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Return to JOI Newsletter homepage
The Newsletter of the Jewish Outreach Institute
January/February 2011
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| Best of JOI Blogs |
The Biggest Divide in the Jewish Community
Writing in the Huffington Post, JOI associate executive director Paul Golin argues that we need to spend more time bridging the gap between those on the inside and those on the outside of the Jewish community.
Thanking Women of Other Backgrounds Raising Jewish Children
The Mothers Circle, our program for women of other backgrounds raising Jewish children, was the subject of a feature story in the Huffington Post.
Doing More than Opening Doors
Writing in the Forward, Edgar Bronfman suggests the Jewish community should do more than simply open doors to newcomers in the Jewish community. We should, he writes, "reach out to them."
Making the Right Decision on the Israeli Conversion Bill
Lynn Schusterman wrote an impassioned open letter on eJewishPhilantrhopy.com urging Israeli lawmakers to pass a conversion bill that stand as symbol of what the Jewish community can be: an inclusive space for Jews no matter what path brought them into the Jewish people.
Sharing the Lights of Hanukkah
Thanks to an exciting initiative of our Big Tent Judaism Coalition, thousands of newcomers to Jewish life celebrated Hanukkah this year in a whole new way. Our Hanukkah Newcomers Guide, a laminated holiday instruction card to help those on the periphery of Jewish life celebrate Hanukkah, reached over 8,000 people in over 100 communities throughout North America!
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| Dear Reader, |
In this issue of Inside JOI, we are thrilled to share with you details of our upcoming conference, Judaism2030: A Working Conference for a Vibrant Jewish Future.  This conference will bring together forward-thinking visionaries with on-the-ground practitioners from organizations across denominational and institutional lines to discuss the big ideas that will shape the Jewish community for the next generation.
What do we want the North American Jewish community to look like in the year 2030? What concrete actions need to take place for our optimistic vision of a unified and inclusive Jewish community to come true? From May 23-24 in New York City, Jewish communal professionals and volunteer leaders will explore these questions and more. Together we will come up with strategies to ensure that we remain a vibrant and positive force in the world. Attendees will return to their organizations with a fresh perspective and clearer direction, along with concrete plans, to go beyond what exists today to help grow the Jewish community for tomorrow.
For more information and details, please visit www.Judaism2030.org or email Harriet Lewis at HLewis@joi.org. We hope to see you there!
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| Jewish Spirituality in 2030 |
What Jewish Spirituality Will Look Like in Twenty Years
By Yael Shy
Sit down. Close your eyes. Feel your body in your chair, just as
it is. Locate your breath - the gentle inhale and exhale. Allow your mind and body to settle. When your thoughts take your attention in a million directions, careening into memories, planning, stories, grudges, re-enanctments, predictions, and fantasies, just notice, and bring your attention back to your breath. Repeat again, and again, and again.
What do these meditation instructions have to do with Judaism, and why are they valuable for the next generation of Jewish life?
For me, meditation has offered the precious gift of allowing me to see and experience life as it is, instead of how I wish or think it should be. It has helped me to connect to the still center of the present moment, even as the forces of stress, anxiety, suffering and anger swirl around and through me. This still, silent place, the Tanakh tells us, is none other than the Divine. It is the Eternal One. To understand this on an intellectual level is not the same as feeling the electric charge of divine connection within one’s core, or the softening overflow within one’s heart. In my experience, Jewish meditation offers the technology to open our sense doors to these experiences by growing our inner sanctuaries large enough to hold the full range of human emotions. Benefits of this practice include more kindness, compassion, connection, and love in our interactions with ourselves and others. Jewish meditation is, at its very essence, a sustainable practice of Tikkun Olam.
And it cannot happen soon enough. Less and less young Jews are joining synagogues or formally affiliating with a Jewish community. The recent S3K study from the Synagogue Studies Institute found, however, that these young Jews are not rejecting Judaism. They are instead seeking authentic spiritual experiences that speak to their everyday lives. I see Jewish meditation practices as providing those critical connections for the next generation – both in synagogues and outside of them.
In a workshop session entitled “Embodying Judaism: Using the Mind and Body to Reclaim the Spirit,” we will learn some meditation and mindfulness practices that facilitate our natural spaciousness and connection with the Divine. This will be followed by a discussion in which we will explore what role, if any, mindfulness should have in the Judaism of 2030
In sharing our vision of what spirituality will look like in 20 years, I hope those in attendance will not only come to a greater understanding of what connectedness will mean to the future of our community, but also learn concrete techniques to see the breath and the body as vehicles for deepening Jewish practice in our daily life.
Yael Shy is the Director of The Spirituality Project at New York University (www.thespiritualityproject.org) and was named one of the Jewish Week’s 36 Jews under 36 transforming Jewish life in America in 2010.
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| Helping to Plan Judaism2030 |
Shaping the Next Twenty Years
By Meredith Jacobs
"It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine." - REM
The Judaism of my childhood does not exist any more. Twenty years ago, I did not even considervisiting my college's Hillel. I  can't even comment why. I knew nothing of what it offered; a statement that speaks volumes.
Twenty years ago, we belonged to traditional synagogues and went to the same type of Hebrew School as our grandfathers. You could tell who was Jewish by the way he or she looked. "It was a shanda to marry a shiksa."
Today our community is multi-cultural, multi-racial, multi-denominational and multi-media. Innovative organizations like Hillel, Birthright, JDub, G-dcast, JOI, InterfaithFamily, MyJewishLearning and even JDate have changed the landscape and discovered new ways to engage and connect. This is not your Bubbe's Judaism.
But what will Judaism be when I am Bubbe? What will Jewish life be for my grandchildren?
Judaism has survived because of our ability to change while holding fast to our core. But our success relies on our being pro-active in our response, in our ability to be one step ahead. Things are so different now. We have social networks, independent movements, and injured philanthropies. How do we keep pace with our changing social, spiritual and economic environments? How do we stay relevant in order to stay vibrant?
We begin by having the discussion. We begin by putting the best minds together and we begin by giving them the sacred time and space to think. This is what the Jewish Outreach Institute (JOI) is doing on May 23-24 at the Judaism2030 conference (www.Judaism2030.org). They will be exploring topics like globalism, belonging, peoplehood and spirituality with the foremost thinkers and do-ers (from Jewish teens to rabbis) in the Jewish community. It is an exciting and challenging opportunity and I am honored and thrilled and humbled to be part of the team that worked to put this program together and more honored and thrilled and humbled to be an attendee of the conference.
When Rabbi Olitzky asked if I would be interested in being part of the Judaism2030 conference planning committee I didn’t hesitate to say yes. I wanted to be part of the process, part of the thinking and shaping of our future. But the actual conference calls surpass what I had imagined. The ideas and subjects of what we need to consider at the conference are deep and thoughtful and purposeful. It is shaping up to be a conference that promises to inspire.
But this is not a conference for listeners. It is a conference for those who can act on the ideas generated by the conference. It is a conference for those who will shape the next twenty years.
I look forward to meeting you in May!
Meredith Jacobs is an author, columnist, and co-editor of the website www.ModernJewishMom.com.
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Judaism2030 Schedule Highlights |
Judaism2030 is scheduled in a unique format that will allow some of the leading thinkers in Jewish life to work directly with on-the-ground practitioners to identify future trends that will impact our  community. The conference will move from theoretical "vision sessions" to practical applications to the development of both communal and individual plans for implementation. Four broad themes - Spirituality, Belonging, Globalism, and Peoplehood - will be investigated, providing conference attendees an opportunity to tackle some of the most substantial issues facing the Jewish community today. Through these in-depth discussions, we will discover what needs to take place for our optimistic vision of a flourishing Jewish community to come true.
Presenters include:
- Dr. Marvin Cetron, one of the preeminent forecaster-futurists in the world, will lead the keynote session on what the future might look like and where we might fit it;
- Ruth Messinger, CEO of the American Jewish World Service, will speak about the responsibility Jews have to the world;
- Dr. Jonathan Woocher, Chief Ideas Officer of JESNA and Director of the Lippman Kanfer Institute, will share his impressions of how we can use an understanding of "peoplehood" to create the future we want for the Jewish community;
- Roger Bennet from the Andrea & Charles Bronfman Philanthropies; Andy Bachman from Brooklyn Jews; Shawn Landres from Jumpstart; Esther Safran Foer from Sixth & I Historic Synagogue; Daniel Sieradski from Repair the World; Idit Klein from Keshet, and many, many more!
Sessions Include:
- On the Future of Jewish Spirituality: Five Spiritual Thinkers, Ten Minutes Each, GO! Structured
 in the TED model, presenters will spend 5-10 minutes explaining their vision of spirituality now and in 20 years in the Jewish community;
- What "Belonging" Meant in Our Past, What it Means Today, and What it Might Mean in 2030. A dialogue between a historian to provide an overall historical Jewish perspective and psychologist to provide a psychological perspective to belonging;
- The Future Speaks: A Panel of Jewish Teenagers Share Their Hopes and Expectations for What "Peoplehood" Will Mean When They Are Communal Leaders;
- Engaging the Jewish Community in the Global Community - While Enriching Both. Presenters will cover such topics as Tikkun Olam (repairing the world), environmentalism, baby boomers, social action and entrepreneurship, and funding.
Click Here to see the complete schedule, list of presenters, and find information on how to register!
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| Other JOI Highlights |
JOI Welcomes New President to our Board of Directors
Mitchell H. Shames of Newton, MA, has accepted the unanimous election by the board of directors of JOI to the position of President, effective as of January 1, 2011. Having previously served as a member of JOI's board of directors, Shames said, "It is a great honor to accept this responsibility. The Jewish Outreach Institute addresses the biggest challenges facing the North American Jewish community in the 21st Century. How do we truly 'Welcome the Stranger' as our sacred texts command us, by welcoming those who have traditionally been marginalized such as intermarried families, Jews of Color, GLBT, and so forth? The 'borders' between the Jewish community and a majority of American society have mostly disappeared; how do we ensure that the entry doors into our community are open as wide as the exits? Those are the great challenges we at JOI are privileged to work on."
Shames replaces Alan B. Kane, who is stepping down after nearly three years as President. "Alan leaves behind a great legacy and we are grateful for the leadership and vision he brought to his role as president," said Rabbi Kerry M. Olitzky, executive director of the Jewish Outreach Institute. "Under Alan's leadership we have been able to expand our reach and touch the lives of countless unaffiliated Jews, intermarried families and others who otherwise would have no connection to Jewish life. We are certain that Mitchell will successfully build upon Alan's work and carry JOI to new heights."
JOI Director of Training Eva Stern Honored with Prestigious Award
JOI Director of Training Eva Stern was recently named as the winner of the Young Professional Award of the Jewish Communal Service Association (JCSA) - the most prestigious honor for young professionals in the Jewish community. Eva and David were chosen for the award due to their "innovative leadership that stretched boundaries and challenged colleagues to further excellence," said Howard Charish, co-chair of the JCSA Awards Committee.
Nominated by colleagues and recognized for their integrity, commitment and creativity, we can say with extreme assurance that few people work harder to ensure a dynamic and vibrant Jewish community than Eva Stern. We are certain she will continue to achieve new goals in strengthening the Jewish community and making Jewish life more accessible and inclusive for both present and future generations.
Recognized for Innovation and Impact in the Jewish Community
Every year, a list of the 50 most innovative professionals and organizations in the North America Jewish community is released in a directory called Slingshot, a Guide to Jewish Innovation. First published in 2005, we are proud to announce that JOI was chosen to be included in this year's edition, which marks the fourth time we've been featured in Slingshot.
JOI was once again chosen to be a part of the directory for our innovation, impact, leadership and organizational effectiveness. This is a great honor, as it is a continuing recognition and confirmation of the steps we are taking to help grow and strengthen the Jewish community, particularly amongst unaffiliated Jews and intermarried families who are looking for community and meaning.
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| You Can Help! |
We believe "outreach" is about the organized community giving, not asking, so all JOI programming is free to participants. However, these programs still require resources. If you are already engaged in the Jewish community and consider it important to reach those who are not yet benefiting from all our community has to offer, we ask that you please support our work by making a financial contribution. Thank you for your generosity and commitment.
Check: Please make your check payable to the Jewish Outreach Institute and mail to:
1270 Broadway, Suite 609, New York, NY 10001.
Online: Please give with a credit card online at our website, www.JOI.org/help.
Questions? Please contact, Rabbi Kerry M. Olitzky, Executive Director, at: KOlitzky@JOI.org or call 212.760.1440.
The Jewish Outreach Institute is a 501(C)3 non-profit organization and contributions are tax deductible in accordance with the law.
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© 2011 Jewish Outreach Institute (JOI.org). JOI is a national, independent, nondenominational organization dedicated to creating a more inclusive Jewish community toward all who would join us, especially intermarried families and disengaged Jews, by working to transform existing institutions and by creating new programs when necessary.
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