Ten Years of the Progressive Chavurah
By Mark Frydenberg(Written for the Progressive Chavurah's Tenth Anniversary, February, 1996)
Ten years ago, a half dozen people got together in Karen Wasserman and Sue Fischer's living room. They lit Shabbat candles. They said Kiddush. They made motzi. A couple of weeks later, they did it again. Thus began the Progressive Chavurah.
Larry Milder and Laura Weingast were also present that first night in January, 1986. Larry, a reform Rabbi and then a graduate student at Brandeis University, recalled that there was a conscious effort to create a Chavurah, to fulfill a need to hold Shabbat evening services in a more liberal and more informal environment than most synagogues offered. Even before that first night, they talked about what was going to happen: there would be a time for praying, sharing, and eating... a structure that still holds to this day. Most of the group's early members heard about the Chavurah because they (knew someone who (knew someone who ...) knew Laura Weingast, who worked at Harvard Hillel at the time.
By the time I first joined the group some six months later, it had evolved from "The Progressive Chavurah and let's taste different kinds of wine for Kiddush" to "The Progressive Chavurah," then a group of about 20 people, mostly in their 20's, who wanted to get together on Friday nights for services. "Progressive" referred to an openness to exploring different styles of Jewish worship, along with the fact that each service (about once every other week) was held at someone else's home.
Now a decade later, only a handful of the charter year members remain active in the group. Many have passed through as college graduates and graduate students before finding careers and homes outside of Boston. Despite this shift, the average age of members has grown over time, from a group almost entirely composed of singles still in or just out of college back in 1986, to a community of over 60 singles and couples, now our twenties, thirties, and forties, and a few young children.
By 1988, we made the decision to allow the group to grow, seeking to meet in outside spaces, when our members' living rooms weren't big enough any more. Based in Boston, with members now scattered throughout the suburbs, the group alternates between two locations, one "east" in Brookline, and one "west" in Newton, so everyone doesn't have to drive as far all the time.
Our member-led services span the denominations in terms of style, from "traditional" to "creative." Through interpretative melodies, outside readings, and musical instruments, we have evolved into a style which allows everyone to participate, even with little or no religious background. A discussion follows each service.
We've shown that "creative services" can be much more than cutting and pasting prayers and readings from different sources: we've sanctified space using the glow of Shabbat candles to light our way; we've marked the passage of the years with a ritual involving wine and blessing; we've taken journeys through the prayerbook, and shared individual experiences of journeys to other lands within its framework; we've set up personal mechitzah's as a means to focus on our own kavannah; we've explored our creativity and used Shabbat as a time to look back on what we have created.
The Progressive Chavurah always has been a place where people in terms of an alternative means of creative Jewish expression can come together as a community to explore their spiritual needs, where people can share these ideas by leading what they consider to be a meaningful prayer experience. We respect tradition and innovation, and have found the most satisfying prayer experiences combine both elements. In 1987, we made our own Tefilot Guides, combining some of the more common Shabbat evening prayers in one place. As our needs and knowledge grew, we expanded this into our own "Gesher L'Tefilah" prayer books in 1989, revised in 1992, and soon to be updated again as we continue to address issues of language, inclusivity, and accesibility in prayer.
While we are primarily a Friday night community usually having services twice a month, we have branched out into celebrating most holidays with each other and with the greater Boston community. Our Purim Shpiel the past three years has been unsurpassed west of Shushan; our integenerational Passover Seder has allowed chavurah members, our families, and older members of a small local synagogue to join together. Last Shavuot we participated in a Tikkun L'eil Shavuot with the two other havurot who also meet in the same building as we do when we're not there.
Since 1989 we have joined together for a weekend of study and community building at an annual Fall retreat; and since 1991, a springtime Shabbaton. More recently, a monthly book club has met for dinner and discussion of books by Jewish authors; our tutoring program pairs Chavurah members with students from an inner city elementary school; and our own "chav-net" has kept over half of our members and friends of the chavurah up to date by electronic mail. The Progressive Chavurah affiliated with the National Havurah Committee in 1994.
A "Future of the Chavurah Committee" is chartered with the task of paving the direction of the group as we continue to grow, examining our needs related to education, basic Jewish skills, pastoral counseling, and other lifecycle events. Our philosophy toward creative Jewish expression will likely stay the same though we will continue to find new meaning in the traditions we have started, as well as those which we carry on.
In ten years, we have filled a need in the Boston area, creating a Chavurah where Jews of varied backgrounds and knowledge levels can come together for prayer, study, and community.
© The Progressive Chavurah, 1997