Lexington is home to the University of Kentucky ("http://www.uky.edu") and the center of the world's thoroughbred industry. Eighty miles east of Louisville and 90 miles south of Cincinnati, Ohio, Lexington-Fayette County ("http://www.lfucg.com") has a population of about 280,000, with its Jewish population a bit over 1%. The Lexington Havurah has been going strong since its founding in May 1978 The original five founding member families quickly grew to 20 and has averaged 30-35 since then. We are affiliated with both the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism ("http://www.uscj.org/") and The National Havurah Committee, and primarily use the Reconstructionist prayer book. Our members come from diverse Jewish backgrounds from the unaffiliated, to Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist and Orthodox. We are families with young children and teens, couples and singles; university faculty and staff, business people, professionals, and students. We are community leaders, counting among our members several local Jewish Federation and Hadassah ("http://www.hadassah.org/") presidents and the chairs of Central Kentucky Jewish Federation ("http://www.jewishlexington.org") committees.

We started the Lexington Havurah to provide opportunities for participatory and egalitarian Judaism. We continue to draw ideas from many resources: the First Jewish Catalog, synagogues we visit, our children's experiences at Hadassah's Young Judaea ("http://www.youngjudaea.org/") camps (many of our children participate in Young Judaea clubs, camps and Israel programs), the annual Summer Institute sponsored by the National Havurah Committee, and other workshops and life experiences.