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The following article has been reprinted with the full cooperation and approval of the wonderful staff at The Jewish Herald-Voice.
If You Come, They Will Build ItA Jewish community created in The WoodlandsBy: Aaron Howard (Jewish Herald-Voice)
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| There is a vibrant and thriving Jewish community about 43 miles and nearly an hour away from the center of Jewish life in Houston. The creation of a synagogue-centered Jewish life in The Woodlands indicates something about the demographic realities of 21st century American life.For one thing, it shows that some American Jews are choosing to move to the self-contained, master-planned communities that ring our older urban areas. |  |
Secondly, a move miles from the boundaries of an established Jewish community to a self-contained, far-flung location like The Woodlands doesn’t mean an end to living Jewishly. A high percentage of these Woodlands families has chosen to affiliate and make the synagogue a center of education, social and religious life.
Land plans for The Woodlands were based on the planning concepts at Reston, Virginia, and Columbia, Maryland, two of the earliest planned communities of that generation. Even before George P. Mitchell broke ground in 1972, The Woodlands was designed to include all necessary infrastructures (roads and utilities), all the necessary services (parks, schools, shopping, religious institutions, police and fire protection).
“One of our objectives at the beginning was to have a place where people could live and work,” said Deretchin. “The Woodlands is not just a bedroom community, it’s a self-sustaining community. Our early objective was to have one job per household in The Woodlands. Today, about one-third of all the people who live in The Woodlands, work there. That’s been pretty constant.”
The Woodlands’ strong employment base includes major corporations, like Anadarko and Hewitt Associations, which have relocated there, two hospitals and several medical clinics, a 1,000-acre science and technology corridor that is home to 19 biotechnology companies, a campus of Montgomery College and the University Center, a consortium of six universities which offers degrees. The Woodlands is also one of the leading areas for leased office space in the Houston area.
So, The Woodlands does not function as a suburb of Houston. In fact, it functions as its own city.
“When I came here in 1977, you could probably count the total number of Jewish families in Montgomery County on the fingers of two hands,” continued Deretchin. “About six to eight of them were living in The Woodlands. “When I would bump into people in the grocery store or swimming pool with the name of Friedman or Levy, my antenna would go up. You’d dance around and finally ask: Are you Jewish? Most of us were young, with young children. So, we were looking for friends, people you could celebrate the holidays with. Many of us were attending [Congregation] Jewish Community North [in Spring, Texas]. Our kids went to Sunday school there. That was another way of learning who was living in The Woodlands.
“Around 1979, me and some of the others thought it would be interesting to find out who were all the Jews in The Woodlands. We invited people to come over for a Saturday night social. My recollection was that 17 couples showed up, and I believe that was most of the Jews living in south Montgomery County at that time.”
The couples formed a group called Shalom, as a means of organizing Jewish events and getting the kids together. “I think The Woodlands had a strong sense of identity, and there was a sense of pioneering,” said Deretchin. “So there was the feeling that we ought to have our own congregation. This loose social group morphed into a congregation.”
Deretchin said that when developer Mitchell was conceptualizing what this new town should be, he held the idea that The Woodlands should have a strong religious representation. Before ground was broken, Mitchell called on Houston religious leaders to help found an interfaith organization. “My understanding was that [Mitchell] called on [former Congregation Beth Israel Senior] Rabbi [Hyman] Schachtel to represent the Jewish community in putting together The Woodlands Religious Community Inc. [now Interfaith of The Woodlands]. Interfaith is set up to help facilitate congregations get started in The Woodlands.
Unlike religious coalitions in other parts of Montgomery County, Interfaith of The Woodlands was an incubator for new congregations before they could rent space or build a building. The fledgling Jewish group used Interfaith’s chapel for services for about three years. The Jewish group’s first service was led by Rabbi Robert I. Kahn [of Houston’s Congregation Emanu El], who came up north as a goodwill gesture.
“Over the years, there was a congregational church where we met for services and high holidays for five to seven years. The Woodlands Development Company leased space to the congregation at a nominal price. So basically, we were supported by Interfaith, local Christian churches and The Woodlands Development Company, all of whom nurtured us to help us reach viability,” said Deretchin. “We didn’t buy a building for 15 years; we just couldn’t afford it. We exist, to a large extent, thanks to the largess of the Christian community. They’ve been extremely supportive.”
Deretchin served on the board of Interfaith for 16 years including a recent stint as chairman this year. All of Beth Shalom’s full-time rabbis also have served on the board, including current Rabbi Jan Brahms.
“The Interfaith board has sought out the rabbis from Beth Shalom so the organization represents the religious diversity in the community,” said Deretchin. “This says to me that the board finds enrichment by including people of different religions and learning from them.”
“When we moved to The Woodlands, Montgomery County was not urban by any stretch of the imagination. I grew up in Brooklyn, where you didn’t need religion to be Jewish. You could be Jewish by osmosis.
“We were all starting families in those days. Living out here where there was no Jewishness, parents could see we could be the last generation of Jews in our families. My daughter was coming home from elementary school singing songs about ‘baby Jesus.’ One of the major forces of starting Beth Shalom was to get a Jewish education.
“We’re in an overwhelming Christian environment. But [our children] have a strong Jewish identity, and they live it. So that’s what the founders of Beth Shalom had in mind. And speaking as one of the founders, that’s what we’re achieving,” said Deretchin
* * *
Marian Schultz and her family lived in Houston in the early 1980s. When her husband was offered a job with Continental Airlines in 1999, the Schultz family chose to move back to Texas from New Jersey. But this time, they decided to live in The Woodlands because of the schools and “a family-friendly, self-contained community.”
The Schultz’s oldest child, Kate, was in the middle of preparing for her Bat Mitzvah when the family moved here. “So we wanted someone to help her continue to work,” said Schultz. “The folks [at Beth Shalom] didn’t even ask if we were going to have the Bat Mitzvah in the shul. They put us in touch with one of the tutors right away. We were impressed with the way they helped us.”
Although Kate had her Bat Mitzvah in her old New Jersey shul, the Schultz family joined Beth Shalom in August 1999. Today, Schultz is shul president.
“We had belonged to a congregation with over 500 members and so the opportunity of belonging to a small congregation was appealing,” she said. “Many times when you join a big congregation, there’s an established group of leaders in place. It takes longer to get to know the people and become active as a member in leadership. It’s not like you can walk in and say ‘plug me in.’ In a smaller congregation, if somebody says I can do it, you’ve got the job.”
Schultz walked in, and her passion was education, so she gravitated towards the religious school. She became a teacher for the eighth graders, then co-chair of the youth education committee, then a member of the board of trustees, chair of adult education for a year and finally president – over a five-year period. At the same time, Katie became president of NIFTY during her sophomore year in high school and then social action vice president of the regional organization last year.
“So we dove in with both feet,” said Schultz, speaking of the upside of belonging to a small congregation. “The downside is the amount of time you put in; I don’t delegate as well as I should,” she continued. “This has been very positive for my children. They need to appreciate how much work goes into being a part of a community. It’s a cliché, but there’s no free lunch. You have to be willing to contribute. We were in a community [in New Jersey] where not a lot of the kids went on to Confirmation. Here, there’s more of a feeling of ownership in a small congregation. My daughter found out all of the components of running a temple.”
Schultz also believes that people who live in a larger Jewish community – whether it is New Jersey or even Houston – often do not seek out active community involvement because they take it for granted. They don’t have to look for Judaism. “Houston has a lot more resources. It’s a major city, and I don’t think we were aware of how little the suburban communities are connected to the downtown and the central city. It’s not simply mileage. I drive into Houston more than a lot of people I know. I’ll drive [to a particular grocery store] or the gift shops of other synagogues looking for [particular items].
So, for all intents and purposes, the Houston Jewish community is as distant as Dallas when it comes to most Jews in The Woodlands. They do not affiliate nor contribute to Houston institutions. Yet, the good news is they choose to affiliate. “Sometimes it surprises me, the role I’ve ended up playing,” said Schultz. “When you’re in a smaller place, there’s more of an opportunity to participate at every level. I don’t know that I would have had the same level of contact with such a high percentage of our families. I don’t take any resources for granted now. I appreciate where everything comes from. There’s a different relationship between members where the jobs are everyone’s job. You don’t have to be perfect. It’s more important to participate. You’re more in touch than if you’re just paying your dues and just show up. It’s more of a cooperative.”
* * *
The Woodlands High School is the largest in Texas, with about 4,900 students. It is ranked number 567 on Newsweek’s 2005 list of “Best High Schools in America.” Aaron Gray is a senior at Woodlands High School, where he’s a running back on the football team. He also plays lacrosse and serves on the board of the Interact Club, a Rotary-sponsored service organization. Aaron serves on the board of the Beth Shalom youth group, is a teacher’s aide for the fifth-grade religious school class and has been a Camp Ramah counselor for the past two years.
Aaron’s best friends are from Camp Ramah. “Locally, a couple of my best friends are Jewish and a couple are not,” he said. “I know a lot of Jewish kids from synagogue and at school. There’s not a large population of Jewish kids. I’m one of the only Jewish kids, but that leads me to be proud of it, not hide it. That’s how my personality is. My Judaism is one thing I don’t hide. When kids ask me questions, I teach them [about Judaism]. I usually don’t receive a lot of negative comment. Everybody knows I’m Jewish because I never hid it.”
Aaron estimated there are 25 or 30 Jewish high school students at the huge school. And he would be very surprised if he didn’t know all of them. “We keep good relations and most of them are proud,” he said. “They wear Jewish shirts from their regional youth group events or from Israel. We’re different, but it’s not that big of a deal. There have been very few instances of anti-Semitic incidents or even anti-Semitic jokes – maybe two or three in the eight years I’ve been here.”
Like many of the local high schools, Woodlands High holds student-led prayers before football games. As a member of the football team, Aaron said he makes it his concern to find out who is going to say the prayer. “I’m cool with prayers,” he said, “but I ask them not to say the name Jesus Christ or Our Savior – to make the prayer kosher for all of us. And so far, they’ve been very cooperative.
“I’m going to law school, so I can see both sides of the church-state argument. Not everybody agrees with religion in the first place, and schools are public institutions which kids have to go to by law. So they shouldn’t have to hear prayer in school. If you want to hear prayer in school, you should go to private school. That’s my stand on the issue.”
Aaron also understands that his active involvement in a synagogue is part of his continuing education and raising awareness. “It’s something that I enjoy,” he said “We’re a small congregation. There’s no higher authority that you can’t touch. There’s accessibility to everybody: the rabbi, the president and people on the board, I know all of these people personally. If I need something approved for the youth community, instead of going through the channels, I can go directly to the top to get it approved. It’s a lesson I apply outside the synagogue wherever I can.”
* * *
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Rachel Goldfeder is a junior at Woodlands High and the president of WOODSY, the synagogue youth group. She’s also a madrich at religious school, assisting this year with kindergarten and first grades on Sunday, and sixth grade on Wednesday. “The sixth-grade students are getting ready for their Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, so I was helping out with their Hebrew,” she said. “My Hebrew is pretty decent. I can read Torah.” |
Young people participate in Beth Shalom services regularly, sometimes running the services, said Rachel. “The members like to see the youth participating,” she said.
“We really enjoy it, even if you’re reading an English prayer. When they ask a youth member to be part of the service, they really want us to be a part. And they keep asking us. Community is something that includes each member and makes each member feel important,” she said.
* * *
Erica Gardner and her family moved to The Woodlands from Torrance, California, when her husband took a job in the Houston Greenspoint area because “it’s like camping out in your own city,” she said. “We fell in love with the greenery. We couldn’t believe we could actually live here, that it wasn’t a vacation-only environment. We were lucky to get a house on the lake. We have a little two-seat kayak which we use all the time. It’s too beautiful not to take advantage of.”
Gardner brings a Los Angeles attitude to Texas. Even if there were no synagogue in The Woodlands, she would have moved here and driven to the nearest shul. But then, people in Los Angeles are used to a one-hour commute to work. Her husband currently is working with a company in San Antonio, so he drives there. “Commuting was never an issue for us coming from L.A.,” she said.
A better set of values for the kids was an issue. That’s why Gardner affiliated with Beth Shalom. “Having children, we wanted them to have a Jewish education: at home, the more formal teaching and summer camp. Those three pieces were reinforcing and critical for them,” she said. “We got here, and there was one synagogue in The Woodlands. We were renting space in a community center, but there was the promise of building the community. We were in the grass roots of that. You’re talking to somebody who is on their third career and is not dismayed by something new. I could make a difference and put a Jewish presence in The Woodlands where it was needed.
“I was accepted instantly. It was a community hungry to have others. We went to services the first night to check it out. They had people standing there greeting everyone. The greeters had a son who was the age of my eldest. The next day, they had the coach of their own son’s basketball team calling me to include my son. So, it was an instant welcome. This is a very inviting community.”
Gardner noted that in a smaller synagogue, one quickly is made to feel integral “to the cloth of it.”
“In a big synagogue, you can disappear and not be missed,” she said. “When we go to services, we notice if someone is missing. You call them and ask if they are OK. It’s very small town in terms of sharing each others lives. We depend on one another. It’s really quite like family. Most of us don’t have family in Texas, so it’s become a family.”
Size matters. And the greatest disadvantage of Beth Shalom is a lack of money. “We don’t have the wealth a big community has,” continued Gardner. “If we want to have a speaker in for adult education, you have to figure out how you’re going to pay for that. We have to wing it, and that’s the hardest part. We’re focused right now on our new building, so money is a real factor. People are committed to sitting on multiple committees, giving their time in multiple meetings, being there to make it happen. We’ve got a ton of programming going on for such a small community, because we have people who are committed to their Judaism. It’s their biggest priority. If we didn’t all feel that way, it wouldn’t be happening.”
* * *
Sol Sachs is a native Houstonian, a lifelong member of Congregation Beth Yeshurun, who moved to The Woodlands 20 years ago after leasing two stores there. Sachs went from a home in southwest Houston to a place where some 45 Jewish families were meeting across the street from his business at Shepherd of the Woods church for once-a-month services. Sachs recalled thinking, “Why did God drop me off in the woods?”
Not having a Jewish life all around was the greatest change for him, where Jewish life also included Friday night Shabbat dinners at his parents’ house in Houston. His parents are native Houstonians and his grandparents grew up in Houston, Sachs said, “In Houston, we’d go to the stores in the neighborhood, and we’d meet our friends. We took that for granted. When we came up here, there wasn’t a store where you could buy a challah. It was hard leaving all your Judaism behind. The choice was totally related to making a living. At first, we wanted to commute because everything in Houston was Jewish. But it was impossible working six days a week and commuting. So we bought a small home in The Woodlands near where the stores were.” Shortly afterwards, Sachs got a phone call from Leland Dushkin, who told him there were Jewish people up here.
Sachs regularly went to services with his father at Beth Yeshurun’s Greenfield Chapel. So, it was quite a change to attend monthly Reform services in a church building. But, because it was the only shul in town, Sachs became a regular. His daughter got married in the shul in 1989 .“Everybody from the shul attended,” he said. “But it wasn’t until we moved to the Information Center (a building at Grogan’s Mill) that Beth Shalom felt like home to me. We were allowed to make physical changes to the building, and I think that’s when we realized we could become a shul. |
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“We built a pulpit, eight of us. One of our members built a small Ark. It was real pretty. It had a ner tamid on top. My family bought a yartzeit plaque that we hung on the wall. We borrowed a Torah from Emanu El, and we were able to open a school and hang our own things on the wall. While we were there, we had the opportunity to get a Holocaust Torah from the British government. We contacted Abe Merfish who agreed to go to England and get the Torah. We had a big celebration when he brought the Torah back. So now, we had two Torahs. We had grown a little bit, to about 55 to 60 families.”
Anybody who came into his store who Sachs identified as Jewish, Sachs would tell them about the synagogue. The Woodlands Corporation, which keeps track of people, asked for information. The Woodlands questionnaire included an optional spot for religion. Anybody who checked off “Jewish” would get a call from the synagogue membership committee.
In 1993, Beth Shalom learned that the Information Center would be torn down, so the synagogue had to move again. But Mitchell provided the congregation with another space on the top floor of an office building, not far from the Information Center. “But we knew we had to have our own place,” said Sachs. The congregation raised enough money to make a down payment on the piece of land in the center of The Woodlands where the current building is located.
“We are the center of Jewish life from here to Dallas,” bragged Sachs. “We have members from Huntsville, Willis, Magnolia, and Cut and Shoot. There are Jewish people scattered out everywhere. How could somebody from Magnolia raise their family Jewish if we weren’t here?”
Of course, another perception is: How can somebody who is Jewish even think of raising a family in Magnolia?
“Life is with people” is the old proverbial wisdom. Traditionally, for Jews, this meant that the texture of a Jewish community include a close-knit physicality. This doesn’t mean living in a ghetto. But it involves building a dense network of communal organizations which, at one time, included schools, self-help organizations, hospitals, businesses, fraternal lodges, burial societies, as well as synagogues. This traditional demographic pattern began to radically change in the United States with the large-scale movement to the suburbs following World War II. Between 1945 and 1965, one-third of all U.S. Jews left big cities and established themselves in the suburbs.
The demographic movement of U.S. Jews to self-contained communities, such as The Woodlands, might represent another stage of suburbanization. “After coming from Houston,” said Sachs, “I have seen that we were able, as a small group of Jewish people, to build a center of Jewish life in an outpost. We look at ourselves as more than a synagogue. It is a place where the teens can meet, where you can attend cultural events.
“When I go back to Houston, all you have to do is show up [at synagogue] and everything is taken care of for you. Here, you enjoy praying. And then, before you go home, you have to check the building: Make sure the air conditioner is turned down, the garbage taken out, the kitchen is clean and the building is secured. Everybody has a part in it.”
Sachs retired in 2002. When asked if he plans to move back to Houston, he just smiled.
“Look at The Woodlands; we have everything now,” he replied. “I’ve been involved in a lot of things in The Woodlands. I’ve been involved on the board of the Chamber of Commerce, The Woodlands Symphony doing fundraising, with the Women’s Center; things that I would have never done in Houston. Up here, you have the opportunity to do things that you wouldn’t in a city of 3 million. It’s not the average person who sits on the board of the Houston Symphony. Most of [those board members] are millionaires. Here, they are just regular people. Everything here is local so they feel about the community the same way I feel about the temple. It’s nice being a part of a community like this one.”
* * *
Thirty years. That’s how long Jan M. Brahms has been a rabbi. Before coming to The Woodlands, he served in Nashville, Tennessee, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and for 19 years, in Madison, Wisconsin. “As you age, winters in Wisconsin become more challenging,” said Rabbi Brahms. “My synagogue was 750 families, which was much too much for one rabbi. They couldn’t afford to hire an assistant. I didn’t know much about Texas, but I wanted a more moderate climate in winter and a smaller congregation.”
Both Rabbi Brahms and his wife, Ann Dee, work in The Woodlands. “It’s really an alternative reality,” he said. “The upside [of living here] is not having to deal with problems of urban life: traffic, crime, extreme poverty. Everything is self-contained. The only time one has to deal with Houston is going to a play or a museum. So you don’t have to deal with urban life on a daily basis, but it is proximate enough to take advantage of. It really is wonderful. If I were in my 20s, it might be too boring. But when you’re in your 50s and don’t need the daily stimulation of urban life, it’s fine.”
The downside of being Jewish in The Woodlands is the lack of texture of Jewish life. Instead of the stimulation of other Jews culturally and socially, you’re confronted with evangelical Christians and people who take their Christian faith very seriously, explained Rabbi Brahms. “So, you do give up that daily interaction,” he said. “If you go down a street in New York City, the chances are good that the person on your right and left are Jewish. The only time that would happen in The Woodlands would be if you are walking from the synagogue to your car.”
The Woodlands was not a culture shock for Rabbi Brahms. The thought is that if one lives in an area with a tiny Jewish population, one must be proactive. “People tend to use the synagogue much more extensively here because it’s their source for prayer, culture and their educational needs. People are more aware of their Judaism because it’s not available in such an easy fashion. If you’re a Jew in The Woodlands, you’re missed if you’re not [at the synagogue] and your efforts are appreciated when you’re there. It’s much more difficult to be anonymous,” the rabbi said.
“I’ve had casual conversations with people in The Woodlands, and I’ve never encountered anybody who has chosen to remain totally anonymous. If they are not synagogue-joining people, they don’t join, and that’s part of the fabric of Judaism in America. My sense is that we’re slightly better [in percent of people who affiliate with a synagogue] than many larger areas. [We’re] in the 70 percent range.
“A congregant came in to paint the bathrooms because it needed to be done. If I would say to somebody in Madison to come in and paint the bathroom, they would have said: Hire a painter. If a program had to be done, the program director would do it. If something has to be done here, the congregants don’t expect a professional or paid person to do it. They do it themselves. It gives us a sense of pride, of ownership, of belonging. This is their religious home. And just as you don’t want to go to a home that is cruddy-looking, they want to be proud of their home.”
Because there is no Conservative or Orthodox synagogue nearby, there is no traditional option for Jews in The Woodlands, short of driving into Houston. Of course, that’s an oxymoron for many traditional Jews. So, Beth Shalom has fashioned a Reform synagogue that is respectful of tradition. Rabbi Brahms classifies Beth Shalom as mainstream Reform, but the synagogue has not run off those congregants who are more traditional. “If I were concerned about issues of kashruth, if I were a Conservative Jew on the traditional side, I think it would be a challenge to live in The Woodlands,” he said.
Until now, the synagogue holds High Holy Day services in a social hall of a local church, resulting in some congregants refusing to come to High Holy Day services. But the synagogue expansion will mean a space large enough to accommodate these needs. “We will be able to hold Bar Mitzvah receptions and erev Shabbat dinners here,” said Rabbi Brahms. “We’re building an 8,400-square-foot addition with a large dedicated library, a meeting room, a teen room and a large open space with an Ark. So we feel this will meet our needs for the next 10 to15 years. It’s a reflection of the growth of a synagogue. We have the money, and the building is all designed and ready for zone approval. We hope to be in the new area by January.”
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