Big Tent Judaism

How small gestures can make a powerful difference in our Jewish journeys

The following is a guest post written by one of our summer interns, Addie Cunniff, to whom we are grateful for dedicating a tremendous amount of time helping to get our “Color Me Calendar for the Jewish New Year” program into more communities this coming fall than ever before:

The opportunity to spend my summer as a college intern at JOI came at a time of transition in my own connection to Jewish life and engagement. During my sophomore year at Middlebury College, I began to explore what a personal relationship with Judaism would look like. I profoundly benefitted from Middlebury’s own efforts towards outreach and inclusion, and was thus overjoyed to begin work at JOI. I hoped to use the summer as a time to explore JOI’s vision of a more open and inclusive Jewish community.

After spending my summer speaking with more than one hundred Jewish communal professionals and lay leaders about community outreach and inclusive, low-barrier programming, the enthusiasm for outreach is apparent. These communities from all across North America are anxious to add exciting outreach initiatives to their year’s calendar. They are also conscious of the challenges involved in introducing Jewish life to unengaged families and individuals.

How do we introduce the Jewish community without being overwhelming? What parts of Jewish life should we emphasize? How can we be most helpful? Color-Me Calendar for the Jewish New Year, JOI’s Public Space Judaism activity for families with young children, saw incredible interest in only a short amount of time this summer. It is this kind of eagerness that was exciting and encouraging.

However, enthusiasm does not necessarily translate to a clear understanding of what inclusive programming involves. JOI’s vision of an inclusive Jewish community causes synagogues, community centers, and Jewish organizations to ask different questions than they may have previously. How can our programming step outside of Jewish spaces like synagogues and JCCs? What does a taste of Judaism look like? Where do people go during their daily lives and how might we meet them at these locations?

Let me be clear that this is not a shortcoming of the Jewish communities with which I spoke. It is challenging to imagine yourself on the periphery of Jewish life when you are already deeply involved. Principles of inclusive programming are not always obvious or natural to those planning events. Personally, it took time after beginning work at JOI to understand what “inclusive” truly means.

It took time to articulate how my own journey into Jewish life was aided by many of JOI’s principles of inclusion. Coming from an intermarried family that had few positive affiliations with formal Jewish engagement, it was not until college that I felt connected to a Jewish community in a significant way. It was the small gestures of my school’s Hillel, its efforts to create low-barrier Shabbat services, know me by name in and outside of the Jewish center’s walls, and be welcoming to any question, that caused me to become a bat mitzvah during my sophomore year. Only now do I fully understand how much was left to be desired in my own family’s experience and how small gestures like a greeting hello and a follow-up contact can mean a positive introduction to a lifetime of engagement.

I can’t thank the staff at JOI enough for reminding me of this lesson, encouraging me that the Jewish community is excited to open its tent to all those interested in Jewish life, and inspiring me to work towards fostering a more welcoming community. I feel truly privileged to have spent my summer as part of the JOI family and to have learned from a group of people that reflects the goals it works to achieve.

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