Jewish Group Adds Flair To Prayer

By EFREM L. EPSTEIN

It's not your grandfather's synagogue.

And that's good news for many young Manhattan Jews, who are increasingly flocking to a new group of worship centers based on their religion and culture that specifically cater to the hip.

Take Elie Kaunfer. Several years ago, Kaunfer, 29, and others saw many existing synagogues as simply too big, too old-fashioned or lacking a core group of younger "regulars." As a result, they rarely attended services.

So, in May 2001, Elie co-founded his own prayer group.

He dubbed it "Kehilat Hadar" - Hebrew for "Community of Glory" - and gave it a Web site: www.kehilathadar.org.

The group was initially small enough to meet in one member's apartment. But that quickly changed, and in the ensuing 20 months, Kehilat Hadar outgrew 12 different spaces.

Its young members say they like the feeling of community and social aspect it can offer.

"At Kehilat Hadar, you can go up to anyone and say hello," said member Carissa Alden, 24, a publishing-company editor.

And it was over last year's retreat that Joel Siegel met his fiancée, Rachel Pross.

"Rachel and I come from such different backgrounds that Kehilat Hadar is probably the only place we ever could have crossed paths," said Siegel, 24, a medical student at Mount Sinai.

Kaunfer acknowledged that the center is not a synagogue in the traditional sense.

"We don't consider ourselves a synagogue," he said. "We have no rabbi, no cantor, no employees and no permanent building.

"We draw some people who pray every day and others who may have never have come to synagogue regularly in their entire life."