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Transcript of The Jewish Future is Here
James Hyman
Jewish Future is Here
The
A New Vision ofIdentity and Community
The Partnership for Jewish Life and Learning
The Partnership is a team of innovators leading a way forward for the Greater
DC Jewish community. Our collaborations provide thousands of learning
opportunities, for whole families or anyone of any age interested in exploring
core Jewish values and culture. Programs bridge arts and faith, balancing
innovation with tradition. We provide unique online resources, ground-breaking
professional development for educators, and partner with JCCs, congregations,
schools and social service agencies to help expand and deepen their reach.
12230 Wilkins Avenue, Rockville, MD 20852
Telephone: 240-283-6200
Fax: 240-283-6201
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.pjll.org
Copyright © 2011 by Partnership for Jewish Life and Learning.
No portion of this work may be reproduced in any form without the prior written
consent of the publishers.
Jewish Future is Here
James Hyman
The
A New Vision ofIdentity and Community
Jewish Future is Here
Tableof
Contents
The Jewish Future is Here1
Notes22
Acknowledgements23
About the Author24
Preface
This document is a concept paper, presenting many pieces of a puzzle
yet not all of them. It is not a definitive description of what a community
should look like although it includes a fictional vision. The final picture
will be determined by each community. However, we strongly believe
that there are three key elements described herein that are imperative if
we are to be successful at transforming the American Jewish community.
They are: a much broader notion of Jewish identity; re-defining the
core mission of the American Jewish community as education and
engagement; and based on these two premises, creating a comprehensive
collaborative educational system which would encompass a broad
array of organizations and institutions within the community.
1
Over the course of 3,000 years, in response to the challenges
that Jews have faced, Judaism has been adapted, transformed
and re-invented, allowing us to survive and even to thrive.
The current challenges facing the American Jewish community –
complacency and apathy, coupled with Jewish illiteracy and a shrinking
donor base – are significant, but survivable if we transform ourselves
once again. The infrastructure of the community looks much as it
did 60 years ago. However, the identity of American Jews does not.
The question is how can we create a communal infrastructure that
reflects what it means to be a Jew in America in the 21st century?
In this monograph we will offer a new vision of Jewish identity and
Jewish community in the United States showing how collaboration
and the pooling of communal resources must become the norm.
For millennia, Judaism was defined by a diverse set of experiences
that reached far beyond what we understand to be religion today. It
involved prayer and rituals to be sure, but it also encompassed art
and philosophy, language and history, and a distinct set of values that
informed the daily lives of Jews. Today in America, the institutional
Jewish community is focused almost exclusively on Judaism as
a religion, frequently compartmentalized from our daily lives;
for some people relevant on the Sabbath, for most only on major
holidays and in recognition of life cycle events. This focus does not
seem to be effective. By rediscovering a broader understanding
of Jewish identity, one that is experienced as enriching our
lives as Americans, we could build a communal infrastructure
that is more exciting and engaging than the one we have today.
In addition, we must develop ways of making the most valuable
2
resources available to the maximum number of people. For too many
Jews, membership in a sub-community (for example membership
in a congregation or a JCC) constitutes the totality of their Jewish
affiliation (severely limiting their exposure to the rich resources
that exist in most Jewish communities). In this new paradigm,
membership in the sub-community will function as a portal to a
larger collaborative community. Institutions will be structured in
ways that require them to share resources, thereby maximizing the
use of outstanding talent. Such a shift would enable us to see beyond
the walls of institutions and organizations, opening up creative ways
to bring together different entities in collaboration with each other
and the community as a whole. For both financial and ideological
reasons we must pool our resources and create a communal
infrastructure in which collaboration between institutions,
organizations, and the sharing of human resources is the norm.
Finally, Jewish education, broadly understood, must become the core
mission of the American Jewish community. If we begin to think that
the purpose of a Jewish community is to embody a unique or culturally
distinct set of values, then the mission of the communal endeavor
must be to inculcate those values into its members.1 Each discrete
program, institution and organization would work collaboratively
to educate communal members. As the most basic and fundamental
Jewish value, education would be the driving force undergirding
the communal structure itself. This is not a plan to replace Hebrew
School or to more effectively educate children, though it does
encompass both goals. Our ability to create meaningful educational
experiences for our children and for future generations will succeed
3
only if Jews of every age are actively engaged in nurturing their own
Jewish identities and, in turn, supporting a strong Jewish community.
he Educational Collaborative of the 21st Century
What would such a community look like in practical terms?
Let’s envision it through the eyes of a hypothetical family
encountering this new Jewish community for the first time:
The Weiss family – Josh, Wendy and their children Laura (15) and Jake
(12) – had just moved into their new home in Gaithersburg, Maryland,
a suburb of Washington D.C. Worn out from unpacking, they were both
surprised and relieved to receive a “Welcome Box” from a Jewish Federation
representative on their first night. In addition to a delicious (and kosher)
dinner for four, the box included what at first seemed to be a paper catalogue,
but turned out to be a box holding a thumb drive. Curious (and a little
bored: as of yet they had no internet or cable service set up), the family
inserted the thumb drive into a laptop and settled in to see what it contained.
The program opened with a flourish of music and colors, which morphed
into a title: “The 2015 Catalogue of Everything Jewish in the Greater
Washington Area” and the tagline “The Doors of the Jewish Community of
Greater Washington Are Always Open.” Virtual doors on the screen opened
to reveal a digital catalogue with everything you could ever want to know
about Jewish institutions, organizations and initiatives. It had a section
on private tutors for individualized learning from bar and bat mitzvah
training to text study to learning Hebrew. It also had a whole section of
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4
activities that were connected to serving the community, both Jewish and
non-Jewish. As they watched, the Weiss’ were almost overwhelmed by
this dazzling array of ideas, locations, programs and people, all geared
towards the same goal of helping them connect to and express their Jewish
heritage in whatever ways they might find most meaningful and appealing.
As the Weiss family began to become part of their new community they
saw and experienced how the images in the digital Jewish catalogue
were brought to life by a myriad of creative and vibrant institutions and
professionals. They were contacted by the organization that administers
the Collaborative and were connected to an Educational Guide. This
person was able to help them navigate what was being offered in the
community and to make some choices about learning opportunities for
themselves and their children. Her job was to get to know individuals
and families on a very personal level and make them feel truly welcomed
and embraced by the community. The Guide had a special role in
welcoming new people to the community. She would not only connect
with the Weiss’ early on, but in addition she would work with them over
the course of their lives, meeting with them several times per year helping
them shape a set of experiences that would speak to their particular
needs and interests. She told them about the opportunities that the
community offered both within and beyond traditional institutions.
The Guide explained that the Collaborative worked with many different
organizations and institutions throughout the area. Most of the
congregations were affiliated with the Collaborative, along with JCCs, local
Hillels, summer camps, social service agencies, youth groups, independent
organizations, museums, theaters and national agencies with offices in
5
the area. It also had a special fund to seed and nurture exciting start
up initiatives. The Collaborative utilized technology extensively, creating
social networking groups and developing interactive learning modules for
a whole range of different things, and offering online courses – some of
them live webinars and some courses that you could engage in at any time
of the day or night. It had also rented two public spaces: one near the Weiss’
house and one in Northern Virginia, attracting a diverse population of
families and individuals. Some of these families were interfaith, some
were not, but all had expressed reluctance about institutional affiliation.
So the public spaces had made connecting easier for many people. The
key was accessibility and acceptance, so that whether you were elderly,
were someone with special needs, lived or worked in the far reaches of the
community, or your professional work made it impossible to participate
in person, everyone had a rich variety of opportunities to learn.
As more institutions and organizations joined, the programs expanded
dramatically. Each year the Collaborative started home-based learning
groups matching families and individuals in the same area and stage of life.
Word of mouth spread quickly – great teachers and no value judgments;
whatever you want to do or not do – no questions asked. There were a series
of community blogs and chat rooms and social networking sites that in turn
created a number of community groups. The community had grown rapidly
over the course of the first years of the Collaborative and it was reaching
people that had been reluctant to engage with the Jewish community of
the past. People could participate in any activity on a pay-as-you-go
basis or become “partners” (annual members) which offered substantial
discounts for many of the programs. In addition, becoming a partner
offered them a voice in helping to shape the catalogue for the coming year,
6
as all partners were invited to planning sessions that took place each fall.
A high school classmate (and soon BFF) of Laura’s, Jennie Lander, invited
her to join a Jewish theater troupe at the local JCC, igniting in Laura a
new-found passion for theater. Jennie and Laura had met shortly after
the Weiss’ moved to the area. Her family had reached out to the Weiss’
as they lived just a few doors down on the same street. The Landers had
lived in the community for just over 10 years. The parents, Brooke and
Jon, had not been involved in the Jewish community when they first
arrived. But Jennie had gotten involved in the theater troupe and over
time Jennie’s involvement had drawn them into the larger community. It
had started with a weekend at the local camp at which all of the parents
with kids in any kind of a theater troupe in the Collaborative were
invited to attend. At a certain point just before the end of the weekend
the parents were asked to make a commitment to do something back
home that would enable them to stay connected to what their kids were
doing. The Landers agreed to host an initial meeting of a group that
would read the work the kids were performing and discuss it. Brooke was
not Jewish, though she had agreed to raise their children with a Jewish
identity. So she reached out to the Collaborative for help in organizing
the first meeting. Their Guide helped the family navigate the programs
and institutions within the Collaborative, connecting them to people
who were welcoming of interfaith families. The Guide became a very
important friend and opened doors that they simply didn’t know existed.
The Landers encouraged the Weiss’ to try a few different programs that
the Collaborative was offering in the area. By the time Laura asked if she
could join the theater troupe, the Weiss’ were already comfortable with
the Collaborative and were very supportive of her interest. After her third
7
year of involvement, Laura traveled to Israel with her theater troupe.
They joined up with other teens their own age involved in theater in Israel
and developed a number of friendships that lasted long into adulthood.
Josh and Wendy learned that Jake could prepare for his upcoming Bar
Mitzvah ceremony by spending a year working on his passion, environmental
issues framed by relevant Jewish learning, followed by a two-week
intensive “Torah reading boot camp” at a retreat center. This plan was far
more appealing to both Jake and his parents than the traditional Hebrew
School program they had expected to follow. Josh and Wendy sampled
from a smorgasbord of Jewish learning options – many of which were held
in private living rooms, bookstores, cafés and other appealing locations.
After a few years, their Guide suggested that Josh and Wendy organize
a neighborhood group that was comprised of people interested in
environmental issues and how Jewish identity might inform and enrich
their interests. There was a couple who belonged to the modern orthodox
congregation a few miles away, yet had not had much interaction with
Jews outside of the orthodox community. There was a single woman who
worked for the government and was very involved both professionally
and personally in environmental issues and there was a gay couple
who lived close by and who had two adopted children. They had never
participated in any Jewish activity in the past but were both very active
environmentalists. Their older daughter had become friends with Jake
Weiss in school and the parents had developed a friendship with Josh
and Wendy. They were very reluctant at first, but over time they became
part of the core of the group. Those 18 people developed enduring
friendships and together studied with a teacher that specialized in travel
8
education. They traveled to the Amazon Rainforest with their teacher
to explore and study the Jewish value of caring for the environment.
Some of them joined the board of the Collaborative. Others joined the
Jewish Federation and some joined congregations. A number did not
join any additional institutions or organizations, but they continued to
meet as a group and celebrated life cycle events, shared joys, and helped
each other through the difficult times they were to face in the future.
For the first few years they were in the community, the Weiss family
enjoyed a variety of “a la carte” opportunities. Then a point came when
they decided to become “partners” by purchasing an annual membership,
which offered them significant discounts for programs and classes,
allowing them to connect and give back on a deeper level to the community
which had given them so much (even Laura, now deeply involved in
her university Hillel, retained strong feelings of connection to her home
Jewish community.) It also offered them less expensive ways to connect to
congregations, which had developed multi-tiered fee structures. The costs
varied depending on how often you wanted to go and what features you were
looking for. This enabled the Weiss’ to connect to multiple congregations
depending on what they were looking for at any given point in their lives.
They realized that making the choice to become partners would facilitate
their ability to enjoy everything Jewish Greater Washington had to offer.
he Tapestry of Jewish Identity
The vision of a Jewish community just described is grounded in an
expanded understanding of Judaism and Jewish identity. Imagine,
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9
if you will, Jewish identity as a tapestry, a great weave comprised of
innumerable threads, colors and patterns founded upon a set of value
concepts and grounded deep in the history of our people. The tapestry
includes religious belief and practice, in addition to art, philosophy,
history, music, languages, traditions, and a distinct set of values that form
the foundation for a community, to name but a few components. If we
broaden our understanding of Jewish life and experience to embrace
the entire tapestry of Jewish identity, it could enliven and enrich us far
more deeply. The tapestry in its fullness offers American Jews a path to
meaning that transcends the self and a destiny attached to something
beyond the individual. The more connections or touch points we can find
in the tapestry, the more it speaks to us and the more we experience a
sense of attachment and meaningfulness. The modern manifestation of
this tapestry is unique, as each historical manifestation has been unique.
Jewish life in America has the capacity to flourish in ways that are only
possible because we live at this time and in this remarkable place. The
degree to which we feel connected to the tapestry and empowered to make
our own contribution to it, to add our own pattern, color and design, is
the degree to which Judaism will continue to be a vibrant part of our lives.
For most American Jews, their experience of Judaism is much more limited.
This reflects a deeper problem facing the American Jewish community:
when asked, the great majority of American Jews define Judaism as a religion
with a particular denominational interpretation of prayer, life cycle events,
and the study of sacred texts.2 But studies show that the actual beliefs and
practices of American Jews indicate few behaviors that correspond to a
strong religious identification.3 And that is a cause for great concern. The
great American Jewish thinker Mordecai Kaplan warned us about this:
10
Normally, religion should take its place by the side
of social, economic, scientific and esthetic activities
without attempting to overshadow them or subordinate
them to its own aims... It is imperative, therefore, to
find outlets other than religion for the collective life of
the Jewish people. Paradoxical as it may sound, the
spiritual regeneration of the Jewish people demands
that religion cease to be its sole preoccupation.4
A prophetic warning, and we see the results today in the widespread
apathy among many American Jews toward Jewish beliefs, practices,
and institutions. While many of us feel as though Judaism is far
more than a religion, to a significant extent, the institutional
Jewish community does not reflect this broader understanding.
This is not in any way to suggest that religion is not important,
even central, to Jewish identity. Rather, as Kaplan declared 80 years
ago, religion does not exhaust Jewish identity and we have yet to
create an infrastructure that truly supports the breadth and depth
of what Jewish identity has been for millennia. We believe, however,
that America is an environment in which the full tapestry of Jewish
life could create opportunities for powerful and deeply meaningful
experiences for our people both as Americans and as Jews. In order to
communicate that effectively, we need to approach Jewish education
and engagement in a very different way. Religion requires a set of
beliefs leading to action with a particular set of behaviors. However,
American Jews have been raised in a culture in which freedom of
11
choice is the sine qua non of their values and we cannot expect that
religion as a coercive force will successfully engage most Jews today.5
As long as being a Jew is primarily understood in religious terms,
it threatens our sense of autonomy. So how can we engage Jews?
John Dewey, the father of modern American education, offered the
most salient insights into what successful education requires. “The
[learner’s] own instincts and powers furnish the material and give
the starting point for all education. Save as the efforts of the educator
to connect with some activity which the [learner] is carrying on his
own initiative independent of the educator, education becomes
reduced to a pressure from without.”6 This is axiomatic: that which is
meaningful and exciting to the learner must be the beginning of the
educational process. In order to resonate with learners, what is being
taught must connect to some deep and essential part of their inner
selves. To have an impact on American Jews, we must demonstrate
how that which is most meaningful to them in the general culture can
be enriched by their Jewish heritage. Isa Aron, Professor of Education
at Hebrew Union College, argues that the “knowledge, skills and
even values and attitudes will only remain in an individual’s active
memory when that person’s culture affords him or her the opportunity
to exercise them.”7 Such learning is only retained if it has resonance
beyond the classroom. Aron uses the term “enculturation” to describe
a process which “is both more holistic and more serendipitous;
it is also more enduring” than traditional classroom learning.8
This is the exact opposite of the compartmentalization that characterizes
so much of Jewish life in America. Far too often we create educational
12
experiences that implicitly and explicitly reinforce the notion that Jewish
identity and American identity are separate compartments, separate
experiences and that there is a chasm between “real” life and Jewish life.
Therefore, to have an impact on American Jews, we must demonstrate
how that which is most meaningful to them in the general culture can
be enriched by their Jewish heritage. In the 21st century in the United
States, we must recognize that we cannot legislate belief. We must create
educational experiences that are deeply meaningful and compelling to
Jews as Americans. Jewish education divorced from American cultural
experience becomes precisely the “pressure from without” that Dewey
warns us against. Learners must generate their own connections
between the content of their Jewish education and the contexts of
their lives, an endeavor which usually leads to frustration and failure.
Much has been written about experiences that do seem to have a
profound impact on participants. They are: Israel trips, summer camps,
and day schools. We suspect that part of what is so powerful in the Israel
experience, as well as day schools and summer camps is that there is a
far broader set of experiences that participants can connect to, seamless
touch points of Jewish identity that are not compartmentalized. In
addition to religion, there is community and culture, history and
language, philosophy and art, and a powerful set of culturally distinct
values. Jews experience multiple connections to their identity, spread
over a far broader set of touch points and everyone feels a part of the
whole while still maintaining their unique place and story. Jewish
experiences in America need to expand Jewish life, making it broader
than any modern notion of religion alone can offer. We must be able to
embrace experiences that are proven to be transformative in multiple
13
domains – Jewish activities that are value laden, connected to Jewish
heritage, and are at the same time relevant to modern American culture.
Two examples of this can be found in numerous communities today:
Service-learning, or the study of Jewish values that are then acted upon in
service to the Jewish or the general community and then reflected upon, is
one of the most effective means of engaging Jews today. It is an approach
to Jewish life that encourages people to learn in order to do. In the doing,
participants feel the power of a tradition, a heritage and a set of values
that enhance their own lives as well as the lives of people around them.
Similarly, philanthropy education programs have a consistent impact
on participants. A group of people is brought together typically with
a small amount of funds to distribute and then taught a set of values
tied to their Jewish heritage that guides their search for worthy
recipients and an ongoing connection to those values is woven.
Often viewed as a program that impacts teenagers, philanthropy
education is a model that is effective with multiple age cohorts.
Truly meaningful Jewish education cannot simply be about learning ideas,
prayers and rituals, but must entail learning towards doing, towards action,
for it is in acting out a set of values that participants find deeply meaningful
attachments to their heritage. The more ways one can find points of
connection, the more an individual feels the power and meaningfulness
of the activity. By offering both the education piece that is meaningful
to us both as Americans and as Jews, along with the “values-in-action”
component, we are empowering people to act out of a set of values that
have great meaning and purpose to them both as Americans and as Jews.
14
As they become more familiar with these values and where they come
from, they begin to feel a sense of ownership, a sense that they are
indeed expressing these values in their actions and that these values are
both integral parts of their identity and a part of the tapestry of Jewish
life. Their lives as Jews would flourish, because Judaism would greatly
enhance their lives as Americans, making it richer and more meaningful.
Judaism is designed to be lived, not just “learned about,” and the vibrancy
of Jewish life is most fully realized when one lives out of a set of values
and beliefs. If we can place Jewish educational experiences that involve
the entirety of the Jewish tapestry at the core of our communal endeavor,
then perhaps we can build institutions that will energize, excite and
create deeply meaningful experiences for many more Jews. This does
not mean watering down or taking the path of least resistance. Rather,
it is about the simple fact that being Jewish is much more than religion
alone. We are selling Judaism short by limiting it and we are losing Jews
who are disinterested in what has been a narrow understanding of it.
nstitutions, Collaboration and Change
We are blessed with a tremendous set of resources in the Jewish
community today. Congregations have a great deal to offer and of
course they are not alone. We have day schools, which, generally
speaking, have the greatest Judaic resources in any community but
only serve a small portion of it. We have JCCs, summer camps, adult
education programs, Judaic faculty at local universities, independent
minyanim, youth groups, private tutors, event planners, independent
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15
institutions, and hundreds of initiatives. To be sure, there is still plenty
to be created, but what if the center of education was shifted to the
community? What if the wider Jewish community began working
together to offer a vast and deep set of complementary experiences
for Jews, affiliated and unaffiliated alike? What could we create?
This new structure must be a coordinated system in which multiple
institutions, organizations, programs and initiatives all work
together collaboratively to provide multifaceted opportunities for
Jews to learn, to engage in actively living Jewish values, to develop
community, and together to make their lives more meaningful as
Americans. The math is quite simple – one institution has a fraction
of the resources of multiple institutions. If we compare the resources
available to a single institution with the resources available in a
community at large, we can see the vast array of missed opportunities
that characterize modern Jewish life in America. Congregations, JCCs,
day schools, museums, national organizations, independent prayer
groups, small start up programs – all exist in each and every major
Jewish community and to a large extent work in isolation (or worse, in
competition). What if we created a community in which organizations
and institutions shared resources, one in which the walls of the
buildings weren’t metaphors for institutional boundaries and isolation?
In a community committed to collaborating on a community-wide
level, vast resources could be pooled and multiple opportunities
developed to provide a rich and multifaceted set of experiences. This
would be a new kind of community, focused on working together
to enrich the lives of all of its members as Americans and Jews.
16
he Infrastructure of the Educational Collaborative
Of course, a revolution like the one envisioned would never
be possible without an intricate and substantive infrastructure
working behind the scenes. While many details of this
infrastructure will necessarily evolve along with the community,
a few key prerequisite components are discussed below:
Professionals: In our new community, professionals connected to
institutions (sub-communities) would not work in isolation from
one another but would collaborate across institutional boundaries.
Why? Because members of sub-communities whom professionals
serve will also be members of the collective community and will
have the opportunity to learn and nurture their identity in multiple
domains. Therefore, educators will need to work across institutional
boundaries to ensure that community members have access to the
breadth and depth of opportunities that the community can provide.
This will require a set of master teachers: those individuals who have
the ability to weave together Jewish value concepts with Jewish tradition
and heritage, and who can inspire their learners to want to be engaged
in living those Jewish values. We will need to nurture expert educators
who have the knowledge and ability to engage people across the life
span. Congregations, day schools, summer camps, JCCs, youth groups
and other organizations have many outstanding educators. However,
the current structure is one in which such talent is isolated in many
different institutions, spreading them too thinly across the community.
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Typically people are educated within a single institution and therefore
are rarely exposed to the great talent that exists in the larger community.
The sad truth is the current structure requires too many educators,
many of whom are not capable of inspiring people and engaging them
in meaningful experiences. This problem could be eased by facilitating
the opportunity for master educators to teach in multiple domains,
together with other master educators. Developing and investing in a
network of master educators will create a powerful incentive for talented
people to live and work in a community and it will enable the best
educators to be employed in a more full time capacity by the community.
As noted above, in order to take advantage of the full array of
opportunities available, the community will need to create a new
professional position: an Educational Guide. These professionals will be
responsible for getting to know each individual and family. Some of the
Guides will be connected to a particular sub-community while others
will be employed by the community at large. They will be fully informed
of all of the educational opportunities available in the community at
large, both through regular interactions with professional colleagues
from around the community and through access to an online resource
that is kept up to date on a daily basis with accurate information.
Community-Based Administration: Numerous aspects of the
Collaborative, such as the creation and oversight of the catalogue,
staff training and the development of comprehensive evaluation
instruments, will need to be centrally administered in order to operate
effectively. This center will develop new programming, as well as
respond to issues and challenges that arise. It will need to ensure that
18
the programs offered will be high quality and cutting edge. It should be
governed by a board of lay volunteers and professionals representing a
broad cross-section of the community. The combination of grass roots
lay volunteers and Jewish professionals working together to oversee the
health and welfare of the collaborative educational system will guarantee
a high level of support and guidance from the community at large.
Funding: Programs, courses and experiences will need to be offered on
an a la carte basis or as part of an annual fee. The annual fee could be
structured such that it includes some free programming, membership
in the system at large, and discounts for everything else. The money
would follow the learner, so that the money one person pays into the
system would be divided amongst the programs and institutions that
the person engages in over the course of a given year. That would
allow funds to be distributed throughout the system. In addition, the
a la carte fee available for each and every program would encourage
those for whom institutional membership is a barrier, to participate
in high quality Jewish educational programming. Institutions could
offer multi-tiered fee structures, basing the cost of membership on the
services one wants in a given year. We would expect that this could
be a hardship for some institutions over the short run. However, if we
can significantly increase the number of people engaging in Jewish
activities, then over the long term more money, more donors, and
more overall participation would be the likely outcome. Consider
this in light of the declining membership and donor base in most
American Jewish communities today. Clearly the overall finances of
the system need to be studied by business leaders and entrepreneurs
in order to analyze the impact of different funding models.
19
Institutional Change: We cannot expect institutions to adopt such a
new and different approach to membership, community, and education
without a great deal of groundwork and preparation. We must create
a dynamic developmental process, a road map which enables each
institution to grow and change at a pace that is uniquely suited to its
own personality. This will require the engagement of organizational
development professionals with expertise in institutional change
and transformation, as well as educational consultants who can help
to shape the institution’s programmatic vision, goals, and strategies.
As each institution (sub-community) goes through this process,
it will create unique areas of educational specialization that it can
offer to the community at large. The educational infrastructure of
each sub-community may shrink, but each will focus their resources
on more limited areas of expertise. It will entail the engagement of
the new Educational Guides and it will require the re-training of
many of the community’s educators. While this process will not
be easy at first, with sufficient investment of time and resources
many institutions will achieve success in this new paradigm,
with the ability to reach more people in more meaningful ways.
onclusion: A New Evolution in Jewish Life
After the Israelites arrived at Mount Sinai and they heard the divine
voice and saw the lightning and smoke around the mountain, they
built the golden calf. God responded by exiling them into the desert.
Over a 40 year period the Israelites transformed themselves from a
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rag tag group of ex-slaves into a People. After the political-religious
leadership of the ancient priesthood had been corrupted by money and
power, Rabbinic Judaism emerged. The greatest and most influential
Jewish text, the Talmud, evolved as a direct outcome of the destruction
of the Second Temple and the dispersion of the Jewish People.
From medieval philosophy to Jewish mysticism, from the rise of
Jewish denominationalism to the creation of the first Jewish state in
2,000 years, we are a People that adapts and changes – we transform
ourselves. And we do so by learning from the past and creating a
new future. Each epoch that we have mentioned is marked by the
creation of new and exciting texts and institutions that formed the
foundation for the future communities that were created. This value
– that individuals, communities and a whole people can, by learning
from their past, evolve into something greater – lies at the very
heart of our heritage and our tradition. American Jewry has seen
breathtaking successes, built magnificent edifices and helped to make
the world a better place for itself, for Jews throughout the world, as
well as for oppressed people around the globe. It has been a critical
partner with Israel in helping it to evolve into a modern democratic
state that is a haven for all Jews as well as an economic powerhouse.
There were two powerful and lasting Jewish communities after the
destruction of the second Temple, one in Eretz Yisrael (the Land of
Israel) and the other in Babylonia. Today, the Jewish populations of
Israel and America combined comprise 85% of world Jewry. It is time
to establish our rightful place as the full partner with Israel in creating
vibrant and compelling Jewish experiences for Jews throughout the
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world. Jewish life must take place both within and beyond the walls
of the institutions. Jewish values and traditions must be interpreted in
ways that make our lives as moderns richer and more meaningful, and
they must transcend the narrow definition of religion that has come
to characterize our understanding of Judaism in the modern period.
As the 21st century unfolds, we must take full advantage of what
the American Jewish community has achieved. Building on our
extraordinary successes, it is time to take another step forward to
transform ourselves once again, and by doing so strengthen Jewish
identity and expand Jewish communal affiliation throughout the world.
Let us find ways to create collaborative communities in which our major
investments are in the best resources that are shared across institutional
and organizational boundaries. Let us move beyond our primary
affiliations with organizations and institutions and find a way to embrace
community as a whole. When we do that, we will have many more Jews
involved in many more Jewish experiences and we will achieve the goal
of transforming Jewish life and creating a new future for world Jewry.
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Notes1. We believe that every great culture has a distinct set of values.
While the individual values may overlap between one culture
and the next, the way the values are understood and the
way they are experienced by members of the community
makes the set of them distinct to that particular group.
2. Leonard Saxe, U.S. Jewry 2010: Estimates of the Size and
Characteristics of the Population, Cohen Center for Modern Jewish
Studies; December, 2010 pg. 8.
3. National Jewish Population Survey 2000, Section II Jewish
Connections, or the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life: US
Religious Landscape Survey.
4. Mordecai Kaplan, Judaism as a Civilization pg. 345.
5. For a fascinating analysis of this topic, please see The Art of Choosing
by Sheena Iyengar. Hachette Book Group 2010.
6. John Dewey, My Pedagogic Creed School Journal vol. 54 (January
1897), pp. 77-80.
7. Isa Aron. 32 Tikkun vol. 4, No. 3.
8. Aron, Ibid.
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AcknowledgementsThis work is the outcome of a collaboration that I have been
engaged in with JoHanna Potts over the past 5 years and reflects our
perspectives on the American Jewish community. I would like to
thank the entire staff and the Board of Directors of the Partnership
for Jewish Life and Learning. In particular, I would like to thank
JoHanna Potts, Barry Krasner and Dr. Meredith Woocher for reading
and re-reading every draft of this monograph and always offering
thoughtful and insightful suggestions. I also want to thank Adva
Priso, David Lewis and Jessie Nathans for production and design.
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About the AuthorDr. James Hyman is Chief Executive
Officer for the Partnership for Jewish
Life and Learning.
Dr. Hyman has served the Jewish
community in a variety of roles for over
25 years. Prior to joining the Partnership,
he served as Director of Education
for the Mandel Foundation, North
America, developing new initiatives for
Foundation programs and partnerships
in Jewish communities throughout North America.
Formerly, Dr. Hyman was Director, Leadership Development Program
and Adjunct Professor at the Jewish Theological Seminary. At the New
Teacher Center at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Dr. Hyman
was Co-Director, New Teacher Initiative: Mentoring New Teachers in
Jewish Day Schools.
Dr. Hyman received an MA and PhD from the Department of Religion
at Stanford University, and an MA from The Institute for Contemporary
Jewry of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Dr. Hyman is also an
ordained rabbi.
Dr. Hyman lives in Potomac, MD with his wife, Jessie Nathans, and
their two children.
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