Tried a new shul for Shabbat evening services
2026-Apr-25, Saturday 22:44![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dorchadas
...and it was pretty odd.
So I usually go to Mishkan, which doesn't have a building (the word משכן is usually translated as "tabernacle"), but this Shabbat I decided I would try out Anshe Emet, a long-established Conservative synagogue in Uptown. Mishkan partners with Anshe Emet for some major events like Simḥat Torah, so I know where the building is and I've been there before, I was curious what Shabbat services for like.
Well, the first bit of oddness is that they've remodeled the building. I went around to where the entrance used to be and was just met with a brick wall and a sign saying the entrance is on Grace. Okay, huh, so I go over on Grace and the entrance is next to the parking lot, a small locked door that I have to ask the lot attendant to buzz open for me. The whole place is surrounded by a wall now, with all the ways in guarded. I'm reminded of all these posts online of Jews who grow up in a Jewish environment and finally go to a church when a friend invites them or for some interfaith event and they're like, "Wait, you can just...walk in? There aren't any security guards?" (and vice versa for Christians, who definitely don't have to go through a metal detector when going to Easter services).
The actual service was nice, though shorter than I'm used to--Mishkan is about an hour forty-five minutes on Shabbat evening and Anshe Emet was an hour, so I had the classic experience of "Wait, we're at X already?" When I arrived ten minutes after services started they were already at Leḥa Dodi. I only got through a couple prayers from the Amidah before they moved on! They did do the Haskiveinu, which Mishkan usually skips, though. And on the other hand, there were there people becoming B'nei Mitzvah the next day, so maybe things were different.
They definitely seemed different after the services were over, since each of the families had their own private dinner for them and the relatives. The president of the Rabbinical Assembly was also in attendance, so there was a separate dinner with him. I briefly peered into the room labeled Oneg, and I saw two standing tables set up and most of the floor empty with basically no one in there. Since even after the rabbi had suggested people talk to someone they hadn't come to services with, no one had talked to me--to be fair, I didn't try to talk to anyone either--I just looked into the Oneg room and then left and walked the miles home, like I used to on warm nights after Shabbat services in 2019.
I do want to go back at least one more time, since it did seem an atypical Shabbat. But I had heard that Anshe Emet was a bit insular--there are a lot of multigenerational member families there--and this didn't really do much to dispel that impression.
So I usually go to Mishkan, which doesn't have a building (the word משכן is usually translated as "tabernacle"), but this Shabbat I decided I would try out Anshe Emet, a long-established Conservative synagogue in Uptown. Mishkan partners with Anshe Emet for some major events like Simḥat Torah, so I know where the building is and I've been there before, I was curious what Shabbat services for like.
Well, the first bit of oddness is that they've remodeled the building. I went around to where the entrance used to be and was just met with a brick wall and a sign saying the entrance is on Grace. Okay, huh, so I go over on Grace and the entrance is next to the parking lot, a small locked door that I have to ask the lot attendant to buzz open for me. The whole place is surrounded by a wall now, with all the ways in guarded. I'm reminded of all these posts online of Jews who grow up in a Jewish environment and finally go to a church when a friend invites them or for some interfaith event and they're like, "Wait, you can just...walk in? There aren't any security guards?" (and vice versa for Christians, who definitely don't have to go through a metal detector when going to Easter services).
The actual service was nice, though shorter than I'm used to--Mishkan is about an hour forty-five minutes on Shabbat evening and Anshe Emet was an hour, so I had the classic experience of "Wait, we're at X already?" When I arrived ten minutes after services started they were already at Leḥa Dodi. I only got through a couple prayers from the Amidah before they moved on! They did do the Haskiveinu, which Mishkan usually skips, though. And on the other hand, there were there people becoming B'nei Mitzvah the next day, so maybe things were different.
They definitely seemed different after the services were over, since each of the families had their own private dinner for them and the relatives. The president of the Rabbinical Assembly was also in attendance, so there was a separate dinner with him. I briefly peered into the room labeled Oneg, and I saw two standing tables set up and most of the floor empty with basically no one in there. Since even after the rabbi had suggested people talk to someone they hadn't come to services with, no one had talked to me--to be fair, I didn't try to talk to anyone either--I just looked into the Oneg room and then left and walked the miles home, like I used to on warm nights after Shabbat services in 2019.
I do want to go back at least one more time, since it did seem an atypical Shabbat. But I had heard that Anshe Emet was a bit insular--there are a lot of multigenerational member families there--and this didn't really do much to dispel that impression.
