Our Most Popular Posts of 2020
In case you missed any, here – based on site analytics, and in alphabetical order – are 2020’s 10 most viewed posts:
5 Shifts Congregations Need to Make to Keep Up with the Changing Times
The Jewish community is dramatically more diverse than we once realized it was: One in every seven to eight Jews is a person of color; we have a sizeable LGBTQIA+ population; and the number of Jewish-adjacent individuals in our communities is growing. At the same time, religious affiliation is in decline, more houses of worship are shutting their doors than opening up for business, and “Jews of no religion” are on the rise. What’s more, today’s increasing lifespans mean we’re serving as many as five generations of adults in our congregations.
10 Critical Insights for Successful Online Gatherings
We write as huge swaths of Americans embark on a grand experiment of working from home, convening virtually and connecting without touching. With some collective experience in digital platforms for community building and education, and combined decades of experience working from home offices and with clients virtually, we want to share a few lessons to help you be successful as you move normal functions online and learn how to be productive and happy in this medium.
An Open Message to Grantees from the Funder Community
As COVID-19 drastically affects the world, our country and our community, we know that many of our grantee partners and other organizations face unprecedented challenges and concerns. We want you to know that we, your philanthropic partners, are in this together with you.
Courageous Leadership Now: An Urgent Agenda for the Jewish Community and its Institutions
The COVID-19 crisis is functioning everywhere as a referendum on the quality of our leadership. This is visibly the case on global, national, and local political levels, but is also true in Jewish communal institutions. We are tested in myriad ways, many of them unprecedented; and all of our leaders are being judged in real time against the invisible standards that are forged by our mix of needs, anxieties, and judgments.
Covid–19 and Torah: Advice from the Sabbatical Year
Can a rarely-practiced piece of Torah, dormant for most of the Common Era, help us weather the Novel Coronavirus crisis? Yes, Shmita can – and a fresh look at this biblical practice offers guidance for other challenges of our time, too.
For Continuity’s Sake? Addressing Hookup Culture in Jewish Youth Groups
Youth groups are revered as a catalyst for young people’s involvement in the Jewish future, but the destructive behavior condoned within these spaces, reminiscent of acute misogyny in generations past, remains largely unaddressed.
How Many Jews of Color Are There?
Being imperfect, surveys may underestimate Jews of Color. Some observers believe that this sub-population is relatively “invisible” to many members of the Jewish community as well as to researchers. Part of the reason for this “invisibility” may be due to Jews of Color being less likely to participate in the formal Jewish community. On the other hand, Jews of Color may be more likely to participate in surveys because they want to make certain that Jews of Color are not underestimated.
From the first moment when I realized that the COVID-19 Pandemic truly threatened our summer (March 17th by the way) I recognized this process for what it truly is: mourning.
US Jewish Population Approaches 7 Million: Implications for the 2020 US Presidential Election
The 2019 American Jewish Year Book estimate for the US Jewish population is 6.97 million and is based on an aggregation of more than 900 local estimates.
White Jews – Wake Up. We’re Part of the Problem.
I want to speak to white Jews like myself: people born into middle-class families, who have done as well or even slightly better than our parents. We are everything our immigrant grandparents and great-grandparents hoped we would be socio-economically.