Jews in America – Excerpted

“So much of contemporary North American Jewish life is like running a heat lamp outdoors in the winter”

2 January 2020 Drew KaplanJewish Community

So much of contemporary North American Jewish life is like running a heat lamp outdoors in the winter. It is so inefficient, so attenuated by the entropy of contemporary society, and still overwhelmed by (post-)Christian[…]

“Birthright Israel manifests the interlacing power of identity and endowment in American Jewish life”

5 April 20194 April 2019 Drew KaplanJewish Community

Birthright Israel, the nonprofit organization that Steinhardt started in 1999 with his billionaire friend Charles Bronfman to fund free trips to Israel for young Jews, epitomizes this shift. From its financing to its goals, Birthright[…]

“Cohen’s analysis focused simply on biological continuity and avoided the substantive questions inherent in any discussion of the how of the Jewish future”

4 April 2019 Drew KaplanJewish Community

Until he was brought down by revelations of decades of sexual harassment, sociologist Steven M. Cohen made a career linking intermarriage with a coming demographic doomsday for non-Orthodox Jews and propounding the danger both posed[…]

“Community is messy; be wary of those trying so hard to make it clean”

28 February 201927 February 2019 Drew KaplanJewish Community

…while Jewish organizations should be allowed to exercise caution about their overt structural partnerships with those protesting them outside, the quick mapping of that caution onto the tarring of individuals is a dangerous and insidious[…]

There is a “political phenomenon in the Jewish community…on the disincentivizing of all forms of ‘courageous leadership’ by relatively small numbers of individuals who can drive a community agenda”

27 February 2019 Drew KaplanJewish Community

…a larger political phenomenon in the Jewish community…on the disincentivizing of all forms of “courageous leadership” by relatively small numbers of individuals who can drive a community agenda because of the flattening of power structures,[…]

“…the great divides are about how or whether American Jews feel essentially safe and at home or eternally vulnerable and vigilant…”

8 February 20197 February 2019 Drew KaplanJewish Community

The basic political theory behind organized Jewish communal (read: establishment) politics in America since World War II has been to applaud and appreciate public gestures of support for gestures that are seen in the collective[…]

“Every Passover, we read the haggadah at the seder and we are reminded of the obligation to imagine ourselves being redeemed from Egypt…to a proud American Jew, living with equality and freedom, it seems impossible”

28 March 201827 March 2018 Drew KaplanJews in America

Every Passover, we read the haggadah at the seder and we are reminded of the obligation to imagine ourselves being redeemed from Egypt. For my ancestors, this may have been possible. They were regularly oppressed[…]

“Our criminal justice system punishes only the clearly guilty, and our media absolves only the clearly innocent — but that does not tell us whom our schools, synagogues and other institutions should employ”

26 March 201822 March 2018 Drew KaplanJewish Community

We have to think long and hard as a community as to how we want to handle cases where abuse is alleged but no charges are brought, despite the fact that many people think that[…]

“Are there assumptions – correct or incorrect – in Jewish communal life that ‘the community’ is supposed to be the principal fiduciary in the financial needs of Jewish households?”

22 March 201813 March 2018 Drew KaplanJewish Education

I’ve been thinking about the implied economy in educational institutions, especially as it is understood in the financial aid/tuition assistance process. Ostensibly, when a person or family requests financial aid or a tuition reduction, they[…]

“How does our community, committed to Israel as well as a host of other social justice commitments, navigate collaboration with other faith and political leaders who not only oppose one critical piece of our community’s agenda but often even militate against it?”

25 October 201723 October 2017 Drew KaplanJewish Community

How does our community, committed to Israel as well as a host of other social justice commitments, navigate collaboration with other faith and political leaders who not only oppose one critical piece of our community’s[…]

Excerpted

Excerpts of Interest

Category: Jews in America

“So much of contemporary North American Jewish life is like running a heat lamp outdoors in the winter”

“Birthright Israel manifests the interlacing power of identity and endowment in American Jewish life”

“Cohen’s analysis focused simply on biological continuity and avoided the substantive questions inherent in any discussion of the how of the Jewish future”

“Community is messy; be wary of those trying so hard to make it clean”

There is a “political phenomenon in the Jewish community…on the disincentivizing of all forms of ‘courageous leadership’ by relatively small numbers of individuals who can drive a community agenda”

“…the great divides are about how or whether American Jews feel essentially safe and at home or eternally vulnerable and vigilant…”

“Every Passover, we read the haggadah at the seder and we are reminded of the obligation to imagine ourselves being redeemed from Egypt…to a proud American Jew, living with equality and freedom, it seems impossible”

“Our criminal justice system punishes only the clearly guilty, and our media absolves only the clearly innocent — but that does not tell us whom our schools, synagogues and other institutions should employ”

“Are there assumptions – correct or incorrect – in Jewish communal life that ‘the community’ is supposed to be the principal fiduciary in the financial needs of Jewish households?”

“How does our community, committed to Israel as well as a host of other social justice commitments, navigate collaboration with other faith and political leaders who not only oppose one critical piece of our community’s agenda but often even militate against it?”