Bronfman Grant Application


Charles Bronfman has challenged the Jewish community to come up with the next big idea to transform the way the Jewish community thinks about itself.


Before one can come up with this idea, one must tackle an even more important question.


Why be Jewish?


All people desire meaning and purpose in their life. If they don’t find it in Judaism, they will find it elsewhere.


For Judaism to survive into the next century we must come up with a compelling answer to this question of existence. Survival for survival’s sake, or survival to satisfy a prior generation’s feelings of nostalgia, is no longer sufficient to drive identification. So much of Jewish energy today is related to technique and organization. Very little thought is put into Theology. My concept is to develop a theology that will be both transformative and unifying; a system of thought that will bring the Jewish community together in the post denominational world.


Why be Jewish?


This question was put to a group of Jewish intellectuals, artists, and Zionists by Martin Buber in 1914. At the time, there was a burning question as to how one should express Jewish identity in the modern world. Today, that question is even stronger. Now, the question of Jewish existence is not one of expression, but rather, whether to exist at all.


If we listen to Buber’s answer at the time, it might just possibly give us some direction. “Jewishness should be a present reality. (Today) the religion is a memory, perhaps also a hope, but not a present reality. The Age of the Torah, the prophets, even early Chassidism has been followed by no genuine life of fervor that bears witness to G-d and makes out of truth a divine reality because it is lived in his name. There is a profession of faith, of monotheistic humanism, but no fulfillment.” (Buber 1914)


Today we have a lot of monotheistic humanism. Judaism is almost synonymous with humanism. But, where is the fervor?


The goal of modern Judaism has been to create a lifestyle that brings holiness into the modern world, a world of science and truth. To accomplish this task, all outmoded rabbinic legislation had to pass the test of reason, morality, and modernity to be acceptable. If, however, modernity is the ultimate judge of our behavior, one questions why a particularistic faith and identity is needed at all.


Is then the only answer to fall back to an insulated traditional world? Regardless of the fervor, most people today would not be willing to make that trade. Much of the Orthodox world, whether accurately or not, is perceived as being caught up in empty ritual, creating a never ending series of Chumras that escalate the demands of the religion. The outer manifestations may be strong, but, what kind of inner justification exists? The secular contributions of Art, Science, Literature, and Knowledge, these would be too great to give up for religious fervor.


So, where does that leave us? I suggest looking back to the great philosophers. Take Hermann Cohen for example. His message can be synthesized down to a few key points. “Religion is the infinite task of closing the gap between what “is” and what “ought”. (Cohen, 1919) Rather than starting with creation or revelation, two areas that present difficulty for the modern Western mind, Cohen starts with the idea of redemption. “The world is lousy and must be made better”(Cohen 1919). Awareness of an ideal and that one’s behavior falls short is much different than the anti-nominism of historical reform.


Yet, if religion is only about making the world a better place, morality should suffice. For Cohen, the special task of religion over ethics is to supply a sense of individuality. Ethics is abstract – universal. In a moral system, the “I” of man becomes the “I” of humanity. The “other” is seen as a concept. Religion takes the individual out of being a concept and makes them a person. This is the difference between the “I – it” and “I-thou”. The “I - thou” paradigm is set up between the relationship of man and G-d. Ethics recognizes the other as “he”, an end, not a means, but not yet an individual. Religion recognizes the other as “thou”. In Judaism the suffering of the other is the source of transformation of the “I – it” to “I – he” and “I-thou.” Thru religion passion becomes the source of compassion.


Moral action requires the possibility of redemption. A person must take responsibility for their own failings. “The self is not a given entity, but an ideal towards which we must always strive.” Sin is a means to redemption. Liberation from sin becomes the goal and only through the attainment of that goal can a new “I” be begotten. The possibility of self transformation makes the individual an “I”.


These ideas are so much more powerful than techniques. They have the power to be transformative. Why be Jewish? Because it is the best means available by which to make the world a better place. It is the means of making what “is” an “ought”. The person must realize that they are not a given entity but an ideal. Think of living one’s life on the way to an ideal? This idea is something that can capture the imagination of the next generation.


Martin Buber takes the idea of the “I – thou” relationship even further. For Cohen, the purpose of religion is to bridge the gap between what “is” and what “ought”, looking at other people as “Thous” is a way to achieve this goal. People are not objects. They are not concepts. Rather, people are unique entities that must be related to in a deep authentic way. Yet, for Buber, these authentic relationships are not means to an end, rather they are an end in themselves. Authentic relationships are in fact the substance of reality.

For what is reality? We are told that man experiences the world. He goes over the surface of things and comes back with impressions. He brings back some knowledge of the world’s condition. But, as Buber explains this “experience” is only made up of “it and it and it” (Buber, 1923). Idealism tells us that reality is something we make in our mind based on our experiences. For Buber, these experiences are actually the foundation of “I-It” alienation. The true fabric of reality lies not in one-sided impressions. No, true reality lies in relationships.

“When one relates to another authentically, he is no longer a he/she limited by other he/shes, a dot in the world grid of space and time, nor a condition to be experienced, a loose bundle of named qualities. Rather this “he” becomes a “you” and fills the firmament and everything with light. There is no experience of “you”, just relation.” (Buber 1923)

Just think how powerful these ideas can be in revitalizing Judaism. Authentic relationships, according to Buber, have the ability to transform the individual. That is essentially what the Jewish community needs, more transformative experiences. These experiences do not require a lot of energy or resources. They can be created simply by loving another with the depths of one’s being.


The beauty of theology is that it doesn’t just transform the individual, it has the ability to transform organizations as well.


Studies show that the Jewish community is pulling away from organized religion. The word “organized” is essential here. Spirituality, G-d, community; these ideas still maintain power. It is the organized Jewish world that is alienating. Rather than following Buber’s directive of pursuing authentic relationships, the Jewish community deals with its constituents as “its”. The institutions have taken on a life of their own, moving by way of inertia. Bureaucracy, rules, and dehumanization is often the experience that accompanies Jewish involvement.


The problem that faces the Jewish community is essentially a disconnect between the reality of its members and the structure of its organizations. Jews today are autonomous. They are looking for meaning on their own terms. A woman called me this week looking for a Hebrew school for her son. She was not interested in the standard communal solution. Her family spends every Friday night together, celebrating Shabbat. She did not want to push away that celebration to attend services. The Temple, for its, part had a requirement that students in their Hebrew school attend a given amount of services. The Synagogue, Temple, Federation, have become professional entities looking out for their own best interests. The interests and motivations of their constituents are secondary at best.


This mother said to me, “I am not looking for a denomination. I am not looking for someone to tell my son, “This is how it is”. I am looking for my son to take responsibility for his own religious journey.” What she is looking for is an authentic relationship.


Institutions, as Buber explains, can be “Golems”. Like clay robots, they no longer know the human being. They bring together people, but, only as objects. Too often, a true sense of community is lacking. “Modern developments have expunged almost every trace of a life in which human beings confront each other and have meaningful relationships”(Buber 1923).


We are lonely and alienated. If Judaism and the Jewish community could confront that problem it would make a practical difference in people’s lives. We can, and must as a community, strive for authenticity.


True authenticity will drive and shape the institutions. As Buber explains, “People come together in true community when all of them stand in a living reciprocal relationship to a single living center.” (Buber 1923) The ever present thou, G-d, provides that center.


Judaism was once a revolutionary faith. Look at the ideas that we have given to Western Culture. Monotheism, the ineffable G-d, a sense of purpose in creation, equality of man, importance of contemplation and leisure in one’s life, care of the environment, responsibility towards one’s neighbor. When other men worshipped objects and conducted human sacrifices, Jews came and permanently changed the world. We must recapture that role as spiritual revolutionaries to the world. We need to change the world.


Let’s reinvigorate Judaism so that it is transformative. The experience with Judaism should transform the individual, organizations, and ultimately society. For too long we have emphasized those elements of Judaism that make us like everyone else. However, our theology, our culture, our families are different. Let’s value that difference.


We don’t believe in Original Sin. We believe in the value of every human being and their ultimate redemption. We don’t believe in Grace. We as humans, hold the key to our redemption. We, not some outside force, must change the world.


I end with my favorite quote from Martin Buber; “The renewal of Judaism means to put aside our dualism between our absolute and relative life in order that the fight for fulfillment might grasp the whole people, that the idea of reality may penetrate everyday, that the SPIRIT may enter into life!!!”


“Only then when Judaism extends itself like a hand and seizes every Jew by the hair of his head and bears him in a storm between heaven and earth towards Jerusalem will the Jewish people be ripe to build itself a new destiny.” (Buber 1914)

Just in Case Jewish Education

Jewish Learning – Just in time or Just in case?
Just how relevant is Jewish Education? One of the solutions advanced to solve the Jewish Diaspora’s continuity crisis, is the strengthening and improvement of Jewish Education. While it is true that the quality of Jewish Education can stand improvement, focusing on the pedagogical quality alone will not be sufficient. Even the best teachers, with the best resources, and the best schools are not able to answer, “Why is this relevant to me?”

As Jewish Educators I think we need to take a step back and ask ourselves, “Why are our students learning this material?” If the students become stars at Hebrew school, what happens? Sadly, the answer all too often is not much. Families rarely attend services. When they do, the services are hard to follow. The new prayer books with their alternate readings mean that no matter how educated a congregant is, they are still going to be dependent on the Rabbi or Cantor to announce the pages.
Once the congregation turns to the right page what happens? The high water mark for Jewish Supplementary School education is decoding. The ability to mumble along incomprehensible syllables is the sole goal for Jewish education. One masters decoding to perform adequately at a Bnei Mitzah. Afterwards, that information can be forgotten. And, If you think those schools that ignore decoding actually focus on real content you are sorely mistaken. The Bnei Mizvot without skills do not suddenly bloom with meaning and spiritual content. The quality of Jewish education barely qualifies as a third grade level experience.

On Birthright this past winter, one of our staff rabbis threw out all of the great theme material we prepared for him. The reason? The student’s had no foundational knowledge. The Rabbi reported,“I asked on the first day, who know’s Abraham? Who is familiar with his story? Not one student answered.”

We could wring our hands and say, “How can someone go through Hebrew school and not know who Abraham was?” But, the real problem is that there is no relevance. Why be Jewish? Why master the skills of prayer and knowledge of ritual? If no one does these things any more, doesn’t studying Judasim become like studying Assyrian culture? Ok, there is some vague value to ethnic identification and nostalgia. But, how many Huguenots are present in America? Should the Judaism that America has created and espoused cause a child to actually care? Why should the student’s care when no one else does.

This is not to say that the Jewish endeavor should be forsaken. There are very important relevant questions that religion can answer in a person’s life. “Why am I here?”, “What is life’s purpose?”, How do I decide what to do?”, “Is there a right and wrong?”.

There are hard questions. “Does G-d exist?”, “Does prayer work?”, “Do we have free choice?”, “Why do bad things happen to good people?”. These questions are hard, but, meaningful. Unless we are prepared to answer these questions, we should stay home. Today’s Jewish students do not need more drills in Adon Olam just in case they ever go to services. Let’s forget ‘Just in case’ and bring some real relevance to the classroom.

Jewish Memorials

Do the living need monuments?
March 8th, 2010
Eliezer Sneiderman

This is a difficult assignment. On one side I see the importance of monuments. Every six months I take a group of college students to Israel. Many of the experiences that we have are interactions with monuments. We go to Cesearea and see a huge Roman amphitheatre and hippodrome; monuments to a dead people. The lesson we draw from the visit is that the modest Jews still live here, while the Romans for all their advancements are gone.

However, we also see Jewish monuments. It seems every battle is commemorated with a monument. Some of these monuments are quite extraordinary. They are elaborate structures based on tremendous forethought and effort.

Here is a picture of the Helicopter memorial. There are 73 boulders here. Each boulder represents one of the soldiers that was lost. The field is planted with red flowers. There is a poem written into one of the stone's that ends, "We shall meet again like red flowers blossoming when the last shot is fired in these hills." The water is also a symbol of life. When the water gets to the memorial field it is trapped by plexiglass, just as the souls of the fallen are trapped. The formal elements of this memorial are partnered with informal elements as well. A path leads visitors from the stone memorial to a small forest, where are group of trees have been decorated by the friends of the fallen. Stones have been painted with the names of each of the soldiers. These stones hang in the trees, a vast network of chimes.

There are other monuments that we see. Herzl's tomb, brutal in its simplicity just four letters. There are the graves of Rabin and his wife, white and black complementary stone structures. One was the victim of a shocking assassination, the other died of natural causes. There is another Rabin memorial at the site of his assassination. Brass markers are stuck in the concrete, marking the standing place of the individuals involved. "How could the killer get that close?" Sometimes, memorial open up questions along with emotions.

The strongest emotions come from Yad V'ashem and the Children's memorial. One candle is reflected off of a series of mirrors to fill an entire dark room with points of light. One gets the feeling that one is walking through space, a type of purgatory, punctuated only by points of light and recited names.

The question is whether a memorial for the Jews can work outside of Israel. In Israel, Jews are the majority. They have taken over all aspects of society. From the heights of the political elite to the lows of petty criminals. In this context a memorial, something marking death and loss or merely the passing of history, seems appropriate.

In the diaspora, monuments take on a macabre quality. Longfellow's poem "Jewish cemetery at Newport" is an example of Jewish monuments amongst the nations. Monuments devoid of a living culture become ancient albatrosses.

"But ah! what once has been shall be no more!
The groaning earth in travail and in pain
Brings forth its races, but does not restore,
And the dead nations never rise again."

A Jewish memorial amongst the nations evokes a sense of gentile triumphalism that strikes me as offensive. My memorial would confront this feeling head on and attempt to shock the community from its complacency. All around us, Jews are disappearing, suffering Sklare's Sociological Death, and the larger Jewish community is not focused on a solution. Jewish education does not have the central place that it deserves.

My memorial would consist of the front doors of synagogues that have closed in the last decade. The doors would be arranged in a circle in a large grassy area. One would open and close a series of doors that would lead one to no where. Beth Shalom, Beth Emeth, Anshe Shalom, etc... Perhaps a brass number, representing the maximum number of congregants that these synagogues had in their heyday. Hopefully, a memorial of this type, installed prematurely, before we reach the level of Newport, will shock the community into action.

Once there were Jews here. Today there is a monument.

Comments at the Delaware Gratz Graduation

Congratulations, you made it. This Graduation is a testament to your dedication towards Jewish education and your parent’s ability to wake you up in the morning.  I feel particularly honored today, because while you are graduating Gratz, I am entering. Next month I begin the Gratz Doctoral program in Jewish Education. So I definitely feel part of the family.

What word’s can I share that will inspire, those that are already inspired? The people in this room are committed to Judaism, Jewish Education, and Jewish Community. They are our hope, our future. The important message is one that needs to reach those that are not in this room.

Last week we saw two major American institutions stumble and falter. Chrysler and GM; if they survive, will be just shadows of their former selves. What happened? How could GM, one of the largest most powerful corporations in the world bring itself to the brink of extinction? It stopped looking towards the future. I concentrated on the moment and forgot that real success is not achieved by meeting the needs of this generation, but by anticipating the needs of the next.

Looking at the Jewish community today, one sees elements of Auto industry hubris. There is constant back slapping over programs delivered, events run, and fundraising goals met. Yet all the while, the hair color in the room fades to grey. Like the auto makers, the next generation is ignored.  The young have little money and communal energy spent on them does not immediately affect the bottom line. Yet, when this generation of Jewish leaders passes on, will there be another to take its place?

The lack of a serious commitment to Jewish education is our global warming and the ice berg melt is not years away, the water is rising now. CAJE, the central agency for Jewish Education, closed its doors this year. Conferences that helped develop generations of Jewish educators will no longer be held. The Boston Bureau of Jewish Education will be closing its doors next month. HUC the seminary of the Reform movement announced that it may have to close two of its campuses, JTS has a 5.5 million budgetary shortfall on this year’s budget alone, even after slashing staff,   and Yeshiva University, ground zero for the Madoff scandal, laid off 60 full time employees. Closer to home Baltimore Hebrew University has ceased functioning as an independent institution and will become part of Towson University. 

From these figures, one would think that we are in the midst of the Great Depression. One would think that there are bread lines and shanty towns. But there are not. There are still billions donated each year by Jewish philanthropists. Yet, while Jewish philanthropists are donating billions of dollars, few of those dollars reach Jewish causes. Fewer still are committed to Jewish Education. Just a slight reallocation of resources could solve all of these problems. It is certainly within our grasp to provide a free Jewish education to everyone who desired one.

But, we have gone from being “the people of the book to “being 'the people of what page are we on?" Most Jews today are content to let others digest and interpret their spiritual life. Judaism is a TShirt, a reference on a Seinfeld rerun, an excuse to raise money, but not something that demands real sacrifice.

But, that is the message for the people that are not here. The people in this room have a commitment to Jewish education. My students in Biblical Hebrew, have in less than a year, mastered translation skills so that they can read the Torah in the original. At Gratz, Jewish identity is not something that someone gives us, it is something that we learn about, struggle with, and interpret on our own.

20 years ago, I thought I would change the world. I thought that a person’s connection to Judaism, hinged on my ability or lack there of to inspire. I bought people Kosher sandwiches so that they won’t eat treif, handed out boxes of Matzo to students on their way to Cancun hoping that they would somehow take a bit of Passover on vacation with them, and I saw every person who walked away from Jewish life as a manifestation of my personal failure.

Today, my goals are more modest. If I can get my son to practice his Bar Mizvah portion, or if I can get my teenaged daughter out of bed I feel like a success. I pass the torch to our graduates. It is your turn to feel the passion, your turn to feel the excitement, your turn to change the world.

You will be entering college next year. No one will be around to wake you up and pull you to Gratz. Will be Judaism be part of your life? Or a memory in your past. As a result of Gratz, you have tools that few others share today. Put them to good use. The Jewish community needs you.

 

Article in local Jewish Newspaper

It’s never too late

The New York Times reported this week that only 7% of applicants were accepted into Harvard this year. In this overly competitive world, the slightest failure or hiccup is seen as derailing a dream. Yet, perfection, it seems, is no longer a guarantee of success. Among those denied were hundreds of students with 800 SATs, years of training, decades of extra curricular activities, an entire life distilled into the contents of an envelope.

At Passover, we should take a look at Moses and reconsider the pressure we put on our children to succeed. Moses, the ultimate Jewish leader, the greatest prophet we have ever had, started with very humble beginnings. The Egyptian society, our sages tell us, was very depraved. Moses was in the thick of it. Raised in the palace of Pharaoh, surrounded by harems, wealth, and idol worship, the chance that he would, one day, literally shine with spirituality was miniscule. Yet, it was Moses, who was our only prophet to have spoken with G-d.

Moses’ life gives us a lesson. It is never too late to make a “success” of ourselves. That potential for spirituality, that potential for connecting to G-d, lies in all of us - even those who appear distant. Moses’ leadership tells us that there is no such thing as “distant.” G-d is ready to connect to what Tikkunei Zohar refers to as the “spark of Moses” in each and every one of us.

So this Passover, concentrate on that G-dly spark that lies deep inside you and let it come out. The light we possess cannot be contained in an envelope or on a paycheck. Lighten up on the youth. In the words of William M. Shain, dean of admissions and financial aid at Bowdoin, “Where we went to college does not set us up for success or keep us away from it.”

Bronfman Grant Application

Charles Bronfman has challenged the Jewish community to come up with the next big idea to transform the way the Jewish community thinks about itself.

Before one can come up with this idea, one must tackle an even more important question.

Why be Jewish?

All people desire meaning and purpose in their life. If they don’t find it in Judaism, they will find it elsewhere.

For Judaism to survive into the next century we must come up with a compelling answer to this question of existence. Survival for survival’s sake, or survival to satisfy a prior generation’s feelings of nostalgia, is no longer sufficient to drive identification. So much of Jewish energy today is related to technique and organization. Very little thought is put into Theology. My concept is to develop a theology that will be both transformative and unifying; a system of thought that will bring the Jewish community together in the post denominational world.

Why be Jewish?

This question was put to a group of Jewish intellectuals, artists, and Zionists by Martin Buber in 1914. At the time, there was a burning question as to how one should express Jewish identity in the modern world. Today, that question is even stronger. Now, the question of Jewish existence is not one of expression, but rather, whether to exist at all.

If we listen to Buber’s answer at the time, it might just possibly give us some direction. “Jewishness should be a present reality. (Today) the religion is a memory, perhaps also a hope, but not a present reality. The Age of the Torah, the prophets, even early Chassidism has been followed by no genuine life of fervor that bears witness to G-d and makes out of truth a divine reality because it is lived in his name. There is a profession of faith, of monotheistic humanism, but no fulfillment.” (Buber 1914)

Today we have a lot of monotheistic humanism. Judaism is almost synonymous with humanism. But, where is the fervor?

The goal of modern Judaism has been to create a lifestyle that brings holiness into the modern world, a world of science and truth. To accomplish this task, all outmoded rabbinic legislation had to pass the test of reason, morality, and modernity to be acceptable. If, however, modernity is the ultimate judge of our behavior, one questions why a particularistic faith and identity is needed at all.

Is then the only answer to fall back to an insulated traditional world? Regardless of the fervor, most people today would not be willing to make that trade. Much of the Orthodox world, whether accurately or not, is perceived as being caught up in empty ritual, creating a never ending series of Chumras that escalate the demands of the religion. The outer manifestations may be strong, but, what kind of inner justification exists? The secular contributions of Art, Science, Literature, and Knowledge, these would be too great to give up for religious fervor.

So, where does that leave us? I suggest looking back to the great philosophers. Take Hermann Cohen for example. His message can be synthesized down to a few key points. “Religion is the infinite task of closing the gap between what “is” and what “ought”. (Cohen, 1919) Rather than starting with creation or revelation, two areas that present difficulty for the modern Western mind, Cohen starts with the idea of redemption. “The world is lousy and must be made better”(Cohen 1919). Awareness of an ideal and that one’s behavior falls short is much different than the anti-nominism of historical reform.

Yet, if religion is only about making the world a better place, morality should suffice. For Cohen, the special task of religion over ethics is to supply a sense of individuality. Ethics is abstract – universal. In a moral system, the “I” of man becomes the “I” of humanity. The “other” is seen as a concept. Religion takes the individual out of being a concept and makes them a person. This is the difference between the “I – it” and “I-thou”. The “I - thou” paradigm is set up between the relationship of man and G-d. Ethics recognizes the other as “he”, an end, not a means, but not yet an individual. Religion recognizes the other as “thou”. In Judaism the suffering of the other is the source of transformation of the “I – it” to “I – he” and “I-thou.” Thru religion passion becomes the source of compassion.

Moral action requires the possibility of redemption. A person must take responsibility for their own failings. “The self is not a given entity, but an ideal towards which we must always strive.” Sin is a means to redemption. Liberation from sin becomes the goal and only through the attainment of that goal can a new “I” be begotten. The possibility of self transformation makes the individual an “I”.

These ideas are so much more powerful than techniques. They have the power to be transformative. Why be Jewish? Because it is the best means available by which to make the world a better place. It is the means of making what “is” an “ought”. The person must realize that they are not a given entity but an ideal. Think of living one’s life on the way to an ideal? This idea is something that can capture the imagination of the next generation.

Martin Buber takes the idea of the “I – thou” relationship even further. For Cohen, the purpose of religion is to bridge the gap between what “is” and what “ought”, looking at other people as “Thous” is a way to achieve this goal. People are not objects. They are not concepts. Rather, people are unique entities that must be related to in a deep authentic way. Yet, for Buber, these authentic relationships are not means to an end, rather they are an end in themselves. Authentic relationships are in fact the substance of reality.

For what is reality? We are told that man experiences the world. He goes over the surface of things and comes back with impressions. He brings back some knowledge of the world’s condition. But, as Buber explains this “experience” is only made up of “it and it and it” (Buber, 1923). Idealism tells us that reality is something we make in our mind based on our experiences. For Buber, these experiences are actually the foundation of “I-It” alienation. The true fabric of reality lies not in one-sided impressions. No, true reality lies in relationships.

“When one relates to another authentically, he is no longer a he/she limited by other he/shes, a dot in the world grid of space and time, nor a condition to be experienced, a loose bundle of named qualities. Rather this “he” becomes a “you” and fills the firmament and everything with light. There is no experience of “you”, just relation.” (Buber 1923)

Just think how powerful these ideas can be in revitalizing Judaism. Authentic relationships, according to Buber, have the ability to transform the individual. That is essentially what the Jewish community needs, more transformative experiences. These experiences do not require a lot of energy or resources. They can be created simply by loving another with the depths of one’s being.

The beauty of theology is that it doesn’t just transform the individual, it has the ability to transform organizations as well.

Studies show that the Jewish community is pulling away from organized religion. The word “organized” is essential here. Spirituality, G-d, community; these ideas still maintain power. It is the organized Jewish world that is alienating. Rather than following Buber’s directive of pursuing authentic relationships, the Jewish community deals with its constituents as “its”. The institutions have taken on a life of their own, moving by way of inertia. Bureaucracy, rules, and dehumanization is often the experience that accompanies Jewish involvement.

The problem that faces the Jewish community is essentially a disconnect between the reality of its members and the structure of its organizations. Jews today are autonomous. They are looking for meaning on their own terms. A woman called me this week looking for a Hebrew school for her son. She was not interested in the standard communal solution. Her family spends every Friday night together, celebrating Shabbat. She did not want to push away that celebration to attend services. The Temple, for its, part had a requirement that students in their Hebrew school attend a given amount of services. The Synagogue, Temple, Federation, have become professional entities looking out for their own best interests. The interests and motivations of their constituents are secondary at best.

This mother said to me, “I am not looking for a denomination. I am not looking for someone to tell my son, “This is how it is”. I am looking for my son to take responsibility for his own religious journey.” What she is looking for is an authentic relationship.

Institutions, as Buber explains, can be “Golems”. Like clay robots, they no longer know the human being. They bring together people, but, only as objects. Too often, a true sense of community is lacking. “Modern developments have expunged almost every trace of a life in which human beings confront each other and have meaningful relationships”(Buber 1923).

We are lonely and alienated. If Judaism and the Jewish community could confront that problem it would make a practical difference in people’s lives. We can, and must as a community, strive for authenticity.

True authenticity will drive and shape the institutions. As Buber explains, “People come together in true community when all of them stand in a living reciprocal relationship to a single living center.” (Buber 1923) The ever present thou, G-d, provides that center.

Judaism was once a revolutionary faith. Look at the ideas that we have given to Western Culture. Monotheism, the ineffable G-d, a sense of purpose in creation, equality of man, importance of contemplation and leisure in one’s life, care of the environment, responsibility towards one’s neighbor. When other men worshipped objects and conducted human sacrifices, Jews came and permanently changed the world. We must recapture that role as spiritual revolutionaries to the world. We need to change the world.

Let’s reinvigorate Judaism so that it is transformative. The experience with Judaism should transform the individual, organizations, and ultimately society. For too long we have emphasized those elements of Judaism that make us like everyone else. However, our theology, our culture, our families are different. Let’s value that difference.

We don’t believe in Original Sin. We believe in the value of every human being and their ultimate redemption. We don’t believe in Grace. We as humans, hold the key to our redemption. We, not some outside force, must change the world.

I end with my favorite quote from Martin Buber; “The renewal of Judaism means to put aside our dualism between our absolute and relative life in order that the fight for fulfillment might grasp the whole people, that the idea of reality may penetrate everyday, that the SPIRIT may enter into life!!!”

“Only then when Judaism extends itself like a hand and seizes every Jew by the hair of his head and bears him in a storm between heaven and earth towards Jerusalem will the Jewish people be ripe to build itself a new destiny.” (Buber 1914)

My Bronfman Grant Proposal

Earlier this year Charles Bronfman sponsored a competition at Brandeis for the "Next Big Jewish Idea"; something that would turn the community on its head and transform the world. Over 250 proposals were submitted. In the end the finalists that were chosen all had agents, publicists, and prior book deals. The person actually chosen turns out to be a Harvard Grad student finishing his PhD.
It is surprising that Brandeis had to go to such an extent to get a Harvard PhD to teach at their school. In many ways I feel cheated. I put a lot of energy and thought into my proposal. I still think that there is something here for a book.
Yet, the thing I find so disheartening is that the proposal that actually won is a continuation of what I see as veneer Judaism. Radicalism with some spackle from authentic memory? It seems like the criticism leveled at modern Jewish text study. One selects the point that one wants to make and then draws the circle around it.