Beyond Fear-Driven Survival
The quote from Talmud at the beginning of Jewish Megatrends is very beautiful: “Fortunate is the generation in which the elders listen to the youth” (Rosh Hashana 25b). We should be so lucky. I agree with Rabbi Sid’s assessment that Jews are seekers of wisdom (dorshei chochmah), seekers of social justice (dorshei tzedek), seekers of community (dorshei kehilla), and […]
The Alberta Shul: Building Kehilla Through the Lens of Tzedek
In his thesis, Rabbi Sid Schwarz offers that the downturn in Jewish communal affiliation does not “suggest that Jews are no longer seeking each other out. It simply means that Jews are turning their backs on larger, mainstream organizations that are experienced as top-down institutions in an era when Jews want to do it themselves.” […]
A Community of Meaning for Young Adults
My roommate and I are both alumnae of Barnard-JTS and both of us have been very Jewishly connected for most of our lives. We had been living in Philadelphia for about six months when, one shabbat afternoon, we sat and pondered why it was that we did not feel part of a regular Shabbat community […]
Never Too Old to Engage
Since 2013, I have directed UJA-Federation of New York’s Engage Jewish Service Corps at the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan, a volunteer initiative that helps baby boomers find meaning and community as they begin to envision what retirement may look like for themselves (very different than how it may have been for others in the past […]
Kesher Pittsburgh: An “Everyone-Friendly” Community
As I read Rabbi Sid’s introduction to Jewish Megatrends: Charting the Course of the American Jewish Community, I felt a sense of relief. It affirmed much of what I’ve sensed about current trends in the American institutional framework and it acted as a sort of mirror, reflecting that the work that Kesher Pittsburgh* is doing […]
Building Community through Shabbat Dinners
I grew up in a household that valued Shabbat. We children were required to be home for dinner every Friday night, no exceptions, and all of our friends were welcome around the table. While at the time I may not have appreciated this rule, I am now thankful that I have an understanding and deep […]
The Power of Play
Ben Zoma says, “Who is wise? One who learns from every person.” This teaching from Pirkei Avot is a powerful guide for our mission with the Bible Players. This idea is central both to the concepts of chochma/wisdom and kehilla/community. At the Bible Players, we believe that improvisation is a crucial way to explore these […]
Jewish Pathways to Wisdom
Ben Bag Bag omer hafoch bah, vahafoch bah, d’chola bah. Ben Bag Bag said: Turn it and turn it, over and over, for everything is in it. Mishna Avot 5:22 Ben Zoma omer eizehu hakham, ha-lomed mikol adam. Ben Zoma said: Who is wise? One who learns from every person. Mishna Avot 4:1 Turn it […]
Class, Racism and Oppression
In 1984, I founded the National Coalition Building Institute (NCBI), a non-profit organization that trains leaders in diversity, equity, and inclusion skills. I was a consultant to the National Affairs staff at the American Jewish Committee, leading workshops on East Coast campuses for Blacks and Jews. The director, Irving Levine, thought we needed an organization […]
Jewish Liberation that Spans Generations
The megatrends Rabbi Sid invokes in his article are mega not in their grandiosity but because they are the root stock that has held and sourced and given life to the Jewish people from time immemorial. In shifting winds, roots hold the ground and, in times of drought, it is deep roots that can still […]
Thoughts on Kehillah/Community
When I was twelve, my father ordered some yarmulkes for my upcoming bar mitzvah. Inside the skullcap was a simple inscription “Daniel Mordecai Brenner – Now Available for Minyan.” In some ways, I love this story as an example of how I was welcomed into Jewish community – the message I was receiving from my […]
Searching for Covenantal Judaism
“Most American Jews that gravitate to Chabad Houses… like the feel of “doing the real thing,” even if they don’t show up every week.” Rabbi Sid Schwarz, Jewish Megatrends This statement caught my attention for a couple of reasons. Raised as a tribal Jew in the Bronx (my early narrative shares many similarities with that of […]
A Center for the Study of Existential Torah
I am reluctant to say that Etz Hasadeh, a center for the study of existential Torah, is guided by a single value, especially since, as Heidegger teaches, a value is, as its name implies, relative. To say truth is a value is already to devalue it, to make it seem to be valuable only insofar […]
Craig Taubman
Rabbi Sid’s essay analyzing the state of the American Jewish community was thoughtful and on the mark. I appreciated his perspective, agreed with most of his ideas and adored others. His assessment that the 21st century cries out for a spiritual response is spot on and applies to the Jewish community as well as other faith communities. Here […]
Misha Shulman
The School for Creative Judaism was born in an apartment in the Upper East Side on a cold Friday evening in January around a decade ago. Around 60 people aged 4 to 80, most with very little Jewish knowledge beyond what I had been teaching them, were gathered in a living room for a Shabbat […]
Ruth Schapira
What Jewish spiritual practices will help bring my life meaning? What in our Jewish tradition can help me get over life’s hurdles? What can I do to increase engagement with holiness in my community? These questions often prompt a journey that may lead to the discovery of Mussar[1]. The purpose of Mussar is to help […]
Rabbi Regina Sandler-Phillips
A quarter-century has now passed since I was first introduced to the vital Jewish principles known as “ways of peace” (darkhei shalom) during a five-year sojourn in Israel. Having emerged from the 1991 Gulf War during that sojourn, I found the practical orientation of “ways of peace” both compelling and timeless. Here were 1800 years of spiritual […]
Irene Lehrer Sandalow
“I see the American Jewish community of five million as being like an enterprise with two, roughly equal divisions: one healthy and engaged in all aspects of Jewish life—religious, cultural, political; the other division is near bankruptcy and challenges the health of the overall American Jewish venture.” Rabbi Sid Schwarz in Jewish Megatrends When I […]
Rabbi Jan Salzman
Wisdom/Chochma: We are a new community that has built a presence in the context of Vermont over the 1.5 years we’ve been operating. Most of our families are intermarried and the great outdoors takes precedence over a family’s time (along with music lessons and so much else). I struggle with a foundational question: How am […]
Rabbi Isaiah Rothstein
They were older than me, by at least five years, and I was afraid. Though my Satmar Hasidic neighbors were my friends, their cousins usually approached me with disdain whenever I’d go over for a playdate. On one occasion, they bullied me and lifted my shirt up. He asked “where are your tzizis?” Feeling uncomfortable, […]
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