Nineteen synagogue consultants met in Boston last summer … with Alban senior consultant Alice Mann, whose writings on church size have drawn attention in the Jewish world. In the top-floor conference room of Boston’s Combined Jewish Philanthropies building, Mann described the theory of church size most often used by the Alban Institute, and drew on the experience of participants to learn how the ideas have already been adapted for use in synagogues. The group discussed the best way to measure synagogue size, the characteristics of synagogues of various sizes, and the challenges that transitional stages present in Jewish congregations.
Read more of Searching for the Key: Developing a Theory of Synagogue Size.