“So much of contemporary North American Jewish life is like running a heat lamp outdoors in the winter”
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 assumptions and patterns of thought and behavior that define the West. Rabbi Ethan Tucker, Facebook post (2 January 2020) [https://www.facebook.com/ethan.m.tucker/posts/10156848432465976] continued…
“Birthright Israel manifests the interlacing power of identity and endowment in American Jewish life”
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 manifests the interlacing power of identity and endowment in American Jewish life. The organization’s small handful of megadonors — including […] continued…
“Cohen’s analysis focused simply on biological continuity and avoided the substantive questions inherent in any discussion of the how of the Jewish future”
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 to “continuity.” According to Cohen, intermarried Jews were less likely to have children who identified as Jewish, and non-Orthodox Jews […] continued…
“Community is messy; be wary of those trying so hard to make it clean”
…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 business. It is astonishing to me how the American Jewish community, ostensibly thriving in and thanks to democracy, is downright […] continued…
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”
…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 power of social media, and growing anxieties by Jewish institutional leader about the cost of political embarrassment. It often […] continued…
“…the great divides are about how or whether American Jews feel essentially safe and at home or eternally vulnerable and vigilant…”
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 interest of the Jewish people; and to do whatever is needed to stay within the good graces of political power […] continued…
“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”
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 and routinely persecuted for being Jews, and it was hardly a giant leap to imagine personal slavery in ancient Egypt. […] continued…
“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”
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 the accusation is “plausible” or “reasonable” or even “very likely true.” Our criminal justice system punishes only the clearly guilty, […] continued…
“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?”
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 are primarily driven by their own financial needs. At the same time, there always has to be an implicit trade-off […] continued…
“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?”
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? In response to this challenge, the instinct by many communities is to create […] continued…
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