New York – The cutting-edge practice of turning the Kiddush into a lavish wedding-like atmosphere is now the rage as Orthodox synagogues vie for attendees. From Beverly Hills to New York City, ‘one-upsmanship’ is now the order of the day on the Sabbath.
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The WALL STREET JOURNAL (http://on.wsj.com/WW1Lx6) is reporting that this new trend has sparked a competition among planners, causing some to plan as far ahead as next summer.
Expensive feasts, replete with high priced liquors, are quickly replacing old style post-service get-togethers, as young professionals now use social media to search for their area’s biggest and baddest.
Rabbi Sholom Lipskar, whose picturesque seaside synagogue near Bel Harbour, Florida now attracts 500-800 people weekly, says the new party atmosphere now costs him between $1,800 and $3,600 weekly, forcing him solicit donors for funding.
In early January, Rabbi Marc Schneier was well into planning his synagogue’s summer worship series in New York’s pricey Hamptons community. Booking guest speakers, interviewing assistant rabbis, and creatively looking at ways to improve his martini bar are on his checklist.
According to Schneier the “L’chaim” table of top-shelf spirits is the top attraction of The Hampton Synagogue’s Saturday summer service. “There is always vodka, an assortment of single malts, tequila,” says his food and drink advisor, Robert Fischer.
“Finding a really good Kiddush—that’s a bloodsport in the Jewish community,” says Rabbi Skolnik, who presides at the Forest Hills Jewish Center in Queens.
“Breakaway Kiddushes” targeting specific demographics that extend beyond the synagogue walls are now trend as well, according to Rabbi Kalman Topp from Beth Jacob Congregation of Beverly Hills. Topp said the “young professionals” Kiddush is very popular, and the liquor is a big attraction.
When people come to shul to socialize instead of to daven, the priorities change.
Our local Tomche Shabbos serves 400 Jewish families and is turning away scores more because there is not enough funding to go around.
Wait. I thought that this was only a problem with yeshiva bochurim at sholom zachurs in the local shtibel. Hmmmmm…….
I guess Reb Abe Rottenberg was correct; “Then we are not so different, you and I”.
Besides, does the WSJ have nothing better to report about? Seems like someone is tipping them off and making something off this glamurous non story.
L’chaim.
P.S. There is nothing like heimishe moonshine with herring and pickles.
“New Trend”?? I guess that must be in the modern orth world bec I’ve probably drank $15k worth of scotch, eaten 500lbs of herring, another 500lbs of cholent, kugel, kishka, petcha (galah) over the last 10 years kiddushes alone! Welcome to the kiddush club!! …and btw all you bourbon drinkers, single malt scotch was served in gan eden!!
On the one hand, it becomes fress city, on the other hand, who knows how many would not have come to shul otherwise. Especially the crowd Chabad and Schneir and other Rabbis on the fringe draw. Lets be dan le kaf zchus. Metoch sheloh leshmu bu leshmu. Oneg shabbos, l’chaim!!
What a kiddush hashem…..NOT. Been to the hampton shul. A whole lot of people come only for the kiddush and not for davening and many drive there on shabbos. Very decent kiddush but it gorem alot of chilul shabbos. And the mechitza is for the birds.
..actualy what mechitza? Go online and see for yourselves. I wonder how many lesbian rabbis rabbi mark will invite this year
the yeshivas will say who cares , as long as give there fair shair to charity.
I davened half starved , with broken ribs and other boys davened too in block 66 in Buchenwald because my father davened and I was able to say “Yehei shme rabbo” no kiddush. This is American gluttony , fressing and not my yiddishkeit
Sad.
When the daven is done it time to leave or only stay to wish Mazel Tov, or such. Too much at kiddush little room for oneg Shabbos with the family in the heim
Part of the problem lacks in the inability to create inspiring and moving davening. Most people get very little out of the davening. People are sent to the omud who have no ability to daven and cannot hold a tune, it inspires no one. Few Rabbis speak from their heart so what is left– the kiddush.
Overall this is a bunch of baloney and is not what is needed to bring people closer. People are attracted to Emes and that’s all. And the ones that are attracted to fress and to mingling let them continue to fress at mcdonalds and mingle at miamis nightclubs. We don’t lower our tznius and our gedarim because we may attract others this way (the Rebbi said that clearly on video).
Doesn’t kiddush mean sanctification?
“According to Schneier the “L’chaim” table of top-shelf spirits is the top attraction of The Hampton Synagogue’s Saturday summer service. “There is always vodka, an assortment of single malts, tequila,” says his food and drink advisor, Robert Fischer.”
Shouldn’t the top attraction of a shul be the davening or the rav’s d’vrei Torah? My shul has a simple kiddush but then we don’t have a “food and drink advisor”. Maybe that’s why we have empty seats.
I say its a good idea, unless all the nice people who come only for the Kiddush decide its par to decide to talk copiously during the Shemonei huh? And lets hope no one goes drinking and driving and puts the synagogue up for a lawsuit.
Which shuls get named in this article? Wait for it after Pesach…the gentile they sell their spirits to is going to loot the liquor closet…guaranteed!
The only way to avoid this is to drink everything up on Shabbos Hagadol!
What you put in you get out. I go to daven not to hear a chazzan’s melody or lashon hora. I have enough problem to try to daven with hertz. I don’t need rewards, because \i go for the real reason to be there; to Daven to Hashem. In Chicago during the week there is a matza minyan 18 minutes in and out. I want to daven not to fast and not to slow but to get the most out of davening.I can’t take 1 hour for shemona asrei but 2 minutes is also no good. People who good for the booze usually annd nnot always disrupt the minyan
This past Shabbos, I davened at one of those Minyanim mentioned in the article, not saying which one, but there were quite a few people who were drinking to such excess, I really felt bad for them, I think there is allot of adult alcohol issues that become tolerated because it is in the context of a kiddush. There were dozens of people, many of whom were sloppy drunk by the end, really disgraceful, and these were not people who would not come to shul otherwise. One individual poured a full 8 ounce glass of scotch for kiddush, downed most of it in one go, then poured himself another, I feel bad for his family.
We have a lovely shul, and on Shabbos Mevorchim we have a kiddush. It’s a nice way for people to mingle. It also reduces temptation of talking during davening because you have another avenue of socialization available.
These alcoholics say in the Shabbos musaf “may it be Your will…That You lead us happily to our land and plant us in Your borders” etc. WHO ARE THEY KIDDING? They surely know mashiach would never put ujp[ with their disgusting actions!
THEY ARE THE ONES WHO ARE HOLDING UP MASHIACH
The growth in Orthodoxy from the 60’s til today was not because of big kiddushes, and its continued growth will not be because of big kiddushes.
Maybe if the davening didn’t shlep with ba’alei tefillah who love the sound of their own singing and with rabbis who can’t stop speaking, and endless MiSheberachs for every oleh latorah and everybody he ever met in his life, then maybe people would be happy to come and wouldn’t have to be bribed with whiskey and chulent. (How’s THAT for a run-on sentence)
The shuls here in the 5 towns are all dry- alcohol free.
It really makes the kiddushim better, more real, less gluttonous.
Other communities should try it.
If the idea of an over-lavish kiddush is repugnant to you there is a very simple solution to your problem.:
DON’T ATTEND THE SHUL’S KIDDUSH. GO HOME AND MAKE KIDDUSH ON YOUR OWN.
Why had none of the previous 28 commentators thought of that before, I wonder? Probably the temptation of a free fress at some benefactor’s expense, I suppose.
We have a saying here: If you feed them, they will come.
I live out of town. Our kiddush is no where near that big, but if we want not yet frum yidden to come, we have to put out food.
Everything this article states is true.
However, it’s sad to see that at the expense of chilul Hashem – Marc Schneir is willing to PR his target market so hard.
#Scam
yes yes..our kind of yiden the attraction is what kind of shiur one attracts him or the madreige of de rov or rebbe and these kind yidden the attraction is what kind of liqour is served
I wonder if it is muttar to put on a big kiddush if you know that many people will drive to shule on shabbos only because of the kiddush.
Reading the article makes me feel like “Alice In Wonderland” at the “mad tea party”. Baruch ha Shem I am here in Israel, and for those of you who find that the emphasis on alcohol in Beit ha Knesset is bizarre,- you are always welcomed to come here and make aliyah
heck when I was a kid, the shul used to serve herring potatoes, eggs tam tams and schnapps every morning in order to get a minyan, and it worked
Hey! There is nothing wrong with schnapps and kugel after davening. The problem I see are so called “Kiddush Clubs” that leave the minyan after chazoras ha shaatz and go downstairs (or across the hall) an fress. Another vexation of mine is that the kids rush to the table and block out the adults.
Just another excuse for public drunkeness. It is a chillul Hashem, pure and simple.
Good idea. Good way to spread a little Yiddishkeit. Not the first rebbeh to build a following on too much alcohol and not much else.
Oh, wait, this rabbi is modernish,not a rebbeh. Bad, bad, bad.
Actually, that is one of the 3 aspects of a shul.
A shul has 3 names, Beit Knesset, Beit Midrash & Beit Tefilla
Beit Knesset means a place of gathering, social mingling
Beit Midrash is a place of Torah study
Beit Tefilla is a place of Davening
A shul that doesn’t have all these 3 is lacking.
The surest way to a man’s heart…
Sorry. A shul is a place to daven. If you have to eat or want a free meal, go home!!
There are a lot of people talking about the drinking. What about the overeating? In a shul I used to belong to, they had 8 different kinds of chicken, multiple meat dishes, much fruit, multiple kinds of herring, chulent, multiple kinds of kugel, etc. And after all this, the men go home and expect to have the meal their wife prepared. There are an awful lot of morbidly obese peopleTo top it off, for my son’s bar mitzvah I wanted to tone things down, and only served shnappes and cake. The gabbia refused to announce it as a Kiddush, and would only announce it as a l’chaim. I would rather give all that money to tzedaka. There are plenty of starving people in our community. Tomchei Shabbos is unfortunately not going out of business.
In my regular heimishe Shul in Brooklyn, what is really sad is, that 15 minutes before Davening is over, some of the men are already sitting in the Kiddush room, ready to eat. Since when did it become ok to skip the last few Tfillos just so you get a good seat to stuff your face?