“There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle.” Albert Einstein “Daddy, how do we know it REALLY was a miracle, not just that somebody counted the oil the wrong way?" Morgan Cohen, age 9 For the serious adult student, Chanukah presents interesting questions about Jewish history, the challenge of heroic narrative and the complexities of a Jewish authority. But for a nine year old, a simple question belies its profound impact: was it really a miracle that the oil burned for eight nights? This question, asked last week by my daughter Morgan, has been burning in my head ever since, especially as I prepared my annual list of predictions for the coming year. In many ways, 2011 was a year filled with surprises that, despite the … Continue Reading
Camps for Volunteerism
Camps for Volunteerism: reshaping the future by Anna Litovskaya While having tea with my groupmate Olga Savchuk at Paideia (The European institute of Jewish Studies in Sweden), we started sharing our backgrounds. I had just graduated from the International Relations department of the Linguistic University, Russia, while Savchuk is an ecology student at the Kyiv Mohyla Academy. Yet we had something in common: the experience of going abroad to volunteer at Jewish camps. I did social work in Spain and Israel, some farming in the Czech Republic and Russia, and volunteered as an interpreter, while she had worked as an educator for Jewish camps every summer. Then we came up with an idea: to create a volunteer Jewish summer camp that would reshape Jewish life in Ukraine. The vision behind the … Continue Reading
Energy and Possibility: Empowering the Future of Jewish Life in Europe
by Seth Cohen and Shoshana Boyd Gelfand "Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement. .... get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. Abraham Joshua Heschel On a recent Shabbat evening in Uppsala, Sweden, a group of over fifty Jewish young adults from across Europe gathered together to welcome Shabbat. A discussion ensued in the spirit of Heschel’s conception of radial amazement and how it might apply to them individually or as a group. As the discussion circled the room, one particular Romanian woman who had been quiet during much of the past two days spoke up. She looked around the room, at the faces of young, laughing and dreaming Jewish Europeans from London to … Continue Reading
Renewing the Jewish Communities of Europe through European Eyes
by Clive A Lawton I was a little surprised to read Ariel Beery’s response to The Summer of Change and the JPropel programme that he attended in Uppsala Sweden recently. I was there too briefly and have attended other such events in the past. My abiding feeling on leaving them is a sense of buoyant optimism. So many young enthusiasts from so many walks of Jewish life! In contrast, Ariel’s article seemed to suggest that he felt disheartened at the impression he received of an old guard hanging on with dead man’s grip on the resources of the communities of Europe, while the younger generation became increasingly frustrated with the blocking of their creativity and initiatives so that they would eventually give up and leave. So why might our responses be so different? I suggest it’s … Continue Reading
JPropel and Renewing the Jewish Communities of Europe
Over the past two weeks, Schusterman's @Roicommunity, Paideia and the Pears Foundation's JHub have run a series of activities in the classic Swedish university town of Uppsala under the banner of the Summer of Change. @aharonhorwitz and I were privileged to represent PresenTense there as 'staff,' Aharon as part of the incubator, and both of us together at JPropel teaching a few workshops over the course of a few days, from our PTSchool series, and leading a text-based learning on business model development for social enterprise. It was a fun affair. For a little under a week, approximately 50 individuals, the majority from the various countries of Europe, hung out, ate, drank and took boat rides whose main outcome was the bonding of young activist Jews across the world, and an understanding that … Continue Reading
European Social Innovators Connect to Create New Expressions of Jewish Life
Jerusalem, August 3, 2011: As Europe faces an acute identity crisis, 48 social justice activists, artists, environmentalists, media and tech gurus, educators, Israel advocates and intercultural dialoguers will gather for four days at JPropel in Sweden to address the challenges confronting the European Jewish renaissance and to enhance the role of up- and-coming Jewish leaders in shaping a Europe that embraces respect for all religions and cultures. JPropel is a joint initiative of JHub, Paideia and ROI Community to propel forward a new generation of European Jewish leaders. “In the shadow of the horrific massacre in Norway, JPropel shines a light on European Jewish initiatives which combat racism by reviving the spirit and culture of its victims,” said ROI Community Executive Director Justin … Continue Reading
Introducing the 2011 Summer of Change
The past decade has seen a remarkable growth and revitalization of Jewish life across Europe. New initiatives are emerging in countries all over the continent, and people are connecting and reconnecting to Jewish life - culturally and spiritually. Social entrepreneurs are creating new realities, focusing on education, arts & culture and community building, and introducing new ways of expressing Judaism, ways that are inclusive, open and accessible, reaching people who were previously unaffiliated to the established communities. Paideia, ROI Community and JHub have played an integral part in these important developments and work together towards a shared vision of a vital and vibrant Jewish culture in Europe. The time has now come to reflect, celebrate and to continue building: reflect on the … Continue Reading
The Generation Gap
by Manny Waks In the article, Give Us the Tools to Define Our Involvement, Joshua Einstein cogently articulates the major challenges and obstacles inherent in the global predicament of Jewish continuity. The term “continuity” is ubiquitous in contemporary Jewish community discourse. Broadly, it defines the continuity of “Jewishness”, both as our collective identity and as a values framework. In his article, Mr Einstein rightly criticises the existing structures of the mainstream Jewish community. He states, “Rather than focusing on giving the younger generations the tools to define their involvement and their identity - empowerment and enfranchisement - the vast majority of the organized effort has been geared toward retention and replacement.” Mr Einstein refers to not only the … Continue Reading
Embracing The Maybe: The Case For Risk-Taking
A recent article in the Business section of the Sunday New York Times, entitled “6 Months, $90,000, and (Maybe) a Great Idea,” described the phenomenon of the “Entrepreneur in Residence”(EIR). In Silicon Valley, there is a growing trend amongst venture capital firms to give business entrepreneurs, many of whom have successfully started and sold companies in the past, the opportunity to use their office space, benefit from a generous stipend, and put on their thinking hats. The hope is that they will come up with the next Google or Facebook. Michael Bauer is one such entrepreneur the article highlights: “While the expectations are high for his ideas, Mr. Bauer maintains that the E.I.R. programs work precisely because failure is allowed in Silicon Valley. ... In other parts of the world, … 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
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