BySimon Rocker, Simon Rocker
The United Synagogue his unveiled a £200,000-a-year educational enterprise designed to encourage practical experience as well as study.
US Living and Learning will deliver programmes for all ages ranging from Israel trips for parents to training leaders of children's services in shuls.
Rabbi Andrew Shaw, executive directive of Tribe - the young people's division which will oversee education - said something had "gone wrong educationally many years ago.
"We thought you could teach Judaism as a subject," he told synagogue representatives at the US council at St John's Wood Synagogue on Monday. "You can't - it has to be lived as well as learned."
As well as initiatives in cheder, Jewish school and youth clubs, it would boost online education through the US website. A key feature would be Hebrew reading schemes. "We have found speaking with a lot of teenagers, young parents and students that the biggest barrier to communal engagement is they can't read Hebrew," Rabbi Shaw explained. "They are embarrassed to go into shul - they are scared to get called up."
Also at the meeting, US president Simon Hochhauser responded to complaints from affiliated synagogues over the US's wish to make them full constituent members. Affiliates enjoy greater independence and contribute less to central services than constituent shuls.
Dr Hochhauser said affiliate status was an "anomaly" dating back to the 1950s. The US wanted a"single-tier structure".
But he added: "We also understand that there are some small shuls within the affiliate group who will find it very difficult to up their payover and we are being very sensitive. We don't want to force anyone to do what they don't want to do."
He also explained the recent enforcement of an old rule that affiliates may only recruit members living within a mile-and-a-quarter of the shul.
"About a year-and-a-half ago we were receiving a number of complaints from constituent shuls who were finding that some of their members were leaving their shuls and joining the affiliates because of their lower cost structure."
In response to constituents such as Stanmore, Belmont and Borehamwood, the US had decided to impose the old conditions to stop people joining cheaper affiliates.
Vice-president Peter Zinkin outlined a proposal that rabbis appointed through a synagogue vote would need a 75 per cent majority. A 51-49 per cent majority was a recipe for disaster, he said.