| This study explored the experience of kehillah kedoshah (KK), Jewish sacred community, among 12 Jews who belong to liberal worship communities. Twelve coresearchers participated, a rabbi, a board member, and a congregant-at-large from each of 4 different liberal West Coast worship communities: Reform, Conservative, and Jewish Renewal congregations, and 1 unaffiliated Jewish Renewal oriented community. Coresearchers were 8 men and 4 women, all married and all but one parents, ranging in age from 37-63. The median age was 55 and the mean age 53.3. The average length of membership was 12.8 years; the median, 8 years; the maximum, 25 years. The 12 coresearchers participated in individual, in-person, in-depth semistructured interviews of 1 to 1 ½ hours. A qualitative research method was utilized combining organic and intuitive inquiry and art-based research. An overview of each community and a narrative of each coresearcher summarizing his or her experiences of KK were written. Internal and external validity were checked using a brief questionnaire filled out by 8 coresearchers and a resonance panel consisting of one member from each participating community who had not participated in the interviews, and 1 leader from each of 2 communities who did not participate in the study, all of whom read the results chapter. Among the findings were that the quality of connection between members is the most important aspect of KK for these coresearchers, whose experience focused on the immanent dimension of spirituality. These communities, while "legitimate," are not necessarily "authentic." They legitimize their members' current understanding of reality, but do not provide the necessary depth and challenge for transformation leading to transpersonal development. Aspects of authentic KK derived from the literature but missing from these communities appear among contemporary Emergent Jewish communities formed by members of the Generation X (1965-1983) and the Millennial (1984-1999) cohorts. |
