History of the NHC

The National Havurah Committee (NHC) was founded in 1980 to facilitate the activities of fellowships known as havurot and to spread havurah values and enthusiasm to the larger Jewish community, thereby serving as a model for revitalizing Jewish living and learning in North America. The NHC was organized following a successful conference at Rutgers University in July 1979 that brought together different groups that shared the name “havurah.” These included independent havurot that were formed as part of the counterculture of the 1960’s, synagogue havurot that were created within Reform and Conservative synagogues, and Reconstructionist congregations that considered themselves havurot. Though differently organized, havurot, now as then, share the mission of creating small communities in which all members participate in creating authentic and meaningful Jewish experiences. Independent havurot also tend to be non-denominational, egalitarian, and inclusive. Havurah leadership is generally shared by the members; havurot typically do not have professional rabbinic or spiritual leaders.

The first NHC Summer Institute (at the University of Hartford in July 1980) was organized in order to help provide and empower havurah members with the knowledge to grow Jewishly and the skills to enable them to create and sustain such communities. (The first institute was organized and co-chaired by Joseph G. Rosenstein and Michael Strassfeld who, with Elaine S. Cohen, who coordinated the 1979 conference, were the first three chairs of the NHC.) Annual week-long summer institutes have been conducted by the NHC each year since 1980 and have attracted an average of 250 adults (plus many children) of varying Jewish backgrounds and observance. Courses at the institute address the variety of Jewish texts, arts, culture, spirituality, issues, and practice from many different perspectives. Institute teachers are expected to attend as well as to offer courses. The NHC has inclusively recruited teachers from many backgrounds and women instructors when that was considered radical, and served as a prominent forum for discussing feminist perspectives of Judaism in the 1980s. The NHC model of summer programs for lay adults has been adapted by other organizations. Both the longevity of the institute and the replication of the model attest to its success.

The NHC also sponsors regional weekend retreats, including an annual New England retreat (since 1986) and an annual Spring Retreat. In the 1990s it published in a number of newspapers a weekly D’var Torah column that was written by a diverse group of writers representing all branches of Judaism, and that served as a prototype for subsequent d’var torah columns; it also published three issues of a journal with the appropriately oxymoronic title of “New Traditions.”

Although havurot and individuals participate in the NHC, it has not functioned as a membership organization; its programs have been organized by a volunteer board with modest staff assistance. The NHC has created and sustained programs and promoted values – such as inclusiveness, lay leadership and teaching, involvement, egalitarianism, fellowship – that have had an impact on the wider Jewish community.

— Joe Rosenstein wrote this article for the new edition of the Encyclopedia Judaica in 2005.

NHC Past Chairs

1980-1981
Michael Strassfeld

1981-1982
Elaine Cohen

1982-1983
Michael Strassfeld

1983-1985
Joe Rosenstein

1985-1987
Bob Goldenberg

1987-1989
Mitch Chefitz

1989-1991
Ruth Goldston

1991-1993
Herb Levine

1993-1995
Steve Lewis

1995-1997
Janet Hollander

1997-1999
Leonard Gordon

1999-2001
Solomon Mowshowitz

2001-2003
Neil Litt

2003-2006
Mark Frydenberg

2006-2009
Sherry Israel

2009-2010
Mark Frydenberg,
Neil Litt

2010-2011
Benjamin Maron
Josh Rosenberg

2011-2012
David Podell

2012-2014
Hillel Gray

2014-2016
Matthew Goldfield

2016-2017
Joline Price

2017-Present
Tara Bognar