This weekend we celebrate 25 years of Beth Torah. Anniversaries mean renewal. On the first night of Passover Jews renew the exodus; we free ourselves once again from our personal slavery.  On our birthdays we renew our commitments to our core values: at least I do.  What might this anniversary of Beth Torah mean?
In the last 25 years communication has changed more than at any time since the invention of the printing press. I don't know that anyone can currently appreciate precisely where we are headed while the revolution continues.  I only know that Jewish core values: God's unity, gemilut hasadim (acts of loving-kindness), all humans being created in God's image, and love your neighbor as yourself will remain the same. But the methods of communicating them will change dramatically.
My 20 month old granddaughter uses an iPad. She will compare all activities with the games on her iPad.  What will we offer her that will be nearly as entertaining and involve her so completely that she seeks out the Jewish community?
This I know: in an age in which allegiances to old social groupings are totally fluid, in which people change religions for convenience, in which many people are not interested in spending 10,000 hours to learn Jewish core texts: Hebrew, Aramaic, siddur (prayer book) Tanakh (Bible), midrash, Talmud, Bible commentators like Rashi, it's going to be very difficult to transmit the depth of spiritual understanding contained in Judaism. It's not an easy religion.  It's a way of life, and it does not compete well with instantaneous cultures (think Monday night football games, the Super Bowl, even high production synagogue High Holy Day worship live-streamed.)
What will become of the Jewish community?  It will depend, it seems to me, on our voluntary allegiances to one another, on our reaching out to help those in our congregation who are in need, and are willing to give back.  The core of the synagogue, the synagogue community, will need to exemplify what community can mean in a world of anonymity.
You see: that's the enemy, and that's the plague for which Judaism is the antidote:  Anonymity.  The religious community that recognizes, validates and reaches out to help individuals in their difficult times in life: that is the community that will survive.  That is what I hope Beth Torah is, and what it will develop increasingly in the future.
In this vision of community there is continuity.  We did not stay in touch with our members by tweeting, by email, or by website and Facebook. But we started out as a community of people excited to rely upon one another.  The intimacy among members, the spirit and energy that enlivened all of us, that can be renewed in each generation.
We pass the baton to a new generation, conversant in the tools of the new world.  Moses did the same when the people entered Canaan. So it is in every generation.  Now is the time for renewal; and watching a new leadership grasp the mantle of leadership to cross the Jordan to a renewed Promised Land.