Tolerance and shuls

For my tens of thousands of non-Jewish readers, a shul is the word for synagogue in Yiddish.  It is the common term used by Orthodox Jews.

I only want to make one point which is relevant to Jews and non-Jews: nearly everywhere I look I see non-orthodox synagogues failing, for sale or barely hanging on.  I see exceptions too.

The one significant phenomenon I want to point out that I see around me, in urban areas,  is the development of the new informal shul.  In San Francisco the biggest gathering of Jews I know of is call the Mission Minyan. Hundreds of people attend weekly with no rabbi, no formal structure and most importantly: No Judgment.  Some people walk to services, some stay for the whole service, others drive and stay for part, some are kosher, some only avoid pork and shrimp, others are not kosher. 

What makes the informal shul work with the current generation is the non-judgmental association of Jews.  Most formal congregations are politically intolerant, despite the quiet gentle pseudo-humble tone of voice of the rabbi. Most Reform and many Conservative congregations are political... against Israel.  That combination is poison for the younger Jewish population. They can't understand why Jews, in a modern temple, don't identify with the country Jews have been praying to return to for 2,000 years.

I watched the entire mainstream of Christianity nearly disappear from 1960 to 1970 as the Lutheran, Methodist and Presbyterian churches began to demand anti-Vietnam-War politics as a religious dogma.

The same seems to be happening in modern American Judaism. Only the new informal, tolerant shul, will provide a home for the non-orthodox who aren't political Lefties.