Matt Bar
Excluding strange mystic experiences and perplexing dreams that whispered lech lecha into my soul at night, I had a perfectly outlined ‘covenantal identity’ childhood. My family was not religiously homogeneous nor observant. I was bar-mitzvahed at a Reform synagogue. I was a High Holiday Jew, a covenantal Jew. I would argue I have since become […]
Joshua Avedon
First as one of Ikar’s founders, then at Synagogue 3000, and currently at Jumpstart, I’ve had the privilege to work in the U.S., Europe, and Israel with leaders of new organizations and communities of all types and persuasions. I came to this work as someone who grew up disaffected from Jewish life, but who came […]
Hannah Kapnik Ashar
“Jews are in fact seekers of wisdom (dorshei chochma), seekers of social justice (dorshei tzedek), seekers of community (dorshei kehillah), and seekers of lives of sacred purpose (dorshei kedusha).” What if we want to treat Jews not as consumers of these four domains, but as co-creators? What balance do we want organizations to strive for […]
Wendy Aronson and Rabbi Brian Field
On page 13 of his essay in Jewish Megatrends, Rabbi Schwarz describes a twenty-year-old, non-Orthodox Jew named Bill. Bill is engaged to a person of another faith and when he places a call to his childhood rabbi to see if he will officiate their wedding, he receives a response that makes Bill feel rejected. It […]
Rachel Gildiner
My work as an educator and Jewish leader has always been about (1) fostering kehillah, and (2) deepening kehillot with kedusha. I believe wisdom, learning, confidence, further involvement, Jewish risk-taking, asking questions, engaged Jewish life, emerges from positive experiences of community first and foremost. And it has been my experience that as we grow older, […]
Rabbi Shawn Zevit
Chochmah (Wisdom), Tzedek (Justice), Kehillah (Community) and Kedushah (Sacredness), the four propositions Rabbi Sid Schwarz outlines in his opening essay for Jewish Megatrends, are core Jewish values that are a winding thread throughout the millennia of the Jewish People’s journey. I have found all these areas resonant in my decades of avodah– work in sacred […]
Zahara Zahav
The four propositions that Sid suggests will shape and inspire meaningful, relevant Jewish communities today contain strong echoes of central themes found in the traditional wisdom of the Torah. Chochma, kedusha, tzedek and kehillah are rooted in the famous mishnah of Pirkei Avot 1:14: Shimon the Righteous who said, “On three things the world stands: […]
Lawrence Yermack
It’s probably best to preface these remarks with a brief statement of how I came to Jewish Spirituality because that will help to explain why I agree that the four concepts presented in the book quite accurately depict the aspirational side of today’s Jewish community. We will only succeed if we meet those aspirations with […]
Rob Weinberg
The work of the Experiment in Congregational Education (ECE), the nation’s first and longest lasting synagogue transformation project, aligns—to a greater or lesser extent— with all four propositions. How? ECE operates on multiple levels. At the p’shat level, our work is about transforming Jewish education including changing the Jewish learning goals, process, context, structures, and […]
Karla Van Praag
I believe that our work aligns with all four propositions. Wisdom/Chochmah There is a middle ground between giving people what they want and giving people what they need. Organizers, like rabbis and educators, need to meet people where they are if we want them to be responsive, but we can’t just encourage them to sit […]
Rabbi Rachel Timoner
As the new senior rabbi of CBE in Brooklyn, I was recently asked by my board of trustees to write up my vision for the congregation. All four of the propositions in Megatrends appeared in my vision. In order to accomplish any of them, however, our first work must be to surprise people with Judaism. […]
Ilana Sumka
In Rabbi Sid’s four propositions, I recognized many key elements of my own personal Jewish identity: a Dorot fellowship in Jerusalem & studies at Pardes (1/Chochmah), my work with American Jewish World Service (2/Tzedek), the Hadar minyan (3/Kehilah), a summer internship at Elat Chayyim (4/Kedusha) are just a few examples. I name these to ground […]
Rabba Kaya Stern-Kaufman
The philosophy, activities and offerings of Rimon: A Collaborative Community for Jewish Spirituality utilizes all of the four propositions described in Jewish Megatrends. Since our initial launch in 2012, we have offered an ongoing variety of programs and classes that explore the wisdom of Jewish spiritual teachings. We have consistently offered classes in Jewish mysticism, […]
Rabbi Rebecca Sirbu
RWB Vision Statement Rabbis Without Borders envisions a world where Jewish wisdom is a source for wellbeing for anyone anywhere. The rabbis in the RWB Network, are committed to pushing the borders of what it means to be a rabbi today. We seek to share our Torah in pluralistic, innovative ways grounded by a sense […]
Sara Shalva
My work in building alternative Jewish community exists both inside and outside the trends laid out in Sid’s book. In any attempt to seek meaning by superimposing structure, the structure limits the opportunities to see creativity in the cracks between. The Lev B’Lev community I helped create exists outside traditional Jewish institutions, but was created […]
Beth Sandweiss
I have had many opportunities to experience spiritual community: at summer camp, at Buddhist and Jewish retreat centers, in my twenty year old women’s ritual group, and among the close circle of family friends with whom we celebrate Jewish Holidays and life cycle events. What these communities have in common for me is a visceral […]
Shamu Sadeh
My work at Adamah is well aligned with your four propositions. Chochmah: When I teach Jewish creation stories I pair Rashi’s commentary on Genesis 2:7 with secular philosophical writings. I teach the Book of Job together with Aldo Leopold. The majority of my students feel very engaged in this approach to Jewish learning. (How to […]
Rabbi Scott Perlo
This is from the tail end of a Boston Globe article: “I definitely like the spiritual aspect of pushing yourself further than you ever thought you could go,” Huberlie said. “I don’t think I can put my beliefs behind any particular religion right now. . . but something I missed [about church] is if you really need […]
Eden Pearlstein
To my understanding the primary thesis of Rabbi Sid Schwarz’s chapter was that the American Jewish community is in the process of massive ideological and demographical transition. This transition is affecting individual Jews as well as many institutional pillars of the community such as synagogues and federations, both of which appear to be losing numbers […]
Nati Passow
I enjoyed reading Rabbi Sid Schwarz’s opening essay to his book, Jewish Megatrends. Much of what I encountered reflects my own experience growing up in the Jewish community, and working in it for over fifteen years as an informal educator and non-profit director. While I agreed with the concept of the tribal and covenantal Jew, […]
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Featured Post
- Rabbi Robin Damsky
April 23, 2018
Seven years ago, I embarked on a project that would transform my work in the rabbinate. I turned my property into an organic, edible, permaculture landscape with several goals: to address hunger issues; to decrease carbon footprint; to educate about healthy food; and to give those who are food-insecure greater ownership of their own fresh
