About two-thirds of all Jews don’t belong to a synagogue. Some blame the unaffiliated for not joining; others blame the synagogues for not being interesting enough to join. I blame our system of synagogue membership.
Any economist worth his salt would recognize the problem. Synagogue membership is like gym membership. It’s expensive and poorly used, and therefore it has little economic utility to most potential buyers. Most Jews who are members attend their synagogues a small handful of times a year. Against the cost of annual membership, the per visit cost is astronomical. No wonder most Jews rightfully conclude that synagogue membership is a bad deal.
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