Are Virtual Minyans and Avatar Rabbis the Future of Judaism?

This past Hanukkah, Rabbi Steven Stark Lowenstein didn't give Kiddush cups or gift cards to his staff at Am Shalom, a Reform congregation in the Chicago suburb of Glencoe. Instead, the cantors, rabbis, educators and administrators who make up his staff of 18 received Oculus virtual reality headsets. "It was great fun," Lowenstein wrote me in an email, "and sent a message that VR is real." In October, Lowenstein set out to make Am Shalom "the first Jewish synagogue in the metaverse," referring to the emerging network of 3D virtual worlds whose name was coined in "Snow Crash," a 1992 sci-fi novel by Neal Stephenson.