By Mordechai Shushan

The Jewish community is at a crossroads. In order to stay relevant in a shifting landscape, we must struggle to reenvision, reimagine, and reframe the concept of change. We need to up our game to create a more layered, more nuanced, more complex, more vibrant kind of change to be sure we’re on the right side of history.

That said, it’s important for the conversation to include inclusiveness, and it must address the root causes of our condition. It has to be a constructive dialogue, with many points of entry, and forge common ground among diverse stakeholders. It needs to catalyze the modeling of entrepreneurial, out-of-the-box paradigms which resonate with tikkun olam.

That being said, it must also disrupt the premises for evolving systems to scrutinize the multiple modalities of hegemony in order to promote the scalability of empowering alternatives. Ultimately, the goal must be to find solutions which ensure a vibrant Jewish future.

That having been said, we can’t talk about change without first setting benchmarks for the conversation. Therefore, the first step is to have a conversation about the conversation to ensure that the conversation reflects core Jewish values. To begin:

• The discussion must ensure that everyone has a seat at the table on a level playing field.
• Each participant must have not only a voice in the conversation and a seat at the table, but also a voice at the table and a seat at the conversation.
• The conversation must be a pluralistic, participatory gateway committed breaking the silence and pushing boundaries.
• It needs to circle back, double down, and pivot to take a deep dive in recontextualizing iconic assumptions.
• The conversation should embrace all communities and leverage their input in order to unleash, unlock and unpack groundbreaking, game-changing insights.
• It should shine a light through the lens of the optics of social media.

We now face a precipice. Our community is undergoing tectonic shifts, so we must ask: is the change we have the change we truly want? How do we change change? One thing is certain: change will always be with us.

We must build through creative destruction. Let us proclaim our diversity with one voice, declaring our individuality through our collective solidarity. While we move ahead, let us look back to our rich heritage. Then, as we face the precipice, let us send a strong message by boldly marching forward.

Let the conversation begin!