A "NATIONAL JEWISH CONVERSATION"

ejewishphilanthropy published Steven Windmueller's Call for a National Jewish Conversation earlier today. Steve,the Dean of the L.A.-based HUC-JIR, makes another important contribution to the on-going Dialogue (although that may not have been his intent) on the organized Jewish community. The Call follows and, then, some comments:


A Call for a National Jewish Conversation


Posted by eJP October 12, 2009 Category: The American Jewish Scene by Steven Windmueller


"A crisis of profound proportions is confronting the American Jewish community. Facing serious economic challenges, dealing with a rising concern over the viability and vitality of significant numbers of Jewish institutions, in part brought on by rapidly changing demographic and social patterns and a national crisis in leadership, and confronting worldwide concerns over anti-Semitism and anti-Israel policies and actions, there needs to be a national conversation on the American Jewish future.


Such convocations have been previously held by Jewish leaders and allowed for creative and necessary issues to be addressed by a broad, representative segment of national leaders, rabbinic authorities, and communal experts. Such a conversation held at this time would permit a serious analysis of the “state” of American Jewry and permit the opportunity for some serious exploration of how our religious and communal system must address the array of social, economic and political concerns confronting the community.


In the context of an emerging 21st model, Jewish life will be governed and framed around several core principles. First, old notions of institutional turf no longer apply, as no one owns “the” Jewish response to our communal future. As a result of the rapidly changing picture of who American Jews are and what they represent, there will need to emerge a different type of Jewish marketplace; such an environment must be seen as transparent and committed to experimentation and innovation. What will we “brand” as Jewish and how as a community do we compete in the marketplace of ideas and causes represent the types of challenges that will need to be addressed?


When Jewish communities in the past faced such overriding issues, national and even international conferences were convened. In 1943 American Jewish leadership met to form plans to rescue European Jewry and to seek formal recognition for a Jewish State in Palestine. On other occasions, such convocations addressed specific global and local priorities. In Medieval times, for example, “synods” were regularly convened by rabbinic leaders to consider Jewish legal practices as well as to respond to external degrees imposed by European rulers and Church authorities.


Such a national dialogue is long overdue, as it would come at a time when the Jewish enterprise seems unclear with regard to its mandate, especially in light of a community divided along political and ideological lines. Adding to these challenges, there is both a national crisis of Jewish leadership and a major generational and demographic transition underway that is fundamentally reconfiguring the very composition of our community. Joining these serious and significant domestic issues is an array of global concerns that include the growth of anti-Semitism, the spread of anti-Israel activism, and the emergence of a nuclear threat to Israel and the West from Iran.


In some measure one finds at this time communal and religious leadership bereft of ideas and strategies on how best to reach significant pockets of Jews who are unaffiliated or disconnected from the organized structures of Jewish life and in mobilizing initiatives to embrace younger Jews. A conversation among leaders is needed to re-imagine and help re-direct the institutional priorities for American Judaism. The financial and organizational infra-structure of Jewish life requires a thoughtful and candid reconsideration of institutional priorities and structures. At a time of diminishing fiscal resources and competing institutional threats and opportunities, communal and religious bodies must re-think the issues of governance, leadership, and financial sustainability.


While no institutional body has the authority to legislate social or structural change, a thoughtful and essential summit of Jewish leadership would seem to be both appropriate and necessary. Participation and engagement must be seen as a responsibility that transcends institutional boundaries, ideological and religious positions, and political passions. This represents an opportunity for also engaging the academic, rabbinic and educational leadership who are core to the Jewish future in order to help create a new national Jewish agenda.


Similar convocations should also be convened within our local communities, allowing leaders to re-imagine ways in which institutions might work in collaboration, while identifying unmet needs, shared concerns, and common action.


It is not uncommon to find religious communities and ethnic constituencies, stepping back from time to time, with the intent to critically and responsibly examine their core institutions, to assess their status and impact within the larger society, and to evaluate their shared priorities and common goals. This would seem to be the moment for American Jewry to undertake such a reassessment."



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Those who read these pages know of my deep, core belief that a "National Conversation" is vital -- and that the Jewish Federations of North America remain the vital center of that Jewish communal universe capable of convening such a, as I have termed it, "National Retreat." In three separate Posts over the past four months, I have pled with the incoming leadership of The Jewish Federations of North America (type that a few hundred times and you determine whether an acronym might be nice) or federation leadership itself to act as the convener. The response -- none.



At one time the Conversation about "who we are, what our strength, what our purpose, what our might" was one that inspired our national Jewish polity at General Assembly after General Assembly. Since 2005, certainly, the GA has been, like The Seinfeld Show was, essentially "about nothing." More's the pity. As the fabric of our communal enterprise has been shredded by its leaders and the economic crisis that is upon us full force, federation leaders who used to rise up as one, have turned more and more inward.



Rachel Cowan "commenting" on the Windmueller piece in ejewishphilanthropy, echoed Windmueller's "Call" and built upon it, stating in part: "This meta-conversation should cover a wide range of topics -- those that engage the future, those that build hope and commitment and don't simply cultivate fear and anxiety. They should be based on appreciative inquiry, and new formats for engaging large numbers of people in generating creative ideas..." If The Jewish Federations of North America aren't capable of sounding the call, I fear that we will soon be saying Kaddish for all we have built together.



Thanks to ejewishphilanthropy and Steve Windmueller.



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