Lab/Shul

What services do you offer?
B'nai Mitzvah, Adult B’nai Mitzvah, Conversions, Shabbat Services, Holiday Services, Couples Classes, Young Family Opportunities, Group Learning, Weddings.

What is your organization's mission?
The Lab/Shul community is dedicated to exploring, creating and celebrating innovative opportunities for contemplation, life cycle rituals, the arts, life-long learning and social justice. Building on Storahtelling’s vision and practice, Lab/Shul seeks to redefine the role of sacred gatherings that nourish our thirst for meaning, connection, spirituality and community. Lab/Shul is a thriving, nurturing spiritual community where inclusive, accessible and radically renewed Jewish ritual promotes deep communal connection and broader societal shift. As a pioneer in redefining the role of sacred gatherings, Lab/Shul visualizes itself as a model for other spiritual communities and a catalyst for global change.

What activities do you offer?
“The world exists on three pillars: Torah – Wisdom, Avodah – Spiritual Practice, and Hesed – Loving Kindness.” – Mishna Avot Inspired by this traditional Jewish recipe for living lives of value and virtue, Lab/Shul’s three main ingredients are Soul, Wisdom, and Together. No gathering of ours is complete without some amount of each one, mixed and remixed together. But they also serve to broadly define the three main circles of our programs year-round. Soul: Ritual and Spiritual Practice Spiritual practice, life/cycle milestones and ritual events, connecting us to self and to each other, within and beyond. Wisdom: LIFELONG LEARNING Learning programs for all ages, deepening Jewish literacy and exploring life’s big questions. Together: COMMUNAL CARE Community organizing and partnerships, nourishing our neighbor’s needs and rising for justice.

How would you describe your community?
Lab/Shul is an everybody-friendly, artist-driven, God-optional, experimental community for sacred Jewish gatherings based in NYC reaching the world. Our values face inward & outward: RESPECT We see everyone as a Divine reflection / as Divine, both whole and human, so we treat others as they want to be treated. HUMOR We embrace humor as a necessary tool for release, well-being, productivity, and connection. OPTIMISM We are open to possibility, approaching obstacles as opportunities. RECOGNITION We see, name, and give gratitude/credit to everyone for their contributions. BALANCE We empower each other to set personal and organizational limits, knowing that every “no” is a “yes” to something else. CREATIVITY What box? We cultivate space to play, stretch, question, seek, inspire, and offer. HINEINU Hebrew for “we are here.” We are responsible to and present for one another, our community, and the world. RE:LOVE Our twist on the Hebrew word “v’ahavta.” We commit / recommit to lead with our hearts, practicing Love as a source of and a force for our highest values. GROWTH We evolve, always becoming. We are growth-oriented, dynamic, bold. We are always willing to explore the non-traditional, to defy expectations of what a synagogue, Judaism, and spiritual events are.

Are there places and times you frequently meet?
Invisible Dog, Mark Morris Dance Center, Judson Church, Education Alliance Manny Cantor Center.