By Abby Levine and Dara Steinberg Back in September 2016 we shared with you The Uncertain Road: Story of a Collaboration - Part 1. We billed it as “the first chapter of a story about collaboration” - wanting to share in-the-moment thoughts and observations from both the perspective of funders and programmatic organizations, all the better to use our experience to learn with the sector and field, regardless of outcome. Part 1 took us through the evolving process of the Jewish Social Justice Roundtable and Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah as we collaborated on the idea of a project that would strengthen the application of Jewish wisdom in the Jewish social justice sector. That early process resulted in a planning grant. We’re pleased to now share what happened during that planning grant … [Read more...]
‘A Love Letter to the Business I Truly Love’
Board members and professionals alike have not established a culture which allows for board members to actually “show up.” By Alicia S. Oberman This is how Jerry Maguire refers to the “mission statement” he writes in Cameron Crowe’s 1996 movie. Jerry’s title of the piece, “The Things We Think and Do Not Say: The Future of Our Business,” has been a constant refrain repeating itself over and over in my head over the last year. I gather the statement itself was modeled after a memo written by Jeffrey Katzenberg, head of Disney in 1991, calling for Disney to refocus its business and focus again on “storytelling.” In helping our foundation research and design the beta of the Board Member Institute for Jewish Nonprofits, a comprehensive board member training program recently launched in … [Read more...]
Adult Jewish Education: Wandering Jews and Limmud NY Partner to Promote Learning
By Linda Rich In any city with a large Jewish population and a few good universities, you’ll find abundant opportunities for adult Jewish education. That is, if you know where to look for them. Unfortunately, many are well-kept secrets, all too often featuring top notch speakers addressing half-empty rooms. It can be easier to find longer classes or seminars, but these don’t necessarily mesh with our schedules or commitments. If we only knew about all the one-off lectures, panel discussions, book talks and conferences covering a broad range of subjects, often at minimal cost. Those in NYC can now choose from a wide variety of year-round offerings, thanks to Wandering Jews and Limmud NY. Each month we provide a free curated listing of some of the best lectures and conferences chosen from a wide … [Read more...]
Adult Learning is the Number One Priority for the Jewish Future
By Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz At this precarious moment for ensuring a vibrant Jewish future, there are many priorities for sustaining Jewish life. But among the many fine efforts to ensure a sense of continuity of the Jewish experience - Hebrew schools, summer camps, and engagement of young professionals - there is a route of engagement that has perhaps received the least amount of attention, the least amount funding, and the least prioritization in the greater consciousness of Jewish pedagogy. I am referring to Jewish Adult education. Before people get up in arms, I acknowledge that nearly every synagogue has adult programming as part of their institutional model. And indeed, virtually every community has some kind of small educational initiative. Furthermore, most large cities have a day … [Read more...]
The Individuality of being Connected
By Shalom Orzach In his celebrated work “On Repentance” Rabbi Soloveitchik goes to great pains to explain the concept of Knesset Yisrael, (The People of Israel) as a legal entity. He was particularly concerned to stress “I do not here refer to mystical or Kabbalist understandings.” The capacity to receive forgiveness rests on being an integral part of the metaphysical entity, known as Knesset Israel. He elaborates: The Jew who believes in Knesset Israel is the Jew who lives with Knesset Israel where she may be and is prepared to die for her, who hurts with her pain and rejoices in her joy, who fights her wars, suffers in her defeats, and celebrates her victories. The Jew who believes in Knesset Israel is the Jew who joins himself as an indestructible link not only to the Jewish people of this … [Read more...]
A Public Letter To Jordan
Dear Jordan, Over the past months I've noticed your diligence in assigning blame to the non-Orthodox North American Jews for their lack of fealty to classical Judaism; their ignorance of primary sources; and their unwillingness to give up their errant ways and join you in (presumably) Orthodox Judaism. Ordinarily I'd simply click past your response to a review of a book on Julius Rosenwald. However, following the Yom Kippur liturgy, in which it states, that the "nistarot" (the hidden matters) are solely for God's review, while we grapple with those aspects that are seen within our domain, I think that you've erred. As the liturgy suggests, we, humans do not, and perhaps cannot, always accurately draw the conclusion that a person's actions in the charitable realm do not reflect the Divine … [Read more...]
Insights from The Greenhouse: A Platform for Teen-Led Social Innovation
By Rebecca Schumer It’s a challenge Jewish educators have faced for generations: after their bar/bat mitzvah, most American Jewish teens abandon ties to the Jewish community. Two years ago, Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, senior rabbi at New York City’s Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, urged his congregation to address this challenge. “It is our synagogue’s responsibility to figure out how to keep young Jews attached to Jewish life,” he said in his Yom Kippur sermon. “What is more important than assuring the next generation - without which there will be no Jewish life?” On Rosh Hashanah, Stephen Wise launched The Greenhouse, a city-wide platform for teen-led social innovation. The launch was the culmination of an exhilarating nine-month process powered by design thinking, a collaborative problem-solving … [Read more...]
My 24 hours in Houston
By Michelle L. Hirsch I honestly had no idea what to expect. Would the roads still be flooded? Is it dangerous? The news made Houston look like a war zone. What was I about to get myself into? What I quickly learned was no different from what I learned on the Jewish Federation’s National Young Leadership Cabinet’s recent study mission to India: Houston is currently a tale of two cities. One side of the street is sunny and incurred no damage, the other side devastated and eerily resembling the slums. Luck decided which flooded and which remained dry. Our group of Cabinet members had flown in from all parts of the country. We started early Friday morning at the Jewish Federation of Houston’s office, where the professional leadership team warmly welcomed us. Piles of boxes from the NYL … [Read more...]
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