[eJP note] This post, originally published February 25, 2010, is part of the series 28 Days, 28 Ideas - a joint project of seven media partners, including eJewish Philanthropy, that ran during February 2010. Contributed by The Sisterhood Blog @ The Forward, it is republished today in recognition of International Women's Day. by Joanna Samuels The Jewish community rightly holds its leaders responsible for managing complex organizational tasks. Yet when it comes to creating workplaces that routinely hire, advance and retain women in positions of authority and visibility, many leaders throw up their hands. So here’s a thought: Let’s all of us, leaders and constituents, stop acting like the advancement of women in Jewish communal life is impossibly complicated. If communal leaders follow these … Continue Reading
Operation Shalom: A Call to Unify the Jewish Community
Operation Shalom . . . A Call to Unify the Jewish Community As Jews, we often claim to want to make a commitment to building community. There is no doubt in our minds that we are at a crossroads where so many people around the nation and the world, and especially in our very own communities, need connections with other Jews. The devastating earthquake in Haiti has brought such a strong wave of attention and charitable support across the globe, and has highlighted the importance of unifying for an important cause. Having worked with over 350 non-profit organizations, with a major emphasis in the Jewish community, we see wonderful acts of kindness every day; however, there seems to be a strong sense of division among our community. While we commend all participation within the Jewish community, … Continue Reading
And Now for Something Completely Different: Inside the Box
by Robert Hyfler In order to think outside of the box you must first have a box to start from. The history of both scientific innovation and social innovation is the history of women and men who built on the progress of the past and took bold steps, at times incremental, at times radical, but always strategically developmental. Existing ideas and processes were challenged, re-cooked, reconfigured. Almost nothing, perhaps nothing occurs de novo. Over the centuries Jewish thought and action was always based on standing on the shoulders of others and integrating the old with the insights of a new and changing world. It is an historical truism - proven time and again. As an example, fast forward to our times and examine that model of models, the most successful entrepreneurial endeavor of the … Continue Reading
New Ideas from the Old World
Lisa Capelouto, Director of JHub - a London-based incubator that focuses on Jewish social action and innovation - presents a European perspective to the conversation about innovation, and looks at how the old world is learning from the new (and sometimes the other way around). For Jews in North America, Europe is often seen as repository of memory rather than a source of exciting innovative ideas. On the other hand we Europeans tend to look longingly at the landscape of innovative startups “across the pond” and wonder why our communities lack that creativity and energy, and how we can encourage that level of innovation in Europe. Does the reality on the ground reflect this conventional wisdom? The 30 young people from 16 countries due to attend this week’s ROI/Paideia gathering of … 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
The Next Big New Idea is Neither Big Nor New. Discuss.
by Joshua Avedon and Shawn Landres “Apple is regularly voted the most innovative company in the world,” writes The Economist in its January 30 edition, “but …rather than developing entirely new product categories, it excels at taking existing, half-baked ideas and showing the rest of the world how to do them properly.” Creating economic value - or, beyond the corporate world, social value - isn’t always about big ideas, nor new ones. Improving on what’s already out there often is a more reliable way to produce results. New ideas are important drivers of change, but broad transformation depends on the scaling, replication, and adaptation of existing models with demonstrated promise. Much attention has been paid to the expansion of the Jewish startup sector (what we have called … Continue Reading
An Idea Whose Time Has Come: 28 Days, 28 Ideas
by Jacob Berkman It seems that the Jewish world at the moment is in the midst of something of a mass brainstorming session. As the recession rains down upon us, many of us have taken to heart the notion that necessity breeds opportunity, and instead of running for cover, many have hunkered down and given serious thought to how we can rethink the way the Jewish community works. It is a reason for optimism that despite some money woes, we all aren’t all ready to pack it in. But all this thinking presents a unique problem. While each of us in our own little corners of the Jewish world thinks about how the Jewish world could be a better place, we run the risk of recreating the silos that we spent the better part of the past decade trying to tear down. With this, we give you 28 Days, 28 … Continue Reading
28 Days, 28 Ideas: The Conversation Continues
eJewish Philanthropy is partnering with five other media outlets and the Jewish Federations of North America on a project to publicize new ideas for improving the Jewish nonprofit landscape. In February, we will join with The Fundermentalist @ JTA, The Sisterhood @ The Forward, Jewcy, Jewschool, 31 Days, 31 Ideas and The Jewish Federations. Together, we will publish one new idea per day from a total of 28 Jewish thinkers across the Jewish world. Keep up with the project beginning a week from today, Feb. 1st, at 28 Days, 28 Ideas. … Continue Reading
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