The Firepit Minyan meets in South Austin backyards to experience Judaism. Though our beliefs range from agnostic to true believer, we embrace the Jewish spirit of humor, arguing with God and the pursuit of menschiness. To paraphrase Mordecai Kaplan: tradition has a vote here, but not a veto. You are invited to join our homey, messy, spiritual, funky, musical, exuberant, all-ages community.

There are no building committees or fund drives and you’ll never need a ticket for the high holy days. (In 2009, we replaced our high holy days French Horn with a real shofar!)

On cool evenings, we start Shabbat by lighting a firepit. The music-filled service lasts about 45 minutes and is followed by home-made challah, a potluck dinner and lively, occasionally irreverent, Torah study.

We do tashlich at Barking Springs, stumble through Israeli folkdances on Sukkot and our Purimshpiel, written by two 9-year-old minyanites, features The Dude.

Our monthly mitzvah corps gets its hands dirty working on local projects at food pantries, hospice gardens and other places that could use a hand.

At services, you may see our minyan puschke. Ignore it or don’t – contributions are voluntary and used for random items like tents, shofars, Meetup dues, candles, etc. If we collect more than we need for necessities, the money will be donated to a charity chosen by the community.

The Jews abide.