Shul Shopping
by Eve Roshevsky

One Friday night several years ago, while strolling around my Carnegie Hill neighborhood, I noticed several interesting things about the church at 85th and Park. It was a sign out on the sidewalk advertising an off-off-off Broadway theater's latest production that first caught my eye. And then, a Jewish service being held in the church sanctuary.

Which to attend, I debated? I stopped in to the service, joined the small group of congregants, and was invited to a potluck supper. I've been going back to The Temple of Universal Judaism ever since.

As an unmarried Jewish woman in the big city, I was looking for a place to feel part of a religious community, for observance and celebration, spiritual uplift and the companionship of like-minded friends. "Shul shopping," it's called.

I had tried Hebrew Union College in the Village for the High Holy Days; Temple Israel with the wonderful Rabbi Judith Lewis; and, finally, "BJ" (B'nai Jeshurun), the celebrated congregation on the West Side. I joined, sang in the choir, went to singles' events. Yet, even though the liturgy moved me, and the spectacle of dancing-in-the-aisles on Friday night was thrilling, I felt left out — there were cliques; the rabbis were distant; the upwardly mobile yuppies just weren't my kind of Jews. Then, I took that Shabbat stroll and found my spiritual home, just six blocks from my door!

TUJ has been a part of our community for 25 years. It was founded as a haven for intermarried couples and continues to welcome Jews from all backgrounds and Christians who love them, with a universalistic philosophy that rejects "chosenness" and encourages diversity.

In fact, the most exciting feature of TUJ is our partnership with the Park Avenue Christian Church (PACC), the congregation whose building we share. Together, we attempt to "repair the world" with unique interfaith events like the joint annual commemoration of the lives of Martin Luther King, Jr. and his Jewish friend, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. They who marched together for civil rights and against the Vietnam war in the 60's and are now honored with an annual TUJ/PACC Heschel-King Award for Interfaith Activism. New this year is an observance on Saturday, September 11, 2004 of Selichot, which prepares us for the High Holy Days and will feature a "drum circle" to commemorate the great national tragedy in 2001 and bring community and healing to all who survived it.

Every Jew who is new to New York can likewise shop around. They should take their time and choose carefully — and definitely try TUJ. They will be welcomed into a warm, friendly community of Jews who have braved the big city and found a little corner of it in which to pray.

Eve F. Roshevsky is a Board Member of The Temple of Universal Judaism, a book editor, freelance writer and former Staff Executive at Women of Reform Judaism, The Federation of Temple Sisterhoods.