<i> Shtibels</i> : Recovering Spontaneity of Old

Although there are a number of Orthodox havurah groups around the country, a more recent phenomenon has been the rapid rise of the shtibel, or “small room” congregation, which meets in houses or storefronts.

There is “a common psychological source” for both the shtibel (pronounced SHTEE-bel) and the havurah, according to Alan Mintz, director of the Meyerhoff Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Maryland and a longtime havurah member.

Like the havurot, the primary motivation for shtibels is for a more intimate “Judaism of scale.” Most groups are neighborhood-based and frequently have no full-time rabbi or Hebrew school, keeping down the cost of membership. Unlike the havurot, however, the shtibel services--which were common in pre-World War II Europe--are traditional and without the havurah’s ritual innovation.

The greatest concentration of shtibels in the United States is thought to be in Brooklyn, N.Y., where there are an estimated 500. In Los Angeles, according to Rabbi Jack Simcha Cohen of Congregation Shaarei Tefila in Los Angeles, the numbers are smaller but growing. Many are concentrated in Beverly Fairfax-Hancock Park and Pico-Robertson sections, Cohen said, where “on every block there’s a shtibel. “

A unifying factor of worship, he said, is “a return to informality and spontaneity,” although some Jews who do not drive on the Sabbath go to neighborhood shtibels because they are afraid to walk in some areas after sundown to go to older synagogues. Some shtibels cater to particular national groups, like Israelis or Iranians.

“We have a tremendous multiplicity of very authentic Jewish traditions,” Cohen said. Apologizing for the terminology, Cohen said the difference in many cases between the style of worship in large synagogues and the shtibels is “the difference between high church and low church.”

The rapid growth of the shtibel movement, said Cohen, has become “a major topic of conversation” at gatherings of established Orthodox congregations. As a result “a majority of synagogues are altering their style of worship,” he said.

“It’s a worldwide phenomenon,” said Rabbi Abner Weiss of Beth Jacob, an Orthodox synagogue on the Westside of Los Angeles, noting that the shtibel movement thus far “hasn’t hit our side of town in any force.”

Some Orthodox Jews object to the shtibel movement for the same reasons that some Conservative rabbis object to the havurah movement: they siphon off support for larger, “full-service” synagogues.

“I tried to diffuse it,” Weiss said, by establishing four regular Sabbath services throughout the synagogue complex in addition to the service in the congregation’s main sanctuary. Some services are designed for practiced Hebrew readers while others are geared toward beginners. And there are separate services for singles and young married couples.

“We recognize that people feel the need for different modes of prayer,” Weiss said. “We make them feel they are part of the community.” As a result, Weiss said, people are able to find spiritual fulfillment “without having to find a structure which is outside the mainstream.”

The rabbi at one of Beth Jacob’s smaller services, known as “the Upstairs Minyan,” is Danny Landes, a professor of Jewish ethics and values at Yeshiva University.

Men and women sit separately at Landes’ weekly service and the barrier between them is even higher than at the main service. In content, the upstairs service is equally traditional. However, in style and organization, there are major features reminiscent of havurah services.

Individual members, rather than a cantor, conduct the services. The rabbi does not preside in a formal sense but serves as a “scholar to be used as a resource,” Landes said, as well as an authority on the law. Women members may lead discussions on the weekly section of the Bible. For congregational governance, there is no board of directors. “All decisions are made by consensus,” Landes said, with men and women having equal votes.

Landes credits the “interpenetration” of some aspects of the havurah movement, as well as the challenge of shtibels to many of these changes. “There is something to be gained by adapting some of the strategies of the havurah movement,” Landes said.