Moses went and sat in Rabbi Akiva’s study hall and did not understand what they were saying. His students said to him: My teacher, from where do you derive this? Rabbi Akiva said to them: It is a halakha transmitted to Moses from Sinai. When Moses heard this, his mind was put at ease, as this too was part of the Torah that he was to receive. (Babylonian Talmud, Menakhot 29b)

What does 21st-century Judaism look like? Will we recognize it?

In the 1990s, Jewish leadership in Portland, Ore., explored the idea of a community building where different Jewish organizations could come together and share infrastructure costs. At the time, the idea was voted down. Then the 2008 recession reopened the question urgently. 

Shrinking congregation sizes, Jewish community centers reorganizing and an aging Jewish population in need of more social services were already hallmarks of the early 21st century; and the diminishment of the middle class meant that the support Jewish organizations could count on was diminishing as well. 

If we don’t want to turn away those who can’t afford the price of membership, we have to find a way to shift the financial burden of belonging to a more equitable model. And if we want to build a meaningful community, we must find a way to include all Jews who seek Jewish belonging.

In 2011, Congregation Shir Tikvah revisited the question of shared space and, this time, the seed took root. This is the story of its germination. The development of our vision into a successful entity is to be told by those who nurtured it into full bloom.

Ten years after its founding, Congregation Shir Tikvah faced the usual dilemmas of medium-sized progressive congregations that employ a full-time rabbi but that have limited resources for space, security, or support staff. Drawing on a diverse set of models for sharing space, including the ancient Ben Ezra synagogue in Cairo, Egypt, the West End synagogue of Frankfort, Germany, and the vision of Mordecai Kaplan, Shir Tikvah spearheaded the creation of Portland’s Eastside Jewish Commons (EJC). 

Inspired by a rabbi who dreamed of davening in a roomful of books rather than a cathedral, we dared to think differently. To chart our path forward and seek guidance to prioritize our limited resources, the board engaged in a congregational-wide strategic planning process using the World Café model. 

In our World Café conversations, we learned that there was broad agreement that our journey as Jews would be deeply improved by having a Jewishly-identified place in which to learn, engage in ritual and educate our families — and where our congregation could exercise some control of its schedule and uses.

At the same time, less than half of the congregation wanted to own a building because:

1.) it would necessitate growth, and members liked our intimately-sized congregation, which offered easy access to our rabbi and put a premium on our participation in ritual leadership;

2.) many liked the efficiency of sharing space and resources;

3.) we cherished the spiritual experience of shul without pressure to raise money for capital expenses.  

Thus, the challenge: To develop a Jewish space in which our community would exercise some control over the symbols, aesthetics and use of the facility — without exclusive ownership.

Ancient and modern shared-space models

Dating back to the 12th century and accessible today as a museum and tourist spot, the Ben Ezra Synagogue in the Fustat section of Old Cairo in Egypt was once more town square than sanctuary, its complex the locus around which the Jewish community’s life spun in the busy city. In addition to serving as a house of prayer and center of study, it was the congregation’s welfare office, soup kitchen, hostel, clerical and bookkeeping headquarters and its court of law.

The image inspired us, dovetailing remarkably with the vision our rabbi shared with us of Mordecai Kaplan’s ideal modern Jewish gathering space in his book Judaism as a Civilization. Carrying this idea of something inclusive and many-faceted forward into our modern city, we named our imagined dwelling the Eastside Jewish Commons and began to seek out partners who shared our vision and values.

A river runs through it

Portland is a city of 2.5 million, bisected by the Willamette River, and almost all of organized Jewish life is established on the west side of the city. The story of Jewish Portland follows the arc of the city’s overall history, flowing out from the central city into the west-side hills, where a JCC, a Jewish day school, multiple synagogues and a Jewish federation were built. 

In 2011, Congregation Shir Tikvah — composed of 140 member families and renting space in a small church — was the only Jewish organization located on the river’s east side. The example of the vibrantly and diversely occupied Ben Ezra synagogue drove home that not only did we need a permanent location, but Eastside Portland needed a center for Jewish life.

We framed our project as one of establishing such a center — a Commons — and we set out to find potential partners, including other synagogues. 

In 2011, Portland was in the middle of another significant population shift east of the river. Westside synagogues were serving increasing numbers of congregants living on the east side, and there was a growing desire for a central Jewish location to serve these families.

The vision of a Jewish commons dedicated to shelter and support many kinds of Jewish life under one roof, offer office space to start up Jewish nonprofits or professionals, provide an eastside satellite location for westside shuls, promote multiple kinds of ritual practice and present affordable space for Jewish music, art and theater is now a five-year-old thriving entity with its own board and executive director: the Eastside Jewish Commons (EJC). 

Social and political trends since before the 21st century show a shift in Jewish patterns of belonging, indicating not a diminishment of Jewish identity but a radical transformation. Shir Tikvah met this moment when it invited the full breadth of Jewish Portland to join in creating a shared space, in which our congregation would be but one, and not even the central user, of the space. Stakeholders started to envision the many ways common Jewish space could build a vibrant, diverse community: classrooms that could also accommodate meeting and music rehearsals; bookcases scattered throughout the building, announcing that learning could and should take place anywhere and everywhere; and a sanctuary that doubles as a concert and movie venue. The venue is deliberately neutral: all Jews are welcome. Flexibility in space sharing, which is what makes the EJC viable, requires endless creativity and good will. When a film was scheduled for Tisha B’Av by a member organization, Shir Tikvah took its chanting of the Book of Eicha to the park, responding creatively by taking the opportunity to evoke the destruction of the Temple by meeting without a building.

The synagogue as a praying place may not be the center of 21st-century Jewish life. In this time of transition, we cannot be sure what the future of our people will hold. It is clear, however, that the need for the beit knesset, the communal gathering space, is as strong as ever. There are ways that those of us whose power comes from established institutions can use our resources to make room for whatever comes next, and take pride even in what might be as unrecognizable to us as Rabbi Akiva’s classroom was to Moshe Rabbeinu.

Kalyn Culler Cohen is a social-purpose business strategy consultant. She is a former chair of Congregation Shir Tikvah’s Steering Committee and led the Yibaneh Committee, which was tasked with defining steps necessary to create a multi-use Jewish space in southeast Portland.

Rabbi Ariel Stone has collaborated in founding Jewish community organizations and shuls from Ukraine to Oregon, midwifing emergent forms of Jewish expression including TischPDX and the EJC alongside Congregation Shir Tikvah. She is on the national mentor team for the Clergy Leadership Incubator, a two-year rabbinic fellowship program directed by Rabbi Sid Schwarz.