Yesterday, on Yom Kippur, I attended services in St. Louis, Missouri, my hometown. As I stated in my first blog, I grew up in the Conservative movement, but because I recently made the decision to hopefully attend Reform Rabbincal school, I thought it would be a good idea to attend Reform High Holiday Services. I attended services both last week and this week on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and yesterday, on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.

Yesterday I attended two services at the Reform Congregation, what they called the "multi-generation" service, and the "traditional" service. I LOVED the multi-generation service. The minute I walked into the synagogue, I could feel the excitement of all of the congregants, and trust me, there were tons of them. There was not an empty seat in the entire place. Rick Recht, the artist in residence at this particular synagogue, was the main focus of this service, and his music gave the service its feel. In addition, there was a group of teens on the bimah, called the "teen team" which helped Rick perform his songs. They played instruments ranging from the violin to the guitar, and they sang in harmony. This gave the service a much younger feel to it, and it added alot in spirituality. The majority of the people in attendence for this service were families, especially families with younger children, as well as families with teens. I really enjoyed this service overall, because it promoted community involvment, something I feel that the Reform community tends to focus on.

The second service I attended was the "traditional" service. The entire feeling of this service was completely different. The moment the families from the previous service started leaving, I could tell there was going to be a shift in demographic. The people in attendence to this service tended to be the older generation, set in their ways, and not ready to make a shift into more lively entertaining music with such entertainers as Rick Recht. This service was definately less upbeat, and surprisingly included much more English than Hebrew. I did not find this service to be very inspirational and uplifting, and I was slightly disappointed in what I got out of the service.

In attending both of the services, both "Reform" services, it was interesting to compare both of them and see the differences between the younger generation and the older generation. It will be fun to see what the younger generation will bring to the Reform Movement in the coming years.