New Jewish group house gets respect in Brookline

By Ted Siefer

BROOKLINE - On Monday night, Sept. 5, Margie Klein held a housewarming party at her new house here and properly had a mezuzah affixed on the entryway.  But the guests came to offer more than just their blessings and decorating advice.  They came to discuss how to create a new kind of Jewish institution, a home and meeting place where young Jews can explore the connections between spirituality and progressive activism.

"The idea is to create a progressive, Jewish group house that creates meaningful opportunities for Jewish participation in tikkun olam work [healing the world]," said Klein, who has just started her first year of rabbinical school at Hebrew College.  The house, Klein said, is also meant to address the institutional gap that exists for Jews in their 20s "between the college Hillel and joining a synagogue."

Klein envisions Kavod house, as the project is known ("kavod" being Hebrew for "respect"), hosting Sabbath dinners, minyanim (lay-led prayer/discussion groups), lectures and activists meetings, in addition to servicing as a home for herself and three like-minded housemates.

Hebrew College intends to provide programming, including monthly speakers and curriculum materials, as well as a limited amount of financial assistance to the center.  In many ways, the idea behind Kavod dovetails with the school's own emphasis on a non-denominational Judaism that strives to better the world.

"This is so much in line with what we care about as a program, in terms of commitment to social justice," said Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld, Hebrew College's associate dean for student life.  "We're trying to educate rabbis to not only study text but to be commited to social justice, who can work with other faith communities to effect change.

Kavod is a finalist for several grants from national Jewish organizations and representatives of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston and the Jewish Organizing Initiative, several of whom were at Monday's housewarming, have agreed to participate on the project's advisory board.

Kavod house attempts to weave together two strong threads in Klein's life: Jewish spirituality and progressive politics.  Until recently, she was more firmly planted in the political world, having worked for several years in Washington, D.C., for a youth voting organization and, before that, for an environmental organization.

But last year's presidential election proved to be a watershed moment for Klein.  Crushed that John Kerry had lost to George Bush, Klein spent the night at a campground in Western Massachusetts commiserating with a group she had helped found eight years ago, Jews in the Woods.

"It was like the story in the seder of the rabbis staying up all night planning a revolution," she recalled.

"I saw an ultraconservative, right-wing religious community forming around a specific set of issues I at the very least disagreed with, but at the most felt flew in the face of the core values of any religion.  As a religious person doing social justice work, I felt I really needed to help renew a religious movement for social justice, in the tradition of the civil rights movement," she said.

The idea for Kavod house, Klein said, was born that night.

Setting up a progressive Jewish group house, however, is not exactly a novel experience for Klein.  In Washington, she along with a group of like-minded friends, established a home/institution they called Freedom House.  By the fall of 2003, sponsoring Sabbath dinners had evolved into hosting classes and minyanim that averaged 70 people a week.

One difference between Kavod House and the one she ran in Washington is the backing of an institution like Hebrew /college, which supports the vision of those who will likely be a part of the project.  Hebrew College's Anisfeld said: "These young people are not interested in consumer Judaism, but in being co-creators."

With this week's housewarming party behind her, Klein hopes to start Sabbath dinners in the near future and a lecture series by the start of next semester.