Urim Publications recently published A Circle in the Square, a book that is a combination of a biography of R. Shlomo Riskin until his aliyah in 1983 and the story of the innovation that is Lincoln Square Synagogue.
What is the secret to outreach success? From what I gather from the book, it requires four character traits:
1. Profound Torah knowledge
2. Eloquence in teaching that knowledge
3. Excitement about Judaism that is contagious
4. A personal interest in people
With that, you need to experiment and innovate (if and when necessary, and always with the guidance of Torah giants) to create the right programs to fit your audience. You also need to develop an honest and open relationship with your audience so that even when you cannot do what they want, they will know that you understand their needs and are working together with them.
I found the book to be fascinating, particularly that much of what was started in Lincoln Square has now become standard in the Modern Orthodox world. R. Riskin’s successes at outreach are legendary. I only heard him speak once, around 20 years ago in a lecture to my high school, and I still remember how exciting and uplifting his speech was. The final chapter has short descriptions of rabbis he trained, including R. Kenny Brander of YU’s CJF, whose success in Boca Raton is also legendary.
Here is a video of R. Riskin on this week’s Torah portion, although I suspect that he is much less animated than usual because he is talking to a camera and not an audience (I hear the same on some audio lectures, where the speaker is less interesting because he is speaking to a microphone and not an audience).
