Journey of a Rabbi by Shechter Jack;

Author:Shechter, Jack;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780761863977
Publisher: University Press of America, Incorporated
Published: 2014-08-29T00:00:00+00:00

42) THE CONVENTION AFTERMATH AND EVALUATION

By all accounts this was a successful convention as the extensive feedback received indicates. First, some of my own observations.

• Affirmation of Ideational Content… A clear consensus was that the ideational contents of the proceedings was substantial, pertinent to the needs of the time, and useful for ways to think and act as rabbis. Especially welcome was hearing from the respected theoreticians and leaders of the Conservative Movement. Also, the opportunities for learning were embraced with a good deal of appreciation.

• Overall Attendance… Just over 1,000 persons participated including 525 rabbis; 250 spouses; 175 lay leaders of synagogues, sisterhoods and men’s clubs; and 75 cantors, educators, administrators, presenters, students, staffers and exhibitors. This was by far the largest attendance of a Rabbinical Assembly Convention in its history.

• Lunch-and-Learn Participation… On Monday, an average of 25 individuals were at 25 tables for lunch meal and learning sessions. (Only one of the 26 offerings was cancelled.) This was repeated on Tuesday. Thus, some 625 individuals took part in this program on each day. Included in these numbers were the 75 women who attended the special Lunch-and-Learn Symposium on the changing role and status of women.

This venture was launched by me for the 1973 RA Convention, conducted again in 1974 and here in 1975. It continued when the RA Convention was held at a venue when all the meals were taken together throughout the conclave. An interesting note about what “creativity” essentially is: Our colleague, Stanley Rabinowitz, told me that he knew of a dentist convention that conducted a lunch-and-learn program in which the conventioneers ate and learned with experts about various facets of their professional work!

Out of the 25 Lunch-and-Learn sessions, 15 written records of the presentations and discussions were subsequently printed in the Rabbinical Assembly Proceedings. In addition, hundreds of tapes made of the sessions were purchased by colleagues. What was significant about this was what colleagues took with them from the Convention and the huge benefits derived from the plethora of concrete “bread-and-butter” ideas, materials and guidelines for their work.

• Individual Consultation Participation… I counted 163 personal appointments made for colleagues who met with the various consultants privately. This was in addition to the scores of independent appointments set up at other mutually convenient times.

• The Entertainment… This turned out to be an enormous plus. Cantor Tilman’s Zamarim stimulated our conventioneers to sing together vigorously during each evening meal, and our dance person had us winding around the dining room hand-in-hand, shoulder-to-shoulder in enthusiastic dance. Yet more: the group entertained with Judaic song in the Grossinger Lounge on Sunday evening, in addition to positioning in the central Grossinger Lobby to lead in informal song and dance. On the other nights following the formal programs, the assemblage gathered in the Nightclub for the Chassidic songs from Israel, for the 50-member Zamir Chorale Concert and for Elie Wiesel’s Dramatic Reading: “The Rabbi and the Nigun.” Elie did not appreciate the nightclub venue and the late hour (10:30 p.

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