Building a Community: Pointers from the Pros

You need a school. At the very least, a K–8 day school. If you want a lasting community, you need a high school. A lot of communities don’t take off because families leave when their kids reach seventh or eighth grade.

—Rabbi Ezra Sarna, OU director of Torah and Halacha Initiatives

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Here’s a shortcut to growth: bring in a dynamic, charismatic rabbi people will gather around.

—Steve Savitsky, former OU president and founder of the OU Savitsky Home Relocation Fair

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It’s not enough to build a great eruv or open a day school if the core leadership isn’t aligned on what kind of community they’re trying to create. Communities need clarity about the value proposition they offer to potential newcomers—what makes them unique, compelling and spiritually resonant.

—Rabbi Adir Posy, OU national director of the Department of Synagogue Initiatives

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In a community that seeks to grow, there needs to be a sufficient supply of housing within walking distance of the shul. Post–Covid-19, many retirees prefer to “age in place,” rather than move to assisted living. This has resulted in a housing shortage across the country, as people are not selling as much.

—Rebbetzin Judi Steinig, OU senior director of Community Projects and Partnerships

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We often tell communities: families don’t just move for affordability or amenities—they move because they sense something dynamic is happening. People are drawn to places where the leadership exudes confidence, purpose and optimism.

—Rabbi Posy

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To grow a community, you need the basics—a school, a shul, a mikveh, an eruv, affordable housing, jobs.

But the problem today is people say, “There’s no pizza store? No big kosher supermarket?” They want all the conveniences. To grow, you need a core group of families who want to build—and are willing to sacrifice.

—Steve Savitsky

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Most high schools are built because a few families say, “We don’t want to move out of this community. We like it here.” And they start building a school, even though they know nothing about it. Necessity is the mother of invention.

—Rabbi Sarna

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Infrastructure matters. While some families are still willing to be communal pioneers, most today want a baseline of comfort and functionality in their Jewish lives: a reliable minyan, mikveh access, Torah education, kosher food, meaningful programming. But they’re also looking for housing, jobs, schools, parks—all the quality-of-life factors that make a community livable, not just viable.

The communities that plan holistically—investing in both mission and infrastructure—are the ones that succeed in attracting and retaining families for the long term.

—Rabbi Posy

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A community could have all the right elements, all the infrastructure, and still it needs mazel to grow.

—Rebbetzin Steinig