,,' feature SYNAGOGUE SHOPPING

Fall is prime time to join a synagogue.

Atlanta's Jewish families discuss the
Issues on ...

load to
•
or most Atlanta Jews, the beginning-of-fall rituals are

F
bets eager to join before the High Holidays - a key time of year for
similar each year: the lazy days of summer end in early August, affiliation - attend various prospective member lunches, Shabbat serv-
back-to-school fever hits and men, several weeks to a month ices, coffees and other gatherings. Call it the "back to shul" effect, when
into the new school year, it truly becomes fall, when Jews many Jews who rarely, if ever, go to synagogue during the year feel the
worldwide observe Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the need not only to attend High Holiday services, but make the "New Year's
High Holidays. This y=, however, the Jewish New Year and Day of Aronemenr resolution" to attend on a regular basis.
are practically during the summer: arriving merely days after Labor Day. About 1 million Jewish households are affiliated with a Reform tem-
Why is this important this year? With the High Holidays falling ple, a synagogue or an independent havurah, a group of like-minded Jewish
so early, synagogue staff this summer are extra busy, as prospective mem- families or individuals, according to the American Jewish Identity

30 • atlanta jewish life july/august 2002