Big Tent Judaism

JOI and UJC partner on training

Earlier this summer, JOI’s Associate Executive Director Paul Golin and I traveled to Chicago to speak at the United Jewish Communities (UJC) Continuing Professional Education seminar. We spoke to over 30 professionals from more than a dozen communities about “Reaching Out and Welcoming In.”

Beginning our day with a discussion of the demographic imperatives of North American Jewry, we focused in on what it means to create an inclusive Jewish community, identifying the relationship between engagement and affiliation. During our main morning workshop, we facilitated a session on transforming the “inside” of a Jewish institution to better welcome in newcomers; helping participants identify and lower barriers to participation; work on making the entry points to their Jewish community as welcoming as possible; and creating and nurturing meaningful relationships.

The afternoon session delved into elements of Public Space Judaism –- JOI’s signature outreach methodology of bringing Judaism to people where they are through programs and marketing. We ended our day with a focus on the community transformation initiative (CTI), explaining how all elements of the training could be integrated into a tailored and comprehensive initiative for individual Jewish communities.

We look forward to seeing a number of participants again at our conference in October! UJC is now working to offer more resources to professionals focusing on outreach and we at JOI look forward to continuing our partnership and helping Jewish communities grow!

Judaism Must Embrace Its “Outsiders”

We were thrilled to see that Adam Bronfman’s Op/Ed entitled “Let’s Put Out A Communal Welcome Mat” was published in today’s Forward Jewish newspaper. In it, he champions the various positions shared by JOI, including and most prominently Big Tent Judaism:

I believe in the concept of big-tent Judaism, one in which anyone interested in learning about and expressing Judaism is welcome. I also believe that a majority of Jewish communal professionals and lay leaders share this vision…. The challenge is to put this ideal into practical application across a wider segment of the community.

Since the Forward chose to edit the Op/Ed, we wanted to include the full text here, especially including where Adam mentions that JOI will be launching the Big Tent Judaism advocacy campaign and Coalition for an Inclusive Jewish Community at our upcoming national conference in Washington, DC next month—for which we are grateful to have Adam as co-chair. If you are interested in learning more about Big Tent Judaism, let us know. You will be hearing much more about it soon!

Here’s the original text of Adam Bronfman’s Op/Ed:

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