THE "LESSONS" OF JEWLICIOUS

Our Posts on TribeFest (or whatever name JFNA is using today) has "inspired" a spate of Comments including several long pieces from Jewlicious, an inspired, and by its own definitions, totally inclusive outreach effort (among other efforts) to young, unaffiliated Jews. You should read the totality of Comments yourself, but here are the CliffNotes:

~ The organized Jewish community hasn't a clue as to how to reach the next generations -- generations being reached by, among others, jewlicious, g-dcast and Challah for Hunger.

~ "Young Jews...look towards their peer group for direction because the traditional 'major teachers, leaders and role models' have proven over and over again how terribly clueless they are."

~ Jewlicious will "...put on a kick ass Festival" that will attract "1,200 young Jewish adults" later this month. (And we are not referring to TribeFest.)

~ While it is evident by the language of the Comments that Jewlicious dislikes criticism (and has interpreted fair comment reflecting on the communities' failures as criticism of Jewlicious) almost as much as JFNA, its leaders are willing to engage, discuss and respond, unlike what one of its interns called "JayEffEnAy." (So much for branding.)

~The organized Jewish community is tone deaf and knows nothing (or almost nothing).

David Abitbol, the founder of Jewlicious offered the same bottom line that I, a young leader decades passed, would: "...the situation today is so different, so perilous it literally keeps me up at night. How did we get to this point? How did our continued community vitality become so imperiled? We could try to contemplate these questions -- and we do. But, in the meantime, we're working like the dickens to do something about it with what little resources we have at our disposal." This in a Comment in which David offered to meet to share and learn. How refreshing; how unusual -- words we never...never...hear from the leaders of JayEffEnAy.

No one would argue with the conclusion that Jewlicious has been an effective instrument for learning and inclusion. If its leaders have missed one of my points, JayEffEnAy would have been far better served by partnering with Jewlicious rather than, once again, attempting to remake the wheel in the form of TribeFest.

To Jewlicious, continued success; to JayEffEnAy, any success, some success, please.

Rwexler