In a provocative article titled Prospects for American Judaism, Lance J. Sussman writes:

Walk down the hallway of any long-established suburban Reform or Conservative synagogue where the photographs of each year’s confirmation class are mounted and you will be reminded of the dramatic changes that have taken place in these institutions over the past half-century.  Fifty years ago, in many of the larger congregations, ninth and tenth grade classes regularly exceeded one hundred students and sometimes even reached two hundred.  Today, if a Reform congregation of a thousand families can muster a confirmation class of thirty students, Rabbis and educators are not only relieved but feel a small sense of victory.

This is but one reflection of an undeniable reality.  With the exception of a number of Orthodox communities and a few other bright spots in or just off the mainstream of Jewish religious life, American Judaism is in precipitous decline.  Not only is enrollment in non-Orthodox Jewish religious educational programs down, so is synagogue affiliation.  Philanthropic giving in the religious sector of the Jewish community is also declining.  For Rabbis, Jewish educators, and communal leaders, it is a difficult moment.  Jews are flourishing in America, but organized, institutional Judaism is in deep trouble, particularly after the recent economic crisis.

Professor Steven M. Cohen, a leading sociologist of American Judaism and a professor at the Reform movement’s flagship Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, talks about 850,000 Reform Jews.  Similarly Reform Judaism magazine reports a circulation of approximately 300,000 which would yield a total affiliated Reform population at well under one million adherents.  In other words, the Reform movement has probably contracted by a full third in the last ten years!  The impact of this reality on its finances has been felt by Reform synagogue boards across the country and can be seen in the dismantling of almost the entire regional office system of the American Reform movement and the extraordinary efforts during the past year on the part of the Board of Governors of the Hebrew Union College to keep all four branches of HUC-JIR open.”

As Reform Jews, Synagogue Jews, caring Jews, we must take cognizance of this increasingly desperate situation.  Not only is American Jewry in free-fall from a population standpoint, but the quality of our commitment is attenuating at a shocking rate.

As individuals, we cannot make enough of an impact to reverse or slow this nose-dive.  But as individuals we can do our utmost so that, in our own lives, in our own families, in our own Synagogue, we make strenuous and consistent efforts to create a model Temple community by deepening our commitment to study, prayer, and philanthropy.  A question that can inspire and energize us is: Am I striving to become the best Jewish person that I can be?