u/DeathValleyOrb

I've met quite a few fellow Jews in the area who have either left their synagogues, were asked to leave, or are considering leaving, due to how often they felt welcomed or excluded due to their beliefs. Most of the people I've spoken to, myself included, would like to find a place to meet up either weekly, monthly, or during the major holidays, as we're all missing that sense of community. It seems like there are a lot of us in the area, as everyone seems to know at least 5 people who feel the same, but we're all scattered and disconnected around the city and surrounding areas.

Weirdly enough, I've found a church that is up to discuss hosting a group of us on weekends, with them fully understanding that this is an act of interfaith/multi-religious community service and not at all a situation where they wish for us to convert, attend their services, or anything like that. This church has been vetted thoroughly over the past year by me, and they are very left in their beliefs and are adamant in their support of Palestine.

This wouldn't be something that would start right away. There's a lot of planning and discussions within the church itself that need to happen, but the pastor and the members I've spoken to about it are all on board with this. We just need to know how big of a community need there is for something like this and how often people would want to attend.

If you would like to be a part of this, either in the early stages of speaking to the church about why it would be important to you, or if you're qualified to lead services, or if you would like to attend in the future once we figure out all of the details, please let me know!

reddit.com
u/DeathValleyOrb — 10 days ago
▲ 333 r/rva

This isn't meant to be a debate about Israel vs Palestine, so please keep opinions, name calling, etc. to yourself. This post is for a specific part of the Jewish community in the area.

Anyway...

I've met quite a few fellow Jews in the area who have either left their synagogues, were asked to leave, or are considering leaving, due to how often they felt welcomed or excluded due to their beliefs. Most of the people I've spoken to, myself included, would like to find a place to meet up either weekly, monthly, or during the major holidays, as we're all missing that sense of community. It seems like there are a lot of us in the area, as everyone seems to know at least 5 people who feel the same, but we're all scattered and disconnected around the city and surrounding areas.

Weirdly enough, I've found a church that is up to discuss hosting a group of us on weekends, with them fully understanding that this is an act of interfaith/multi-religious community service and not at all a situation where they wish for us to convert, attend their services, or anything like that. This church has been vetted thoroughly over the past year by me, and they are very left in their beliefs and are adamant in their support of Palestine.

This wouldn't be something that would start right away. There's a lot of planning and discussions within the church itself that need to happen, but the pastor and the members I've spoken to about it are all on board with this. We just need to know how big of a community need there is for something like this and how often people would want to attend.

If you would like to be a part of this, either in the early stages of speaking to the church about why it would be important to you, or if you're qualified to lead services, or if you would like to attend in the future once we figure out all of the details, please let me know!

reddit.com
u/DeathValleyOrb — 10 days ago