James Hyman

Jewish Future is Here

The

A New Vision ofIdentity and Community

The Partnership for Jewish Life and Learning

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Jewish Future is Here

James Hyman

The

A New Vision ofIdentity and Community

Jewish Future is Here

Tableof

Contents

The Jewish Future is Here1

Notes22

Acknowledgements23

About the Author24

Preface

This document is a concept paper, presenting many pieces of a puzzle

yet not all of them. It is not a definitive description of what a community

should look like although it includes a fictional vision. The final picture

will be determined by each community. However, we strongly believe

that there are three key elements described herein that are imperative if

we are to be successful at transforming the American Jewish community.

They are: a much broader notion of Jewish identity; re-defining the

core mission of the American Jewish community as education and

engagement; and based on these two premises, creating a comprehensive

collaborative educational system which would encompass a broad

array of organizations and institutions within the community.

1

Over the course of 3,000 years, in response to the challenges

that Jews have faced, Judaism has been adapted, transformed

and re-invented, allowing us to survive and even to thrive.

The current challenges facing the American Jewish community –

complacency and apathy, coupled with Jewish illiteracy and a shrinking

donor base – are significant, but survivable if we transform ourselves

once again. The infrastructure of the community looks much as it

did 60 years ago. However, the identity of American Jews does not.

The question is how can we create a communal infrastructure that

reflects what it means to be a Jew in America in the 21st century?

In this monograph we will offer a new vision of Jewish identity and

Jewish community in the United States showing how collaboration

and the pooling of communal resources must become the norm.

For millennia, Judaism was defined by a diverse set of experiences

that reached far beyond what we understand to be religion today. It

involved prayer and rituals to be sure, but it also encompassed art

and philosophy, language and history, and a distinct set of values that

informed the daily lives of Jews. Today in America, the institutional

Jewish community is focused almost exclusively on Judaism as

a religion, frequently compartmentalized from our daily lives;

for some people relevant on the Sabbath, for most only on major

holidays and in recognition of life cycle events. This focus does not

seem to be effective. By rediscovering a broader understanding

of Jewish identity, one that is experienced as enriching our

lives as Americans, we could build a communal infrastructure

that is more exciting and engaging than the one we have today.

In addition, we must develop ways of making the most valuable

2

resources available to the maximum number of people. For too many

Jews, membership in a sub-community (for example membership

in a congregation or a JCC) constitutes the totality of their Jewish

affiliation (severely limiting their exposure to the rich resources

that exist in most Jewish communities). In this new paradigm,

membership in the sub-community will function as a portal to a

larger collaborative community. Institutions will be structured in

ways that require them to share resources, thereby maximizing the

use of outstanding talent. Such a shift would enable us to see beyond

the walls of institutions and organizations, opening up creative ways

to bring together different entities in collaboration with each other

and the community as a whole. For both financial and ideological

reasons we must pool our resources and create a communal

infrastructure in which collaboration between institutions,

organizations, and the sharing of human resources is the norm.

Finally, Jewish education, broadly understood, must become the core

mission of the American Jewish community. If we begin to think that

the purpose of a Jewish community is to embody a unique or culturally

distinct set of values, then the mission of the communal endeavor

must be to inculcate those values into its members.1 Each discrete

program, institution and organization would work collaboratively

to educate communal members. As the most basic and fundamental

Jewish value, education would be the driving force undergirding

the communal structure itself. This is not a plan to replace Hebrew

School or to more effectively educate children, though it does

encompass both goals. Our ability to create meaningful educational

experiences for our children and for future generations will succeed

3

only if Jews of every age are actively engaged in nurturing their own

Jewish identities and, in turn, supporting a strong Jewish community.

he Educational Collaborative of the 21st Century

What would such a community look like in practical terms?

Let’s envision it through the eyes of a hypothetical family

encountering this new Jewish community for the first time:

The Weiss family – Josh, Wendy and their children Laura (15) and Jake

(12) – had just moved into their new home in Gaithersburg, Maryland,

a suburb of Washington D.C. Worn out from unpacking, they were both

surprised and relieved to receive a “Welcome Box” from a Jewish Federation

representative on their first night. In addition to a delicious (and kosher)

dinner for four, the box included what at first seemed to be a paper catalogue,

but turned out to be a box holding a thumb drive. Curious (and a little

bored: as of yet they had no internet or cable service set up), the family

inserted the thumb drive into a laptop and settled in to see what it contained.

The program opened with a flourish of music and colors, which morphed

into a title: “The 2015 Catalogue of Everything Jewish in the Greater

Washington Area” and the tagline “The Doors of the Jewish Community of

Greater Washington Are Always Open.” Virtual doors on the screen opened

to reveal a digital catalogue with everything you could ever want to know

about Jewish institutions, organizations and initiatives. It had a section

on private tutors for individualized learning from bar and bat mitzvah

training to text study to learning Hebrew. It also had a whole section of

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activities that were connected to serving the community, both Jewish and

non-Jewish. As they watched, the Weiss’ were almost overwhelmed by

this dazzling array of ideas, locations, programs and people, all geared

towards the same goal of helping them connect to and express their Jewish

heritage in whatever ways they might find most meaningful and appealing.

As the Weiss family began to become part of their new community they

saw and experienced how the images in the digital Jewish catalogue

were brought to life by a myriad of creative and vibrant institutions and

professionals. They were contacted by the organization that administers

the Collaborative and were connected to an Educational Guide. This

person was able to help them navigate what was being offered in the

community and to make some choices about learning opportunities for

themselves and their children. Her job was to get to know individuals

and families on a very personal level and make them feel truly welcomed

and embraced by the community. The Guide had a special role in

welcoming new people to the community. She would not only connect

with the Weiss’ early on, but in addition she would work with them over

the course of their lives, meeting with them several times per year helping

them shape a set of experiences that would speak to their particular

needs and interests. She told them about the opportunities that the

community offered both within and beyond traditional institutions.

The Guide explained that the Collaborative worked with many different

organizations and institutions throughout the area. Most of the

congregations were affiliated with the Collaborative, along with JCCs, local

Hillels, summer camps, social service agencies, youth groups, independent

organizations, museums, theaters and national agencies with offices in

5

the area. It also had a special fund to seed and nurture exciting start

up initiatives. The Collaborative utilized technology extensively, creating

social networking groups and developing interactive learning modules for

a whole range of different things, and offering online courses – some of

them live webinars and some courses that you could engage in at any time

of the day or night. It had also rented two public spaces: one near the Weiss’

house and one in Northern Virginia, attracting a diverse population of

families and individuals. Some of these families were interfaith, some

were not, but all had expressed reluctance about institutional affiliation.

So the public spaces had made connecting easier for many people. The

key was accessibility and acceptance, so that whether you were elderly,

were someone with special needs, lived or worked in the far reaches of the

community, or your professional work made it impossible to participate

in person, everyone had a rich variety of opportunities to learn.

As more institutions and organizations joined, the programs expanded

dramatically. Each year the Collaborative started home-based learning

groups matching families and individuals in the same area and stage of life.

Word of mouth spread quickly – great teachers and no value judgments;

whatever you want to do or not do – no questions asked. There were a series

of community blogs and chat rooms and social networking sites that in turn

created a number of community groups. The community had grown rapidly

over the course of the first years of the Collaborative and it was reaching

people that had been reluctant to engage with the Jewish community of

the past. People could participate in any activity on a pay-as-you-go

basis or become “partners” (annual members) which offered substantial

discounts for many of the programs. In addition, becoming a partner

offered them a voice in helping to shape the catalogue for the coming year,

6

as all partners were invited to planning sessions that took place each fall.

A high school classmate (and soon BFF) of Laura’s, Jennie Lander, invited

her to join a Jewish theater troupe at the local JCC, igniting in Laura a

new-found passion for theater. Jennie and Laura had met shortly after

the Weiss’ moved to the area. Her family had reached out to the Weiss’

as they lived just a few doors down on the same street. The Landers had

lived in the community for just over 10 years. The parents, Brooke and

Jon, had not been involved in the Jewish community when they first

arrived. But Jennie had gotten involved in the theater troupe and over

time Jennie’s involvement had drawn them into the larger community. It

had started with a weekend at the local camp at which all of the parents

with kids in any kind of a theater troupe in the Collaborative were

invited to attend. At a certain point just before the end of the weekend

the parents were asked to make a commitment to do something back

home that would enable them to stay connected to what their kids were

doing. The Landers agreed to host an initial meeting of a group that

would read the work the kids were performing and discuss it. Brooke was

not Jewish, though she had agreed to raise their children with a Jewish

identity. So she reached out to the Collaborative for help in organizing

the first meeting. Their Guide helped the family navigate the programs

and institutions within the Collaborative, connecting them to people

who were welcoming of interfaith families. The Guide became a very

important friend and opened doors that they simply didn’t know existed.

The Landers encouraged the Weiss’ to try a few different programs that

the Collaborative was offering in the area. By the time Laura asked if she

could join the theater troupe, the Weiss’ were already comfortable with

the Collaborative and were very supportive of her interest. After her third

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year of involvement, Laura traveled to Israel with her theater troupe.

They joined up with other teens their own age involved in theater in Israel

and developed a number of friendships that lasted long into adulthood.

Josh and Wendy learned that Jake could prepare for his upcoming Bar

Mitzvah ceremony by spending a year working on his passion, environmental

issues framed by relevant Jewish learning, followed by a two-week

intensive “Torah reading boot camp” at a retreat center. This plan was far

more appealing to both Jake and his parents than the traditional Hebrew

School program they had expected to follow. Josh and Wendy sampled

from a smorgasbord of Jewish learning options – many of which were held

in private living rooms, bookstores, cafés and other appealing locations.

After a few years, their Guide suggested that Josh and Wendy organize

a neighborhood group that was comprised of people interested in

environmental issues and how Jewish identity might inform and enrich

their interests. There was a couple who belonged to the modern orthodox

congregation a few miles away, yet had not had much interaction with

Jews outside of the orthodox community. There was a single woman who

worked for the government and was very involved both professionally

and personally in environmental issues and there was a gay couple

who lived close by and who had two adopted children. They had never

participated in any Jewish activity in the past but were both very active

environmentalists. Their older daughter had become friends with Jake

Weiss in school and the parents had developed a friendship with Josh

and Wendy. They were very reluctant at first, but over time they became

part of the core of the group. Those 18 people developed enduring

friendships and together studied with a teacher that specialized in travel

8

education. They traveled to the Amazon Rainforest with their teacher

to explore and study the Jewish value of caring for the environment.

Some of them joined the board of the Collaborative. Others joined the

Jewish Federation and some joined congregations. A number did not

join any additional institutions or organizations, but they continued to

meet as a group and celebrated life cycle events, shared joys, and helped

each other through the difficult times they were to face in the future.

For the first few years they were in the community, the Weiss family

enjoyed a variety of “a la carte” opportunities. Then a point came when

they decided to become “partners” by purchasing an annual membership,

which offered them significant discounts for programs and classes,

allowing them to connect and give back on a deeper level to the community

which had given them so much (even Laura, now deeply involved in

her university Hillel, retained strong feelings of connection to her home

Jewish community.) It also offered them less expensive ways to connect to

congregations, which had developed multi-tiered fee structures. The costs

varied depending on how often you wanted to go and what features you were

looking for. This enabled the Weiss’ to connect to multiple congregations

depending on what they were looking for at any given point in their lives.

They realized that making the choice to become partners would facilitate

their ability to enjoy everything Jewish Greater Washington had to offer.

he Tapestry of Jewish Identity

The vision of a Jewish community just described is grounded in an

expanded understanding of Judaism and Jewish identity. Imagine,

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if you will, Jewish identity as a tapestry, a great weave comprised of

innumerable threads, colors and patterns founded upon a set of value

concepts and grounded deep in the history of our people. The tapestry

includes religious belief and practice, in addition to art, philosophy,

history, music, languages, traditions, and a distinct set of values that form

the foundation for a community, to name but a few components. If we

broaden our understanding of Jewish life and experience to embrace

the entire tapestry of Jewish identity, it could enliven and enrich us far

more deeply. The tapestry in its fullness offers American Jews a path to

meaning that transcends the self and a destiny attached to something

beyond the individual. The more connections or touch points we can find

in the tapestry, the more it speaks to us and the more we experience a

sense of attachment and meaningfulness. The modern manifestation of

this tapestry is unique, as each historical manifestation has been unique.

Jewish life in America has the capacity to flourish in ways that are only

possible because we live at this time and in this remarkable place. The

degree to which we feel connected to the tapestry and empowered to make

our own contribution to it, to add our own pattern, color and design, is

the degree to which Judaism will continue to be a vibrant part of our lives.

For most American Jews, their experience of Judaism is much more limited.

This reflects a deeper problem facing the American Jewish community:

when asked, the great majority of American Jews define Judaism as a religion

with a particular denominational interpretation of prayer, life cycle events,

and the study of sacred texts.2 But studies show that the actual beliefs and

practices of American Jews indicate few behaviors that correspond to a

strong religious identification.3 And that is a cause for great concern. The

great American Jewish thinker Mordecai Kaplan warned us about this:

10

Normally, religion should take its place by the side

of social, economic, scientific and esthetic activities

without attempting to overshadow them or subordinate

them to its own aims... It is imperative, therefore, to

find outlets other than religion for the collective life of

the Jewish people. Paradoxical as it may sound, the

spiritual regeneration of the Jewish people demands

that religion cease to be its sole preoccupation.4

A prophetic warning, and we see the results today in the widespread

apathy among many American Jews toward Jewish beliefs, practices,

and institutions. While many of us feel as though Judaism is far

more than a religion, to a significant extent, the institutional

Jewish community does not reflect this broader understanding.

This is not in any way to suggest that religion is not important,

even central, to Jewish identity. Rather, as Kaplan declared 80 years

ago, religion does not exhaust Jewish identity and we have yet to

create an infrastructure that truly supports the breadth and depth

of what Jewish identity has been for millennia. We believe, however,

that America is an environment in which the full tapestry of Jewish

life could create opportunities for powerful and deeply meaningful

experiences for our people both as Americans and as Jews. In order to

communicate that effectively, we need to approach Jewish education

and engagement in a very different way. Religion requires a set of

beliefs leading to action with a particular set of behaviors. However,

American Jews have been raised in a culture in which freedom of

11

choice is the sine qua non of their values and we cannot expect that

religion as a coercive force will successfully engage most Jews today.5

As long as being a Jew is primarily understood in religious terms,

it threatens our sense of autonomy. So how can we engage Jews?

John Dewey, the father of modern American education, offered the

most salient insights into what successful education requires. “The

[learner’s] own instincts and powers furnish the material and give

the starting point for all education. Save as the efforts of the educator

to connect with some activity which the [learner] is carrying on his

own initiative independent of the educator, education becomes

reduced to a pressure from without.”6 This is axiomatic: that which is

meaningful and exciting to the learner must be the beginning of the

educational process. In order to resonate with learners, what is being

taught must connect to some deep and essential part of their inner

selves. To have an impact on American Jews, we must demonstrate

how that which is most meaningful to them in the general culture can

be enriched by their Jewish heritage. Isa Aron, Professor of Education

at Hebrew Union College, argues that the “knowledge, skills and

even values and attitudes will only remain in an individual’s active

memory when that person’s culture affords him or her the opportunity

to exercise them.”7 Such learning is only retained if it has resonance

beyond the classroom. Aron uses the term “enculturation” to describe

a process which “is both more holistic and more serendipitous;

it is also more enduring” than traditional classroom learning.8

This is the exact opposite of the compartmentalization that characterizes

so much of Jewish life in America. Far too often we create educational

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experiences that implicitly and explicitly reinforce the notion that Jewish

identity and American identity are separate compartments, separate

experiences and that there is a chasm between “real” life and Jewish life.

Therefore, to have an impact on American Jews, we must demonstrate

how that which is most meaningful to them in the general culture can

be enriched by their Jewish heritage. In the 21st century in the United

States, we must recognize that we cannot legislate belief. We must create

educational experiences that are deeply meaningful and compelling to

Jews as Americans. Jewish education divorced from American cultural

experience becomes precisely the “pressure from without” that Dewey

warns us against. Learners must generate their own connections

between the content of their Jewish education and the contexts of

their lives, an endeavor which usually leads to frustration and failure.

Much has been written about experiences that do seem to have a

profound impact on participants. They are: Israel trips, summer camps,

and day schools. We suspect that part of what is so powerful in the Israel

experience, as well as day schools and summer camps is that there is a

far broader set of experiences that participants can connect to, seamless

touch points of Jewish identity that are not compartmentalized. In

addition to religion, there is community and culture, history and

language, philosophy and art, and a powerful set of culturally distinct

values. Jews experience multiple connections to their identity, spread

over a far broader set of touch points and everyone feels a part of the

whole while still maintaining their unique place and story. Jewish

experiences in America need to expand Jewish life, making it broader

than any modern notion of religion alone can offer. We must be able to

embrace experiences that are proven to be transformative in multiple

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domains – Jewish activities that are value laden, connected to Jewish

heritage, and are at the same time relevant to modern American culture.

Two examples of this can be found in numerous communities today:

Service-learning, or the study of Jewish values that are then acted upon in

service to the Jewish or the general community and then reflected upon, is

one of the most effective means of engaging Jews today. It is an approach

to Jewish life that encourages people to learn in order to do. In the doing,

participants feel the power of a tradition, a heritage and a set of values

that enhance their own lives as well as the lives of people around them.

Similarly, philanthropy education programs have a consistent impact

on participants. A group of people is brought together typically with

a small amount of funds to distribute and then taught a set of values

tied to their Jewish heritage that guides their search for worthy

recipients and an ongoing connection to those values is woven.

Often viewed as a program that impacts teenagers, philanthropy

education is a model that is effective with multiple age cohorts.

Truly meaningful Jewish education cannot simply be about learning ideas,

prayers and rituals, but must entail learning towards doing, towards action,

for it is in acting out a set of values that participants find deeply meaningful

attachments to their heritage. The more ways one can find points of

connection, the more an individual feels the power and meaningfulness

of the activity. By offering both the education piece that is meaningful

to us both as Americans and as Jews, along with the “values-in-action”

component, we are empowering people to act out of a set of values that

have great meaning and purpose to them both as Americans and as Jews.

14

As they become more familiar with these values and where they come

from, they begin to feel a sense of ownership, a sense that they are

indeed expressing these values in their actions and that these values are

both integral parts of their identity and a part of the tapestry of Jewish

life. Their lives as Jews would flourish, because Judaism would greatly

enhance their lives as Americans, making it richer and more meaningful.

Judaism is designed to be lived, not just “learned about,” and the vibrancy

of Jewish life is most fully realized when one lives out of a set of values

and beliefs. If we can place Jewish educational experiences that involve

the entirety of the Jewish tapestry at the core of our communal endeavor,

then perhaps we can build institutions that will energize, excite and

create deeply meaningful experiences for many more Jews. This does

not mean watering down or taking the path of least resistance. Rather,

it is about the simple fact that being Jewish is much more than religion

alone. We are selling Judaism short by limiting it and we are losing Jews

who are disinterested in what has been a narrow understanding of it.

nstitutions, Collaboration and Change

We are blessed with a tremendous set of resources in the Jewish

community today. Congregations have a great deal to offer and of

course they are not alone. We have day schools, which, generally

speaking, have the greatest Judaic resources in any community but

only serve a small portion of it. We have JCCs, summer camps, adult

education programs, Judaic faculty at local universities, independent

minyanim, youth groups, private tutors, event planners, independent

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institutions, and hundreds of initiatives. To be sure, there is still plenty

to be created, but what if the center of education was shifted to the

community? What if the wider Jewish community began working

together to offer a vast and deep set of complementary experiences

for Jews, affiliated and unaffiliated alike? What could we create?

This new structure must be a coordinated system in which multiple

institutions, organizations, programs and initiatives all work

together collaboratively to provide multifaceted opportunities for

Jews to learn, to engage in actively living Jewish values, to develop

community, and together to make their lives more meaningful as

Americans. The math is quite simple – one institution has a fraction

of the resources of multiple institutions. If we compare the resources

available to a single institution with the resources available in a

community at large, we can see the vast array of missed opportunities

that characterize modern Jewish life in America. Congregations, JCCs,

day schools, museums, national organizations, independent prayer

groups, small start up programs – all exist in each and every major

Jewish community and to a large extent work in isolation (or worse, in

competition). What if we created a community in which organizations

and institutions shared resources, one in which the walls of the

buildings weren’t metaphors for institutional boundaries and isolation?

In a community committed to collaborating on a community-wide

level, vast resources could be pooled and multiple opportunities

developed to provide a rich and multifaceted set of experiences. This

would be a new kind of community, focused on working together

to enrich the lives of all of its members as Americans and Jews.

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he Infrastructure of the Educational Collaborative

Of course, a revolution like the one envisioned would never

be possible without an intricate and substantive infrastructure

working behind the scenes. While many details of this

infrastructure will necessarily evolve along with the community,

a few key prerequisite components are discussed below:

Professionals: In our new community, professionals connected to

institutions (sub-communities) would not work in isolation from

one another but would collaborate across institutional boundaries.

Why? Because members of sub-communities whom professionals

serve will also be members of the collective community and will

have the opportunity to learn and nurture their identity in multiple

domains. Therefore, educators will need to work across institutional

boundaries to ensure that community members have access to the

breadth and depth of opportunities that the community can provide.

This will require a set of master teachers: those individuals who have

the ability to weave together Jewish value concepts with Jewish tradition

and heritage, and who can inspire their learners to want to be engaged

in living those Jewish values. We will need to nurture expert educators

who have the knowledge and ability to engage people across the life

span. Congregations, day schools, summer camps, JCCs, youth groups

and other organizations have many outstanding educators. However,

the current structure is one in which such talent is isolated in many

different institutions, spreading them too thinly across the community.

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Typically people are educated within a single institution and therefore

are rarely exposed to the great talent that exists in the larger community.

The sad truth is the current structure requires too many educators,

many of whom are not capable of inspiring people and engaging them

in meaningful experiences. This problem could be eased by facilitating

the opportunity for master educators to teach in multiple domains,

together with other master educators. Developing and investing in a

network of master educators will create a powerful incentive for talented

people to live and work in a community and it will enable the best

educators to be employed in a more full time capacity by the community.

As noted above, in order to take advantage of the full array of

opportunities available, the community will need to create a new

professional position: an Educational Guide. These professionals will be

responsible for getting to know each individual and family. Some of the

Guides will be connected to a particular sub-community while others

will be employed by the community at large. They will be fully informed

of all of the educational opportunities available in the community at

large, both through regular interactions with professional colleagues

from around the community and through access to an online resource

that is kept up to date on a daily basis with accurate information.

Community-Based Administration: Numerous aspects of the

Collaborative, such as the creation and oversight of the catalogue,

staff training and the development of comprehensive evaluation

instruments, will need to be centrally administered in order to operate

effectively. This center will develop new programming, as well as

respond to issues and challenges that arise. It will need to ensure that

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the programs offered will be high quality and cutting edge. It should be

governed by a board of lay volunteers and professionals representing a

broad cross-section of the community. The combination of grass roots

lay volunteers and Jewish professionals working together to oversee the

health and welfare of the collaborative educational system will guarantee

a high level of support and guidance from the community at large.

Funding: Programs, courses and experiences will need to be offered on

an a la carte basis or as part of an annual fee. The annual fee could be

structured such that it includes some free programming, membership

in the system at large, and discounts for everything else. The money

would follow the learner, so that the money one person pays into the

system would be divided amongst the programs and institutions that

the person engages in over the course of a given year. That would

allow funds to be distributed throughout the system. In addition, the

a la carte fee available for each and every program would encourage

those for whom institutional membership is a barrier, to participate

in high quality Jewish educational programming. Institutions could

offer multi-tiered fee structures, basing the cost of membership on the

services one wants in a given year. We would expect that this could

be a hardship for some institutions over the short run. However, if we

can significantly increase the number of people engaging in Jewish

activities, then over the long term more money, more donors, and

more overall participation would be the likely outcome. Consider

this in light of the declining membership and donor base in most

American Jewish communities today. Clearly the overall finances of

the system need to be studied by business leaders and entrepreneurs

in order to analyze the impact of different funding models.

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Institutional Change: We cannot expect institutions to adopt such a

new and different approach to membership, community, and education

without a great deal of groundwork and preparation. We must create

a dynamic developmental process, a road map which enables each

institution to grow and change at a pace that is uniquely suited to its

own personality. This will require the engagement of organizational

development professionals with expertise in institutional change

and transformation, as well as educational consultants who can help

to shape the institution’s programmatic vision, goals, and strategies.

As each institution (sub-community) goes through this process,

it will create unique areas of educational specialization that it can

offer to the community at large. The educational infrastructure of

each sub-community may shrink, but each will focus their resources

on more limited areas of expertise. It will entail the engagement of

the new Educational Guides and it will require the re-training of

many of the community’s educators. While this process will not

be easy at first, with sufficient investment of time and resources

many institutions will achieve success in this new paradigm,

with the ability to reach more people in more meaningful ways.

onclusion: A New Evolution in Jewish Life

After the Israelites arrived at Mount Sinai and they heard the divine

voice and saw the lightning and smoke around the mountain, they

built the golden calf. God responded by exiling them into the desert.

Over a 40 year period the Israelites transformed themselves from a

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rag tag group of ex-slaves into a People. After the political-religious

leadership of the ancient priesthood had been corrupted by money and

power, Rabbinic Judaism emerged. The greatest and most influential

Jewish text, the Talmud, evolved as a direct outcome of the destruction

of the Second Temple and the dispersion of the Jewish People.

From medieval philosophy to Jewish mysticism, from the rise of

Jewish denominationalism to the creation of the first Jewish state in

2,000 years, we are a People that adapts and changes – we transform

ourselves. And we do so by learning from the past and creating a

new future. Each epoch that we have mentioned is marked by the

creation of new and exciting texts and institutions that formed the

foundation for the future communities that were created. This value

– that individuals, communities and a whole people can, by learning

from their past, evolve into something greater – lies at the very

heart of our heritage and our tradition. American Jewry has seen

breathtaking successes, built magnificent edifices and helped to make

the world a better place for itself, for Jews throughout the world, as

well as for oppressed people around the globe. It has been a critical

partner with Israel in helping it to evolve into a modern democratic

state that is a haven for all Jews as well as an economic powerhouse.

There were two powerful and lasting Jewish communities after the

destruction of the second Temple, one in Eretz Yisrael (the Land of

Israel) and the other in Babylonia. Today, the Jewish populations of

Israel and America combined comprise 85% of world Jewry. It is time

to establish our rightful place as the full partner with Israel in creating

vibrant and compelling Jewish experiences for Jews throughout the

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world. Jewish life must take place both within and beyond the walls

of the institutions. Jewish values and traditions must be interpreted in

ways that make our lives as moderns richer and more meaningful, and

they must transcend the narrow definition of religion that has come

to characterize our understanding of Judaism in the modern period.

As the 21st century unfolds, we must take full advantage of what

the American Jewish community has achieved. Building on our

extraordinary successes, it is time to take another step forward to

transform ourselves once again, and by doing so strengthen Jewish

identity and expand Jewish communal affiliation throughout the world.

Let us find ways to create collaborative communities in which our major

investments are in the best resources that are shared across institutional

and organizational boundaries. Let us move beyond our primary

affiliations with organizations and institutions and find a way to embrace

community as a whole. When we do that, we will have many more Jews

involved in many more Jewish experiences and we will achieve the goal

of transforming Jewish life and creating a new future for world Jewry.

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Notes1. We believe that every great culture has a distinct set of values.

While the individual values may overlap between one culture

and the next, the way the values are understood and the

way they are experienced by members of the community

makes the set of them distinct to that particular group.

2. Leonard Saxe, U.S. Jewry 2010: Estimates of the Size and

Characteristics of the Population, Cohen Center for Modern Jewish

Studies; December, 2010 pg. 8.

3. National Jewish Population Survey 2000, Section II Jewish

Connections, or the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life: US

Religious Landscape Survey.

4. Mordecai Kaplan, Judaism as a Civilization pg. 345.

5. For a fascinating analysis of this topic, please see The Art of Choosing

by Sheena Iyengar. Hachette Book Group 2010.

6. John Dewey, My Pedagogic Creed School Journal vol. 54 (January

1897), pp. 77-80.

7. Isa Aron. 32 Tikkun vol. 4, No. 3.

8. Aron, Ibid.

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AcknowledgementsThis work is the outcome of a collaboration that I have been

engaged in with JoHanna Potts over the past 5 years and reflects our

perspectives on the American Jewish community. I would like to

thank the entire staff and the Board of Directors of the Partnership

for Jewish Life and Learning. In particular, I would like to thank

JoHanna Potts, Barry Krasner and Dr. Meredith Woocher for reading

and re-reading every draft of this monograph and always offering

thoughtful and insightful suggestions. I also want to thank Adva

Priso, David Lewis and Jessie Nathans for production and design.

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About the AuthorDr. James Hyman is Chief Executive

Officer for the Partnership for Jewish

Life and Learning.

Dr. Hyman has served the Jewish

community in a variety of roles for over

25 years. Prior to joining the Partnership,

he served as Director of Education

for the Mandel Foundation, North

America, developing new initiatives for

Foundation programs and partnerships

in Jewish communities throughout North America.

Formerly, Dr. Hyman was Director, Leadership Development Program

and Adjunct Professor at the Jewish Theological Seminary. At the New

Teacher Center at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Dr. Hyman

was Co-Director, New Teacher Initiative: Mentoring New Teachers in

Jewish Day Schools.

Dr. Hyman received an MA and PhD from the Department of Religion

at Stanford University, and an MA from The Institute for Contemporary

Jewry of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Dr. Hyman is also an

ordained rabbi.

Dr. Hyman lives in Potomac, MD with his wife, Jessie Nathans, and

their two children.

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