One of the reasons so many people call Kehilat Hadar "home" is the warm, inviting community that they find here. From participating in communal pot luck meals, to hosting other community members in their homes, to supporting those who have recently experienced a life cycle event, it is the people who make Kehilat Hadar the special place that it is.
For more information on ways that you can get involved in Kehilat Hadar, please browse the pages in this section.
Kehilat Hadar relies on your contributions to maintain its financial stability. All of the money you donate will be used to pay for our operating costs and programming.
Kehilat Hadar has an annual budget of approximately $165,000. This includes, but is not limited to, the following costs:
While a wide base of volunteers is crucial to the success of Hadar, we also rely on financial support to ensure that Kehilat Hadar can continue to provide excellent prayer, learning, and social justice programs.
Although we do not have a formal membership structure, we do suggest annual individual contributions of $250 (or $180 for students), but donations of any size are appreciated. All donations are fully tax deductible.
You can donate directly online via PayPal, but please note that Paypal deducts a 3% service processing fee from Kehilat Hadar if you pay by credit card. Please consider paying by check, or adding to your donation to cover the fee. We ask that donations over $500 be submitted by check only.
The 3% service charge represents $5.40 on a donation of $180, $7.50 on a donation of $250, $15 on a donation of $500.
We welcome checks, payable to Kehilat Hadar, and sent to our financial administrator, Nadine Kochavi:
Kehilat Hadar P.O. Box 991 Planetarium Station New York, NY 10024-0541Looking to support Mechon Hadar, the spin-off of Kehilat Hadar that supports independent minyanim nationwide and runs Yeshivat Hadar, America's first egalitarian yeshiva? Find out more about Mechon Hadar.
Your participation is essential to building and strengthening the Kehilat Hadar community. You can enhance our community in many ways, including:
Excited about Hadar and want to become more involved? Get involved with Kehilat Hadar's leadership!
Kehilat Hadar (KH) is a dynamic community that relies on the dedicated support and enthusiasm of highly committed volunteers. Volunteers organize and implement the wide range of programs that Kehilat Hadar offers, from planning the Shavuot Retreat or High Holiday services to helping out with Shabbat logistics. There are lots of ways to get involved, and we encourage you to consider what would work for you. Getting involved is also a great way to meet people in the community!
Read through these descriptions, e-mail contact@kehilathadar.org and let us know how you would like to get involved.
Here's a list of some of the ways you can become involved:
There are opportunities to lead or participate in the following teams:
Learning • Social Justice • Shavuot • Hospitality & Community Building
High Holidays • Technology • Chagim
Shabbat & Shabbatonim • Kiddush • Israel • Lifecycle
Please e-mail contact@kehilathadar.org and let us know how you would like to get involved.
Thanks! We’re looking forward to hearing from you!
Yael Buechler, Tamar Fox, Ashira Konigsburg, Dana Kresel, and Marc Melzer
Kehilat Hadar Gabbaim
Let us know how you'd like to get involved with leadership at Kehilat Hadar! Your answers will help us match skills and interests with opporuntities. You can learn more about leadership opportunities, here.
Kehilat Hadar has a kashrut policy because members of our community have different standards of kashrut in their homes. In an effort to accommodate all members of our community, we ask that all food for community events, such as Lunch and Learns and meals hosted in your home as part of a Kehilat Hadar program, be prepared in a kosher kitchen, and that ingredients for the meal (including cheese) be marked with a recognized kosher symbol (more than just "K").
If, in general, you cook with non-hechshered domestic cheese in your kitchen, it is still possible to prepare food for the meal, as long as the ingredients for the meal are in accordance with the kashrut policy described above and you haven't used your pots for 24 hours (ben yomo). (Or, you could simply make a meat meal!) Whether you attend a meal or host a meal, all food bought or made should follow this policy. If you have any questions, including how to meet these kashrut standards, please contact us.
As the Kehilat Hadar community grows and matures, one important way we strengthen our relationships to one another as individuals and as a community is by supporting each other through the ups and downs of life.
The Life Cycle Team, along with other volunteers from the Kehilat Hadar community, works to provide meals to new and growing families, helps organize and ensure a minyan during the shiva period (seven days of mourning following burial) and provides meals to those in mourning. The team also maintains a yahrzeit (memorial) calendar for community members.
Please keep the Life Cycle Team updated on the events in your life and the lives of other community members for which you or they would like community support. Please also email lifecycle@kehilathadar.org with the dates of yahrzeits or other significant milestones that you would like to mark with the Kehilat Hadar community.
Please also consider donating to Kehilat Hadar in honor or in memory of an individual or in celebration of a life cyle event.
Hundreds of people have participated in Kehilat Hadar services (we have over 2,000 people on our email list) and it is impossible to know who everyone is. Nonetheless, here is a snapshot based on a survey conducted at the Kehilat Hadar Shavuot Retreat (2003).
It may seem during Kiddush that everyone is talking to someone they know, but in fact many people at Kehilat Hadar do not know each other. Most people who come to Kehilat Hadar would love to get to know more people in the room. We encourage you to help build a more cohesive community by introducing yourself to people you don't know. If you are new to Kehilat Hadar or unfamiliar with the community, and would like to share a Shabbat meal with others, please introduce yourself to one of the gabba'im or Leadership Team members or e-mail hospitality@kehilathadar.org.
In addition, our programs such as the Beit Midrash classes at Yeshivat Hadar, our Israel book club, and our Habitat for Humanity Builds offer a more intimate and substantive setting to get to know others at Kehilat Hadar.
We are happy to provide a community postings section on our website which publicizes programs of interest. To submit a posting, click here.
The founders of Kehilat Hadar launched Mechon Hadar: An Institute for Prayer, Personal Growth and Jewish Study in June, 2006. Mechon Hadar's mission is to revitalize communal life - animated by prayer, study and social action - among young Jews in America. Mechon Hadar's Minyan Project is designed to empower vibrant prayer communities and provides support to those starting new independent minyanim. For more information about how to start a minyan like Kehilat Hadar, email info@mechonhadar.org
For more information about the relationship between Mechon Hadar and Kehilat Hadar, click here.
The leadership of Kehilat Hadar is continually planning for the short term as well as strategizing for the longer term. Kehilat Hadar holds community meetings to discuss our shared vision and to plan for the future. Please click here for the minutes from our January, 2005 community meeting, and click here for the minutes from our February, 2007 community meeting.