A vibrant Jewish future that speaks three different languages requires such connectors, people fluent not only in their own language – but skilled at traveling back and forth between the other Jewish languages.
Such modern day “nehotei” require three characteristics: They must be travel ready, committed to going beyond themselves and engage Jewish othernesses. They must be idea driven, both recognizing a good idea for its value, without bias or prejudice, and using those new ideas as fermenting agents of change. And they must be translators, skilled at taking an idea from one context and make it meaningful in another context; transferring knowledge and practice across cultures and languages.
A vibrant Jewish future that speaks three different languages requires not superficial unity, but rather vibrant connectors, people fluent not only in their own language – but traveling back and forth between the various Jewish languages.
Rabbi Mishael Zion, “The Language of the Jewish Future: Israelish, Americanish, Yeshivish”, eJewish Philanthropy (2 June 2014) [http://ejewishphilanthropy.com/the-language-of-the-jewish-future-israelish-americanish-yeshivish]