakah, and marking the rhythms of the Jewish calendar all transform ordinary space into sacred space.
In this way, the home becomes a place where Jewish identity is both inherited and actively created. It teaches through memory, practice, conversation, song, food, learning, and love. Each generation receives a tradition, adds its own voice, and passes forward a living Judaism rooted in holiness and belonging.
Home is where the heart of Jewish life resides.