In writing my book, Tomorrow’s Synagogue Today. Creating Vibrant Centers of Jewish Life, I interviewed a number of rabbinic colleagues. They possess a lot of wisdom and writing my book was one way to bring that to a broader audience. If I had greater resources, I would’ve interviewed more. Fortunately, through my blog, I’m able to continue the process of learning and sharing. And in that spirit, I’m trying something new.

Going forward on a regular basis, I’ll be interviewing thought leaders about the state of the synagogue and the American Jewish community in general. Some of these leaders appear in my book, while others are new. My hope is to generate a deep conversation in which we can enrich our work with new approaches and ideas by learning from one another, and I invite you to be part of it.

This week, you’ll be watching an interview of Rabbi Marcia Zimmerman, Senior Rabbi of Temple Israel in Minneapolis, Minnesota. As we are local colleagues, I’ve had the pleasure of working with her for many years and she is a visionary leader-a phrase that I use carefully. I asked Rabbi Zimmerman how it is that her congregation, which is a well established, urban congregation is growing larger and younger.  Those are certainly not the trends of many congregations. You can hear what she has to say and read more about the subject in Tomorrow’s Synagogue Today.