LOS ANGELES--The board of Synagogue 3000 (S3K) has elected Rabbi Aaron Spiegel as its next chairperson. Synagogue 3000, the successor to Synagogue 2000, is an organization that seeks to empower synagogues to become compelling moral and spiritual centers - sacred communities - for the twenty-first century.

"Synagogues are facing unique challenges and opportunities in the 21st century," noted Spiegel. "Synagogue 2000 and now 3000 has been the lead innovator in Jewish sacred community, and I'm thrilled to help lead S3K into the future."

S3K's recent accomplishments include the launching of the first-ever Synagogue Studies Institute, focused on providing intellectual rigor and academic expertise to the investigation of Jewish spiritual communities. According to Spiegel, this is a signature achievement: "Congregational studies in the church world is decades ahead of those of us who work in the synagogue world. S3K has put something in motion that will have significant impact for many years..."

S3K President Ron Wolfson commented that Rabbi Spiegel's chairpersonship comes at important time for the organization. "I'm so thrilled Aaron is stepping into this new role! I know this will be a crucial year - a real turning point for us - and I'm confident that he is the person most able to move us towards our goals."

S3K Senior Academic Fellow and co- founder Rabbi Lawrence Hoffman, echoed this sentiment. "Aaron epitomizes all that we stand for: integrity, wisdom, honesty, and loyalty to those Jewish values that have sustained us from the beginning."

Two of S3K's primary projects, the Jewish Emergent Initiative and the S3K Synagogue Studies Institute have both received recent national attention with articles in the New York Times, Atlanta Journal Constitution, the Forward, New York Jewish Week, and Jewish Journal of Los Angeles, Jewish Telegraphic Agency among others.