Tuesday, September 17, 2019

EVERYONE INTO THE POOL

A few days ago many of you sent on to me the announcement: Leading Jewish Thinkers and Activists for 6 Continents Convene in Jerusalem to Launch Effort to Achieve United Vision for Global Jewry. ("6 Continents" -- count 'em) This Initiative, not to be confused with any earlier Initiatives, is titled Our Common Destiny. It is designed "..r.to connect Jews to each other and to Israel across diverse religious and cultural identities through a shared set of ethics and values."
WOW!!  And, even more, this is an initiative (a "ground-breaking one") of the Genesis Philanthropy Group and the Government of Israel." Quite the challenge that the concerning Genesis Philanthropy Group/GOI have laid out for themselves and those they have engaged in this initiative. And, those engaged convened in Jerusalem September 9-11, apparently to draft a framing document. It should be noted that Xi Xinping, as I recall, announced in 2017 that China was to embark on The Community of Common Destiny -- so watch out for trademark litigation!!

As Ilia Salita, Genesis' President and CEO, stated:
"We are inviting Jews living in Israel and elsewhere to join in the crafting and completion of a document and ambitious as the Declaration of our Common Destiny* because we believe doing so has the potential to excite and engage Jews of all backgrounds and worldview. We know the initial draft of the Declaration will be vastly improved by the input it receives from the world Jewish community. This is Jewish crowdsourcing on a whole new level."
Nice. A whole paragraph of noblesse oblige. 

Though I admit I do not know all of the "thought leaders" engaged by Genesis in this project, there  are some great names and, as if intentional, not a single North American communal leader serves on either the Advisory Board (chaired by Sandy Cardin) or among the Scholars. This latter reality is no longer surprising but it is extremely disappointing. I know no one with a greater vision for the Jewish People than John Ruskay, Steve Nasatir, Steve Hoffman, Jeff Solomon and others from within (or nearby) the organized Jewish communities...and, yet, no one from among those entities which might, if part of the process, bring the diasp[ora communities together to engage.

These choices made by Genesis (and, perhaps, by Cardin) are clear --we are going to put out a nice, exciting academic Declaration and leave it to us peons to do the difficult work while not having been involved in framing this "Common Destiny.". And, as has been demonstrated before (in the failed implementation of the last Jewish Agency "strategic plan" -- it is now working on another; in the Government of Israel/Naftali Bennett's World Jewry Initiative, etc.), without engagement from the beginning, nothing much is going to happen at the grassroots level. Yet, with all of this, one has to wonder, do the organized Jewish communal leadership worldwide even realize how they have been dissed here; or, if not dissed....clearly ignored. And, if they do realize it, do they care that they are perceived by their omission to be pedestrian and, worse, irrelevant.

In addition, friends, worldwide Jewish organizational leadership -- of JAFI, of the Joint Distribution Committee, among others -- are not represented. 

These insults are manifest and, no doubt, well-earned

And, then, it emerged  the end result of this ambitious intellectual exercise after as few days and a charge from President Rivlin, The Declaration of Our Common Destiny For the Unity of the Jewish People. (Ahh, the presumption.)  Thanks to our friends at ejewishphilanthropy you can read this at: https://ejewishphilanthropy.com/the-declaration-of-our-common-destiny-for-the-unity-of-the-jewish-people-launched-at-beit-hanasi/?utm_source=Sept+11,+2019&utm_campaign=Sept+11&utm_medium=email 

So good luck and great success to these "leading Jewish thinkers and activists." Can't wait for the discussions we have been mandated to comment.

So, it is on to a "generation-defining event in modern Judaism." The pool, though, is getting a little crowded.

Rwexler






* N.B. apparently such a Declaration exists...somewhere

8 comments:

  1. With one exception: Rabbi Irving (Yitz) Greenberg was one of the participants.

    There were a few participants who, certainly, were punching way above their weight (I am trying to be PC).

    Some of the people whom I think should have been included: Rabbi Danny Gordis, Rabbi Steven Weil, Rabbi David Wolpe, Rabbi Marvin Heir, Deborah Lipsdadt, Malcolm Hoenlein, Abe Foxman, Russell Robinson, Michael Berenbaum, Brian Lurie, Alan Dershowitz, Avrum Infeld, Natan Sharansky, Dennis Prager, Joseph Telushkin, and last, but not least, Richard Wexler.

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  2. I believe one of the mistakes with these types of things is "big name" syndrome. The people on the committee and those listed in the previous comment are all wonderful, brilliant, fascinating people -- but it is one thing to sit atop an organization and another to be an "on the ground" creator and into the "grass roots." Where are young adult division directors, where are program directors at JCCs, where are Jewish educators (main line teachers), where are the people who actually make the real work happen? They better understand the Jewish world!

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  3. Addendum...

    If you want to see the list of partners, advisors and scholars open this link and scroll down (the three groups are listed separately): http://ourcommondestiny.org/

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  4. With his list, Paul Jesser simply wants to rehash the past. Most, but not all of Jesser's suggestions, are expert in looking backwards but lacking clear vision for the future. While the Genesis list is far from perfect, or inclusive, it moves us away from 20th century thinking to new possibilities and outcomes.

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  5. Anon 6:57

    1st, if you are going to criticize me, please at least spell my name correctly. Thank you.

    2nd, you, obviously, have no clue about most of the people on my list. They are the most creative and forward thinking leaders of our day.

    3rd, you, obviously have no clue about some of the people on the Genesis list. They are 2nd rate (and, I'm being kind here) thinkers, at best!

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  6. My apologies for the misspelling.

    You should have said, "They WERE the most creative and forward thinking leaders of THEIR day." For some, the Jewish world of the 21st Century is an aberration they still do not fully understand.

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  7. The issue of global Jewish connectedness is too important to be left to a couple of oligarchs and their hand chosen gurus.
    To look at the issue from the bottom up consider the citizen's assembly mechanism - randomly chosen individuals invited to study and deliberate a difficult issue. Please read here:
    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens%27_assembly

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  8. The much more questionable event is www.ilr2019.com

    Why are JFNA’s most senior leaders wining and dining with Vladimir Putin and his cronies?

    This isnt supporting the local community and institutions. It is offering respectability to truly evil people

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