McHenry County Jewish community takes a hard look at its future – and questions if it will have one

The McHenry County Jewish Congregation has to make a decision, its board president told the membership Sunday.

The synagogue, formed in 1979, is down to just 22 families, Jonah Markowitz said. There are only four children currently attending religious education classes. Two of them are his own.

“We have funding to do another year” at their location outside Crystal Lake, Markowitz said. “There is work we have to do to keep things going.”

The synagogue’s current situation is not unique and may be part of a larger trend. According to the Pew Research Center, a 2021 survey of Americans indicate 29% consider themselves religiously unaffiliated – religious “nones.” Just 45% of those polled said they pray daily, down from 58% reported in 2007.

There was a time that the McHenry County synagogue was thriving. At one point, with 110 children, a trailer was rented for additional classroom space, Ellen Morton said.

Maralee Gordon served as the rabbi there from 2004 to 2016, when she retired to spend more time with her husband visiting their sons in California, Australia and Israel.

After Gordon’s retirement, another rabbi served there for five years. Following his departure, the congregation was able to find a part-time rabbi. That is when Gordon offered to come back part-time. She began the new role on Dec. 1.

This is not the first time the congregation has discussed its future plans, Markowitz said. Two years ago, the members made a vow to “dig deep, to keep this thing going,” he said. Successful fundraisers were hosted, and the congregation was able to increase membership.

Two new members, a couple, were part of the discussion Sunday, which followed the synagogue’s Chanukah party. Others joined via Zoom call.

Markowitz has been in conversations, talking about options, with leaders from other northwestern Illinois synagogues, including Elgin’s Congregation Kneseth Israel (CKI). McHenry County’s Jewish community has been most-closely aligned with that synagogue over the years.

The Elgin synagogue has seen its membership decline as well, Gene Lindow said. He was at the Sunday discussion as a voice for CKI.

During the discussion, ideas were brought up to help keep the local organization active, or find ways to share costs with others.

A local Christian church that is also seeing its membership decline might be interested in sharing a building. Markowitz said he was unsure if the insurance policy would allow for that.

To ensure the four students in religious education get more interaction with other Jewish children, the idea was proposed to send them to Elgin’s CKI for school.

“But if the kids go to CKI, what keeps you here?” Markowitz asked the parents and grandparents.

“It is the community aspect of it, outside the worship part of it,” that would hurt the most if the synagogue were to close the doors, Markowitz said.

‘Nones’: Part of a trend

While the “none” category – those who claim no religious affiliation – has increased in the U.S., 63% of adults identify as Christian, with another 6% reporting they are part of non-Christian faiths, including Jewish and Muslim, according to the 2021 Pew Research Center survey.

Shane Sharp, an associate professor of sociology at Northern Illinois University, teaches a class on the social psychology of God. While he does not directly directly study the changes within faith communities, he does teach on the topic, Sharp said.

“There are a lot of whys, not one or two explanations” as to why fewer people are members of a faith community, Sharp said.

He added that Americans aren’t necessarily becoming less religious. A majority still believe in God and still pray every day, he said. However, with more of a focus on individuality since the 1960s, more people “don’t see the church as necessary to have a fulfilling spiritual life,” Sharp said.

Other reasons for fewer people identifying with some faith traditions may be due to politics weaving into religion, or because there are just more options for entertainment.

“Back in the day, before TV, radio, books and libraries in abundance, church was your main source of weekly entertainment. There was singing, music and a speech from the church,” Sharp said. “There are so many more options now to fill their time.”

That is an argument he has heard from one sociologist, Sharp said. “A lot of the motivation for going to church in the olden days was there was not much else to do.”

The Rev. Scott Zaucha said he thinks attendance is swinging back to a pre-World War II level, before cars and highways made it easy to get to a house of worship.

“It is a resetting. Church attendance is more like it was in the early 20th century,” Zaucha said.

For the last year and a half, Zaucha has been the pastor at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Crystal Lake and St. Anne’s Episcopal Church in Woodstock.

With Sunday attendance down to 37 people, St. Anne’s could not longer afford a full-time priest, Zaucha said. About five years later, St. Mary’s made the same choice.

Now, Zaucha performs a 9 a.m. Sunday service at St. Mary’s, then does the 10:30 a.m. service at St. Anne’s.

The agreement, he said, allows the churches “to focus on what is important: caring for God’s people, taking care of our parishioners, and taking care of our community,” Zaucha said.

Caring for the community – and keeping the small Jewish community in McHenry County together – was one of the topics that came up several times during Sunday’s discussion at the synagogue.

The religious classes are so small the four children are getting one-on-one time with the teachers, Markowitz said. But he also remembers growing up in Houston, Texas, and having a huge group of cohorts that his own children may miss out on.

One father noted it does not have to be a one or the other – the local congregation could continuing classes, but join with the Elgin synagogue a few times a month.

But it may come down to money. The synagogue, a converted 100-year-old school, costs $30,000 a year to operate. With staff expenses, staying open costs about $90,000 a year, Dale Morton said.

He expects to end the year with half of the lower number in the bank, Dale Morton said.

A final determination did not come at Sunday’s forum. Markowitz and others on the board said they’d look at all of the suggestions made and put together some options.

They plan another community discussion following the March 24 Purim service.