Most people have no trouble telling someone about a good restaurant or movie.
That was the question Daryl Messinger posed to an audience of about 30 synagogue leaders at last weekend's Union of American Hebrew Congregations' regional biennial convention in San Jose. Several sessions, in fact, dealt with the topic of how to make synagogues more appealing and inclusive. Messinger, a past president of Congregation Beth Am in Los Altos Hills, believes she didn't do enough to promote her synagogue to unaffiliated Jews. It's all about marketing, said Gary Cohn at a Friday afternoon seminar. The executive director of Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco since 1991, Cohn formerly worked in marketing for the banking industry.