“Where can Jews of different ages, spiritual orientations and socioeconomic strata come together regularly to brainstorm while they relax?”

Interdisciplinary research on innovation has yielded the interesting find that creativity peaks when hyper-stimulation is combined with deep relaxation. It helps explain why we have so many good ideas while in the shower (or why it may be hard for some people to leave a shower). Research on creative collaboration shows what happens when people with diverse backgrounds spend time with each other in a spirit of openness.

I am suggesting that the organizational walls we proudly build may have kept us in and others out too often for real innovation to take place. Where is our forum, literally? Where can Jews of different ages, spiritual orientations and socioeconomic strata come together regularly to brainstorm while they relax? We used to have the shvitz. I know of no such place today.

Dr. Erica Brown, “When in Rome”, The Jewish Week (1 August 2014), 46.