‘Elitist’ Leadership Alienating American Jewish Community

Listen up, y’all, in our Jewish communal world; you know if your organization is guilty…

“The perception that the American Jewish leadership is “elitist, parochial, self-serving and resistant to innovation,” is fueling a decline in Jewish communal participation in the U.S., a leading sociologist said this week.

In a policy paper prepared ahead of the President’s Conference, “Facing Tomorrow,” Professor Chaim Waxman asserted that a sense of “too much overlap, duplication, and non-cooperation” among organizations in the American Jewish establishment is also disillusioning, especially among the younger generation, in regards to Jewish organizational life.

“There is a sense among some that the older established organizations are incapable of making the changes necessary to accomplish what some non-establishment organizations have been able to achieve.”

(eJP note) Daphna Berman from Haaretz did a great job summarizing this presentation. For those of you interested, we have both a recording of the complete session and Dr. Waxman’s policy paper coming shortly)

Read Daphna’s complete article here.

updated May 18: You can read Dr. Waxman’s policy paper here on pages 173-179: Facing Tomorrow_Policy-Documents