The City Congregation was founded in 1991 by a handful of families who wanted a place to celebrate their Jewish identity and pass on their heritage to their children in a way that would be consistent with their cultural and humanistic values.
In the beginning, this group met in homes for pot-luck Shabbat dinner and engaging discussions. Later, as this fledgling group grew, it began to meet in restaurants and hotels for larger events like the High Holidays and Passover Seder. The congregation also developed a long-term relationship with the Village Community School, in the West Village, for KidSchool and Shabbat programs. In 2006 the school moved uptown to The Society for the Advancement of Judaism on West 86th Street.
Starting in the fall of 2009, Shabbat services will be held at the Community Church of New York at 40 E. 35th Street.
In the beginning, City Congregation was entirely a volunteer-led organization. The first employees were teachers for the KidSchool. An important member - now the rabbi - shared his knowledge and experience to help develop City Congregation's programming. Four years ago, with continued growth, the need to professionalize was recognized and a part-time administrator was hired to manage the congregation's day-to-day business. Finally, in 2006, City Congregation realized the importance of having the availability and leadership of a rabbi. The board secured a grant that served as a catalyst to hire Rabbi Schweitzer, who was installed in May of 2006.
Our Founder's Story
by Myrna Baron, Executive Director, Center for Cultural Judaism, adapted from remarks given at the occasion of the installation of Rabbi Schweitzer
Seventeen years ago, I was struggling with how to teach my soon-to-be-born child about Jewish identity and to do it in a way that was consistent with my beliefs. I didn't know then that through this search, I, too, would find a connection with my heritage that would grow to fill an important place in my life.
Shortly before my daughter was born, I read an article in Free Inquiry by Rabbi Sherwin Wine, the founder of Humanistic Judaism. In the article, Rabbi Wine wrote that we can be secular Jews within a like-minded Jewish community; we can have our own traditions that are different from our ancestors, yet equally Jewish; that we can be fully Jewish, with an emphasis on human responsibility and values. So six months later, I schlepped up to Connecticut to hear Rabbi Wine speak at a conference. Within minutes I knew I had found my place in the Jewish world.
At the end of the conference, I told Rabbi Wine that I was in public relations, and I said the words that would change my life: "Why don't more people know about this?" He saw in me a young eager person, who he then recruited to start The City Congregation. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. But Rabbi Wine had a vision--and that vision included a significant Humanistic Jewish community in New York. Through the years he has been an inspiration, a motivator and our role model to say what we believe and believe what we say.
It took me two years until I arranged the first meeting of our community on July 17, 1991. There were 6 adults and 2 toddlers at that first meeting in my living room. We didn't have a name. We didn't know our purpose. We didn't know if we wanted to meet only for holidays. There was no grand vision - we only knew that we wanted to celebrate our secular Jewish identity - together.
That fall we decided that one day of a High Holiday commemoration was all we could do, so we chose the Sunday between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur as our High Holiday. We cut and pasted services based on Rabbi Wine's writings, which we read in my living room. The next week, we were left with nothing to do on Yom Kippur. We already had our holiday.
The next year after our second High Holiday (singular), Rabbi Peter found The City Congregation as part of his own search for a Jewish community that was consistent with his beliefs. He called and identified himself as a "former rabbi and a humanist."
We met soon after when he attended an absolutely disastrous Sukkot commemoration. The kids were shrieking. It was too cold to be outside in the Sukkah. That day was such a debacle that I never understood why he came back, except that he found a group who needed him. And obviously he found a place for himself.
That next year was momentous, and we made a quantum leap forward. With Peter's encouragement, and his creative, intelligent, and moving liturgy, we held our first separate Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services.
The Village Community School soon became our home, and our growth began to take off. We expanded our activities--where we could barely meet once a month then, we now have something scheduled nearly every week.
We have almost 70 children in our KidSchool. It's incredibly gratifying to watch these children grow up in our midst, and to get to know each one by the time of his or her bar/bat mitzvah.
What stands out most for me are the life cycle events we've shared. Because these are the times when we touch people most deeply. When we celebrate together, when we cry together, that's what a community is all about.