Third Annual Leadership Workshop - Mission Alignment
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Second: Jewish literacy or competency. Our members are some of the most secularly educated Jews ever to have walked the planet – sophisticated, engaged, successful professionals. And yet in terms of Jewish literacy or competency, for many if not most of us, our formal Jewish education ended at our bar or bat mitzvah. How do I say Kiddush? How do I find my way through a prayer book? Can I read Hebrew? How do I talk about the Torah reading with my children at my Shabbat table? What is this upcoming holiday of Shavuot about anyway? The rabbi keeps mentioning it, but I don’t know much about it, never mind if there are any special customs connected to it. In some respects we are that proverbial fourth child who does not even know how to ask the question. Our challenge is how to model a traditional expression of Jewish life that educates and empowers those seeking souls who need a point of access, an on-ramp to the riches of our tradition. We need to create a warm, authentic, and non-judgmental culture that embraces every Jew’s journey – in much the same way that Chabad does so well. Introductory classes, opportunities for private tutorials, home study groups – not only for children, but also for their parents and grandparents.
Third: shifting boundaries. Who is a Jew, how does someone become a Jew, and what is our approach to the non-Jew in our Jewish family? The statistics speak for themselves. Seventy percent of all non-Orthodox weddings are to someone who is not born Jewish. I have spoken about this many times in the last few years, but it all comes down to the same point: Our synagogue must operate on the possibility that your children, my children, our children may fall in love with someone who is not Jewish, and because we love those children, and we want their homes to be Jewish homes, our communal attitude and approach must reflect that. We need a three-step approach. First, we unapologetically message the value of endogamy, of marrying a Jewish partner. Second, if our children fall in love with a non-Jew, which they are statistically likely to do, we make the invitation to Jewish life as embracing as possible, through introduction to Judaism classes, conversion classes, a rabbi’s mentorship, the ritual of mikveh. Our efforts in this regard are under Rabbi Zuckerman’s leadership but are really the responsibility of us all. And third, if and when a non-Jewish partner chooses not to convert (and there are many thoughtful reasons why that may not be an option), then we make our community as embracing of that non-Jewish partner as possible – an effort that begins by understanding their needs and the needs of their interfaith family. This is not your grandparents’ Jewish community. The boundaries are shifting, and we need to be strongly positioned to meet our future.
Fourth: the universal and the particular. As Jews our sightlines are directed both internally at our own parochial needs and externally toward the world at large. We are attentive to and remember our own particular history and destiny, but we also remember that to be Jewish is to be a light unto the nations. We were once strangers in a strange land, and so we are attentive to the condition of the stranger in our midst. But how do we balance it? How shall we tend to our own needs and also be responsive to the refugee, the cry of the poor, the hungry, those seeking access to education, healthcare, and human rights? The challenge is not just theoretical but practical. A synagogue is not a political action committee; there are legal considerations and, more importantly, communal ones that would counsel against turning our community into a political platform. And yet, as any study of American Jewry will tell you, the fastest on-ramp to Jewish life, especially for the millennial generation, is social justice/tikkun olam, a belief that our Judaism speaks with a relevance to issues of the day. In other words, we need to be a community of activism not just because our prophetic conscience demands that we do justice, but also because it is good congregational practice. We must strike a balance between the particular and the universal – carefully, thoughtfully, and always with an eye to communal strength and cohesion.
Fifth and finally: Israel. We are living through a fascinating and troubling time when it comes to the Jewish state. Especially on a day like today – Yom Yerushalayim – we must always remember the miracle that is the modern Jewish state, the threats it faces, and the opportunity and obligation we have as American Jews to be its advocate. Through education, travel, the Hebrew language, music, and otherwise, Israel can and should be the great unifier of our people. And yet, we also know that because Israel is a sovereign state, no different than any other state, it also has imperfections, imperfections that can cause a rift within our American Jewish family. The very thing that has the potential to bring us together is a toxic political football that risks pulling us apart. Moreover, and on this I have spoken many times, it is a bitter irony that the Judaism of our community, the Judaism that demands us to engage and to advocate on Israel’s behalf, is not considered Jewish by the state of Israel. Our rabbis, not rabbis; our marriages, not marriages; our conversions, not conversions; our Judaism, not Judaism. It is a state of affairs that is not sustainable. How long will , American Jewry continue to fight for an Israel that appears not to love us as much as we love it? It is not an easy challenge. It is our responsibility to articulate a “New American Zionism,” namely, how to be unceasing supporters of Israel in light of all its political and religious complexities and imperfections.
Five concerns. My hope is that while we may not have all the answers tonight, by identifying the issues we can, as in a good therapy session, at least begin asking the right questions and formulating a response. In other words, that we can align our mission with the critical conversations we face. Not every effort addresses, or needs to address one of these issues – but these are the broad categories of our concern. I hope these reflections also enable us to think in terms of our synagogue’s mission statement. To be a community that “seeks to inspire, educate, and support our membership towards living passion-filled Jewish lives – connected to each other, to Torah, to God, to the people and state of Israel and our shared humanity.” Tonight’s goal is to take these five categories, to consider our mission, and then to do the most important thing of all: to build a compelling and welcoming community for our membership and for those who seek entry into the riches of our tradition.
A final point: Thus far I have spoken about content – about the “what” of Jewish life, if you will. In the years ahead, we must also turn to the “how,” namely, how we communicate our offerings. Whether it is ordering from Seamless, signing up for a class, getting news, or ordering new contact lenses, I do it from my iPhone. We need to put the goods and services of our synagogue into the hands of our members no differently than they receive all their information. Whether it is our publications, our website, maybe one day a PAS app, we need to transform our communications to meet the needs of the ever-changing community we serve not only in the present but in the future. It is a big project, it won’t happen overnight. But know that it is already a congregational priority, and there are great people, lay and professional, already working on it.
Friends, I didn’t choose to live in this time and place and neither did you, but we do. I believe it is a time of unprecedented opportunity. Yes, there are anxieties, but to be a flagship synagogue means to be eyes wide open to where we are and to formulate the answers for the community we serve. As a friend recently said to me, “Elliot – You have to hit the ball where it lies.” We know what needs to be done, let’s line up our shot, breathe deeply, and take a big swing. This is our moment; let’s take full advantage.