Incrementalism and the Need for a New Jewish Philanthropic Narrative

People need a sacred narrative. They must have a sense of larger purpose, in one form or another, however intellectualized. E.O. Wilson, American biologist Although the Jewish people are often described as a people of the book, perhaps the “people of the narrative” might be a more apt description. Yes, the Torah is a rich and inspiring statement on Jewish faith, law and identity, but for most Jews the Torah is accessible largely as a narrative. Equally, the post-biblical history of the Jewish people is a tapestry of narratives, spanning the ages, geographies, challenges and triumphs in a series of interconnected chapters and verses. Indeed, the endurance of the Jewish people is a testament to the narrative it has created for itself, and the complexity of that narrative is a testament to the endurance... Continue Reading

The Great Reset: The Jewish Agency and the Pursuit of an ‘Exemplary Society’

“We once were a people without a home; will we become a home without a people?” This was the question I asked last week when addressing the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency as part of the presentation of the Agency’s new strategic plan. A simple question, but one that embodies the countless fears we all share regarding the future of the global Jewish family. In the face of existential challenges on all fronts relating to the physical security of the State of Israel, we must nonetheless face a question that we can ask only to ourselves – will our failure to remain connected to one another in the pursuit of our common ideals be the ultimate risk to the survival of the Jewish people? In his recent book, The Great Reset, Richard Florida writes about the impact of highly stressed moments... Continue Reading

Dispatches from Jerusalem: The Jewish Agency and the Future Face of Olim

“After a certain number of years our faces become our biographies. We get to be responsible for our faces.” Cynthia Ozick, American author In the midst of running back and forth among business meetings in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem earlier this week, I was happy to have the rare treat to spend time connecting with a young post-collegiate daughter of a friend from back home. Mara, a recent olah from Atlanta, has decided to make her life in Israel, finding love with a new fiancée and satisfaction with a new job with an Israeli NGO. A daughter of Young Judean alumni and a product of Jewish day schools in Atlanta, Mara is deeply rooted in her family’s and people’s history and values, and their shared love of Israel. Stepping out of the heat of the day, we met for coffee in a small café within a used... Continue Reading

Dispatches from Jerusalem: The Jewish Agency and the Myth of Collective Bargaining

In recent days, as I have shared with my communally-engaged friends that I would be in Jerusalem for this week’s Jewish Agency meetings, the response has been consistent and all too predictable. First the person expresses jealousy that I get to spend some time in Israel (even in the heat of the summer) and second, they express complete confusion and condolences regarding my involvement in, as they call it, the quicksand that is the modern Jewish Agency. Others also wonder why I (or they) should care about an organization that is purportedly a relic, an instrument of a Jewish time long past. They ask, tongue firmly planted in cheek – isn’t the Jewish Agency something that the leadership of big organizations like Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) should be addressing on behalf of all... Continue Reading

Will We Let This School Fail?

Rarely a day passes without hearing from one of my friends in the Jewish world about a new project in which they have become engaged or an organization for which they are fundraising. The conversation that ensues is often one about shared interests and common concerns. Sometimes the conversations result in my renewed optimism and other times they cause me to have sobering realizations; but never have they made me sick to my stomach. Until last week. An unexpected call from a former colleague who left Atlanta to move to Asheville, North Carolina started out with the usual pleasantries – work, family, memories of old times. But quickly the conversation turned to the matter that was obviously on my friend’s mind – the state of affairs of the nascent community Jewish Day School in Asheville... Continue Reading

August (1929) and Everything After: The Jewish Agency at the Crossroads of History

The fruit of three thousand years of civilization and a hundred generations of suffering may not be sacrificed by us. It will be sacrificed if dissipated. Assimilation is national suicide. And assimilation can be prevented only by preserving national characteristics and life as other peoples, large and small, are preserving and developing their national life. – excerpt from “A Call to the Educated Jew” by Louis Brandeis History teaches everything, including the future. – Alphonese de Lamartine What was it like to be part of the leadership the Jewish Agency in August, 1929 in Zurich? Less than a month earlier, the 16th Zionist Congress established an expanded Jewish Agency after a seven year long debate about how Zionist efforts would incorporate a wide array of Jewish groups in the... Continue Reading

WiseGen and the Great Transition

“He whose wisdom exceeds his works, to what may he be compared? To a tree whose branches are many, but whose roots are few; and the wind comes and plucks it up and overturns it upon its face. Rabbi Elazar ben Azarish (Perkei Avot ) “Nothing is secure but life, transition, the energizing spirit.” Ralph Waldo Emerson Hang around a board meeting of any Jewish organization long enough and one can’t help but think there is only one generation of Jews worthy of engagement, cultivation and leadership development: the proverbial “next generation.” Referred to as NexGen, NowGen, young leadership and so on, they are constantly the focus of an immense amount of community angst, optimism and energy. Our Jewish organizations ceaselessly engineer new ways to engage these future generations in the... Continue Reading

A Chanukiyah of Predictions for 2010

December is the time of the secular year where we look backward and forward – making best-of lists and summarizing our prognostications for the future. While many faiths join together for revelries related to the secular new year, for Jews it is also the season to recall the value of perseverance and faith in collective Jewish endeavors, as well as the unexpected miracles that we encounter along the way. So in the spirit of the new year but nevertheless inspired by how one ancient prediction regarding a small vessel of oil gave rise to the miraculous tale of eight nights of luminescence, here are eight predictions for the coming twelve months of 2010: 1. The new “I” word is… Imagination. If 2009 was the year when the newness of Jewish innovation became more widely discussed (or perhaps,... Continue Reading

Strange Love of National Organizations (or how I learned to stop worrying and love my local community)

Do not separate yourself from community – Hillel (Avos 2:5) All politics is local – Thomas ‘Tip’ O’Neill Quite simply, the GA is a reminder of the gravitational force of national Jewish organizations and the important role they play in connecting us to one another. We often exhort one another to ‘ not recreate the wheel’ in our respective community efforts, but if it wasn’t for networked cadres of national leadership and large conferences like the GA there wouldn’t be opportunities for the mass in-person sharing of new ideas and lessons learned in order to avoid such redundant efforts. Certainly technology has given us all the ability to communicate more quickly (even instantly) and has removed geography as a barrier to the exchange of ideas. But nevertheless, there is no substitute... Continue Reading

Encountering Israel at the GA

Partialness gathered all its parts and the whole wasn’t formed How was the whole not gathered from all the parts, though All their recesses fit and their crevices, how was the whole not formed though all the components were set one by one… excerpt from “Partialness Gathered” by Rivka Miriam (Israeli poet) At its most basic, the GA is a gathering of Jewish people and ideas, mixed together among and around shared passions and diverse interests. A modern-day Council of Four Lands, it brings together Jews from across North America and around the world collectively discuss to challenges, seek opportunities and create bonds of fellowship around the common cause of community. And while the conference is convened by the (newly renamed) Jewish Federations of North America, one never loses sight of the... Continue Reading

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