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Congregation B'nai Jacob of Jersey City held special weekend festivities for its 50th anniversary in November, but Cantor Marsha Dubrow sees the milestone more as a yearlong celebration that previews the next 50 years.

Whether it is through musical "Friday Night Live" services or collaborations with the Shakespeare theater troupe at nearby New Jersey City University, this year's programming at B'nai Jacob is all geared toward an ongoing commitment to innovation in synagogue life.

The shul was founded in 1958 by a group of Conservative families living in a Jersey City housing development called College Towers, and membership was supplemented by families who previously attended an Orthodox synagogue in the area that closed.

When Dubrow became the congregation's spiritual leader two years ago, those who remained from an originally "Conservadox" crowd grew to enjoy more progressive Friday nights that include the keyboard, saxophone, tambourine, and drums. Dubrow uses her talents as a composer to help members build an emotional connection with prayer.

"It becomes a very festive and joyful Shabbat experience and it attracts a younger, inter-generational crowd," Dubrow said.

Dubrow explained that congregants enjoy B'nai Jacob's music because it is nusach-based, with a melody that is specific to when the service is being conducted, and highlights the meaning behind the texts. Dubrow even composed an original nigun that the congregation sings to begin every Friday night service, a tune that enables anyone to participate since it does not require Hebrew to understand.

"I try hard to illuminate for the congregation the meaning of the act of prayer as well as the prayers themselves," Dubrow said. "My big commitment is to provide multiple pathways to having a meaningful Jewish experience, both religious and cultural."

The cultural commitment took a significant step forward this year due to the synagogue's partnership with NJCU's Actors Shakespeare Company. Dubrow serves on the equity theater group's board of advisors, and in February, the actors came to the shul to put on Jacob Gordin's The Jewish King Lear, a play that mimics the familial relations and plot of Shakespeare's King Lear.

For Dubrow, programs like that serve the important purpose of educating through entertainment.

"It creates community to have all the congregants experience something they can identify with as consumers of culture in general and of Jewish culture," she said.

Still, conventional education also exists at B'nai Jacob. In honor of the 50th anniversary, Dubrow is leading a series of six Bible Study sessions, the first of which dealt with the Book of Job before Tisha b'Av. Sessions on April 18 as well as Shavuot are on the upcoming schedule.

Also on Shavuot, B'nai Jacob will host a special Friday night dinner on the second night of the holiday, when they will invite other congregations from Hudson County to experience the unique "Friday Night Live" service.

When compared with other local synagogues, B'nai Jacob immediately stands out because the shul doesn't employ a rabbi. From a historical perspective, however, Dubrow said that situation isn't as rare as one might think.

In 18th century Eastern Europe, Dubrow explained, many synagogues had cantors as their daily leaders, while rabbis would visit a few times a year to rule on halakhic matters and deliver sermons. That trend was revered as rabbis took a more central role with the denominationalism of American Judaism, but rabbis and cantors are now beginning to serve in multiple capacities "because music is more important and because there is more emphasis on lay leadership," Dubrow said.

Dubrow was a cantor in Montclair for 10 years before coming to B'nai Jacob to serve in that capacity four years ago. After two years, she became spiritual leader of the shul and has relished the dual role.

"It has been extremely empowering and I feel that it has allowed me to call upon my skills and knowledge in a way that suits me," she said.

In fact, B'nai Jacob is only part of Dubrow's multi-faceted career. A native of South Orange and owner of a doctorate in musicology from Princeton University, she teaches Jewish music courses at New York University and is currently a resident scholar at the Center for Jewish Studies at the City University of New York Graduate Center, as well as a Milstein Fellow at the Center for Jewish History in Manhattan.

All the while, Dubrow's career has taken a parallel business path in marketing, which helps her conduct outreach for B'nai Jacob through print advertising and the HudsonJewish.org Web site.

Dubrow explained that the shul's 225 member families are split into roughly equal thirds: empty-nesters who have left suburban lifestyles for Jersey City, young "pre-family" members in their 20s and 30s, and a group of older congregants.

Like several other Jersey City synagogues, B'nai Jacob faces the geographic challenge of being inland rather than near the downtown waterfront, where most of the area's young residents live and commute to work in New York City via the PATH train.

However, having a Light Rail three blocks away from B'nai Jacob's location (176 Westside Avenue) helps the shul's ability to attract young professionals to attend services, and the presence of a parking lot is critical as well.

"We are the synagogue of choice in this area, and because of the parking lot we can be the synagogue of choice for all of Jersey City," Dubrow said.

As B'nai Jacob continues to attain a critical mass of young couples, the question remains whether those couples will stay long enough to fill on-site classrooms with students and fill Shabbat with bar and bat mitzvah celebrations. Dubrow said that the key to making that happen lies in the willingness of B'nai Jacob's young members to embrace leadership roles, laying the roots for the synagogue's next five, 10, and 50 years.

"The facility is here, but a shul lives through its congregants," Dubrow said. "We need to sustain the thriving community we have now and to grow that community."