Temple Am Echad

I accompanied my Grandma to Am Echad for Yom Kippur this year. Grandma LOVES Am Echad. She’s always raving (to anybody that will listen) about how nice all the people are, how beautiful the services are, and how much fun she has going to temple. I can see why she feels that way.
From what I could tell, Temple Am Echad is like heaven for a Jewish senior citizen — without the whole «being dead» thing. I found myself surrounded by such apty-​named octogenarians as «Seymour,» «Ethel,» and «Harold.» And unfortunately, each elder lady tried to out-​perfume the others, filling my nostrils with the most powerful old-​lady smell one could imagine. It’s not easy to breathe out of your mouth for two hours straight.
Truth be told, Grandma was right about the people. They really were all very nice, having nice things to say about Grandma and how she had been talking up my Yom Kippur visit for weeks. Good olé Grandma.
As for the temple itself, it was a nice enough building, if not particularly beautiful. The Rabbi cracked a couple of jokes, one or two of which actually wasn’t horrible. The Cantor was good, though I was expecting a bit more theatrics after Grandma’s assessment that he could easily hold a lead role on Broadway. Not sure about that one…
And the service was pretty standard, as far as Reform High Holiday observances go. That is, until we reached the Torah service and things completely fell apart. The Torah readers could not find the proper starting place, leaving the congregation waiting some 5 minutes as they searched the scroll. Then some of the readers were painfully slow and obviously unprepared. One old lady reader said she was too short to see the words well, though I happened to agree with the guy behind me who loudly whispered, «I don’t think she studied very hard.» Ha.
Temple Am Echad seems to be making efforts to modernize and appeal to a younger generation, though it’s definitely still ruled by the old guard. The temple President made her remarks and asked for donations to help keep alive the special services that Am Echad offers during the year, including a special Jazz Shabbat and their patented Peter, Paul, & Mary service. As I looked around, I got the feeling most of the people in attendance, although Jewish, would have a better chance of knowing Peter, Paul, and Mary from the New Testament than the folk band from the ‘60s.
I don’t mean to make Am Echad sound too terrible, though. My overall experience was not bad, though I would imagine there are better options for younger people in other places. But if this review comes across as too harsh, let me now say that I am sorry. And I suppose I can always return next year to repent on Yom Kippur.