Shir Yaakov Feit
Rabbi Sid Schwarz identifies four “pockets of Jewish renaissance” driving individuals and organizations, each with differing motivating factors: wisdom (dorshei chochmah) social justice (dorshei tzedek) community (dorshei kehillah) lives of sacred purpose (dorshei kedushah) My life, work, and practice are informed by all four of these propositions. It is thrilling to see these emergent waves identified […]
Jacob Feinspan
The fact that Jews United for Justice (JUFJ) exists in the first place, and has grown and succeeded in recent years, is due to the groundswell of Jews who are actively seeking ways to act on their Jewish values to advance justice. We start from the Jewish community’s collective experience of moving from the margins […]
Kohenet Sarah Shamirah Chandler
“Shabbat is the answer to every question.” This mantra is one of my favorite teaching and organizing tools in Jewish life. Here’s how it works: ask everyone in the room what questions they have. I’m not talking about things you can Google or ask an expert – real questions that you’re struggling with. Almost without […]
Rabbi Daniel Cotzin Burg
It appears to me that Sid Schwarz’s framing of strategies employed by successful Jewish organizations and programs is useful. Given that Beth Am is a synagogue attempting to establish its relevance in the current marketplace of Jewish ideas and with this current generation of American Jews, I believe we employ each of these strategies. Indeed […]
Mariel Boyarsky
My first question upon reading this interesting, well-written, and engaging chapter was: “Why?” Though I agree with a lot of what is laid out in this chapter (and also disagree with some), I feel that we need to take a step back before we can even begin the conversation around how to fix the problem […]
Ross Berkowitz
I once heard someone say in jest (or mockery): “When it comes to understanding and reacting to trends, most non-profit organizations lag five years behind the for-profit world. Jewish organizations are another five years behind the secular non-profits.” Not so funny when you think about it—but all too often true. I see the essay from Jewish […]
Helen Bennett
The Jewish Megatrends thesis put forward by Rabbi Sid Schwarz offers a useful basic description of the current moment we are in as an American Jewish community. Here are some thoughts and reflections. Using Sid’s terms, I am a millennial and a covenantal Jew. Holding these identities, I have a lot of respect for the […]
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat
Proposition 1: In an age of globalization, Jewish institutions need to offer multiple avenues to explore chochmah, the wisdom of our sacred texts put into the context of the world’s religions and in the language of contemporary culture. Much of my work is aligned with this first proposition. As Jews we have inherited (and continuously […]
Melissa Balaban
In 2004, when we founded IKAR and developed our membership model, we were acutely aware of the allergy most young Jews had to Jewish institutional life. We had an idea of how to address the pervasive sense of alienation and disaffection that many Jews, particularly those in their 20s and 30s, were experiencing. The four […]
Jewish Megatrends: Charting the Course of the American Jewish Future
This essay appears in Jewish Megatrends: Charting the Course of the American Jewish Community, by Rabbi Sid Schwarz. The book is published by Jewish Lights and appears here with their permission. The Jewish community is in a time of transition. Those who are active in the community certainly know this. Many of the institutions […]
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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
