MY URBAN KVETCH

Three Years, Now

When you think about three years, you might think of it as something that just flew by ("ohmigawd, I can't believe that three years ago we were freshmen!") or a serious chunk of time ("ohmigawd, I can't believe you guys have been together three years and still aren't engaged!"). 

However you think of three years, whether it's slow or fast, it's likely a drop in the bucket compared to how it must feel to spend three years in captivity, away from your family, in enemy territory, unsure if each new sunrise brings new beginnings or the same old feeling that it's all over, that that day will be your last.

Gilad Shalit has been gone for three years. He was kidnapped first, before Ehud Goldvasser and Eldad Regev - both of them were returned in boxes (I was here in Israel for that last year, and it was gut-wrenching to watch it on television).

I've been meaning to post about this for days, ever since I started seeing that tent every day. If you live or work in Jerusalem, right near that major intersection of Keren Hayesod, Agron, Azza, and King George Street, you know the tent I mean - with a few volunteers staffing it at all times, ready to hand you information about Gilad. I pass it every day on my way to work at the CLI office, where I've been working on ROI Summit for the last several weeks. There are days that I look at the people in the tent and say "boker tov," but beyond that, I don't engage - what are they going to tell me? I'm already on their side. There are mornings when I think about hopping over to a coffee shop and bringing them coffee or some other beverages. But usually, I walk by, think about the captive soldier, and get to work.

Of course, there are also online commemorations of sorts underway: change your Facebook status to "Free Gilad Now!"; change your Twitter profile picture to a picture of Gilad Shalit, retweet this story about redeeming captives, etc. Which of the six "Free Gilad" groups will you join on FB? Do you have to join all of them? After a certain amount of time, can you leave those groups, or does that constitute the abandonment of the issue?

I understand where the motivation comes from - why they sit there, devoted despite the lack of progress; why people think it's meaningful to join a group or change a profile picture in protest, because it's a way to express their indignation at the situation. But to whom are they expressing themselves? Is Hamas monitoring our Facebook FriendFeed, trying to see if enough people are troubled by Shalit's kidnapping? 

I've found such gestures, sitting-in or logging in for activism, to be just that - kind of like carpooling to social activism...going with the flow, because other people are, because it's easy and convenient, not because it makes a difference. 

Does this online activism make a difference? To whom? And how can we engage in vocalizing our distress in a way that makes an impact and treats Gilad, his family and supporters with respect? What could we do that would be more meaningful? 

On a third anniversary, in the country that cares most about Gilad's health and well-being, I ask myself these questions, and search for a meaningful way to effect change. Your ideas and opinions, as always, are welcome.

Name That Consortium of Federations!

The UJC (United Jewish Communities) has announced that they'll be renaming (rebranding?) itself - the new name will be announced at November's General Assembly in Washington, DC.  

But the Fundermentalist already has an idea what it's going to be, because he got a tip from UJC chairman Joe Kanfer: "It is very likely that when it is all said and done, we will be called the Jewish Federations of North America." 

The UJC says its name isn't working, as few of the federations it represents have attached the letters to their own names. The organization has been involved in a yearlong marketing research initiative costing more than $1 million. The lack of uniformity of name at times has made it difficult for donors to find a federation from state to state. The idea is to convey that the federations are all part of one system. 

For those of you who are not as steeped in Jewish communal life as some people are, here are some of the basics.

On the local level, each Jewish community has a federation: an agency that allocates funding to various community initiatives, organizations and agencies (e.g., the Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services). These are called federations.

On the national (and really, North American) level, there's the UJC (United Jewish Communities) which is like the United Federation of Planets in Star Trek, except it's a Federation of federations (and not of planets). 

Confused? Maybe the new name will help.

Or maybe - although this is totally unauthorized - you should pick the next name for UJC. Check out what they do here, and leave your suggestions at the sound of you clicking the comment links.

Jenji Kohan, Jill Soloway, and the Hebrew Mamita: "Inside the Jewish Noggin"

Yesterday I went to an event about images of Jewish women in Hollywood sponsored by the MorningStar Commission, an organization founded with support by Hadassah (I actually worked at Hadassah when the Commission was founded, and have long wanted to attend their events). This one, titled "Inside the Jewish Noggin," promised a "main event" interview with Jenji Kohan (left), the creator of "Weeds" and the potentially upcoming "Ronna and Beverly," as well as networking and breakout groups with Jewish women in the industry to give us an inside look at some of the issues they face as Jews in Hollywood. (Sold.)

I've written a longer post about it at Beliefnet (now available here!), but here are some highlights that you won't read over there.

• As an intro, "Hebrew Mamita" Vanessa Hidary (follow her on Twitter!) did her famous spoken-word piece about what it means to look Jewish...I asked her afterwards if it was a longer version of the one we'd seen on YouTube, and she confirmed that it was. As many times as I've seen it, I never get tired of it, and that's a testament to Vanessa's energy. (Haven't seen "Monologues" yet? Now's your chance! Check out this video and get your tickets in NJ, NY and Chicago here.)
• Writer/producer Jill Soloway gracefully handled questions from a room of interested attendees (many of them with job agendas), ranging from explanations about how the American TV industry works to the role of Jews in the writers' room. She explained a theory that Jews were "recreating culture to defend ourselves post-Holocaust," and noted that she meets young writers and tries to mentor them. In fact, she said, in response to a question about where the "United States of Tara" writers come from, she had met a playwright and offered her a job in an email exchange. (At which point, some blogger quipped, "so what's your email address?")
• As she took the stage, Jenji tried to adjust her lapel mic with the help of a technician. "You need to get higher," she said. After a few members of the audience began to snicker, she realized, "everything's a pun."
• Jenji noted that in her writers' room, the only thing that people aren't allowed to be is politically correct. "Being PC...that's just not ok," she said.
• When asked if Andy Botwin (Justin Kirk) would make a good rabbi, she initially said no, that "Andy lacks the scholarship," but that, as long as someone else wrote his speeches, he'd be "fun to listen to at the High Holidays."
• Asked about what it means to raise Jewish children, Jenji said that it means raising children to "question everything and look deeper...ask questions, ask 'why', ask more."
• Growing up in a showbiz family, none of the kids were supposed to go into the industry, but two did. (Brother David Kohan is the co-creator and producer of "Will & Grace.") Their family dinner table was "a really rough room." When Jenji's brother told a fart joke, a parent responded "fart jokes are an easy laugh - you can do better."

This did not come out of the interview with Jenji, which was gracefully conducted by Jewish Journal writer Danielle Berrin, but there's also a Jewish geography/Buffy connection that I must mention. (Because you know that's why you come here.) Jenji's husband, Christopher Noxon, is the brother of...Marti Noxon (writer/executive producer for Buffy and Angel)! Thanks to that factoid, I can also file this in "Much Ado About Whedon." Nice.

Want to watch the whole video and tell me which quotes I got wrong? Check it out over at the Jewish Journal's website. And don't forget to see the official post at Beliefnet.

Seth Rogen Lives in a Medieval Castle

At least in my dream last night, he did. I was part of a team of Jewrnalists selected to go on a tour of Rogen's mansion: we wandered through drafty, marble halls, listening to the echoes of our footsteps and gawking at enormous beds and kitchens preparing sumptuous feasts (all strictly kosher, we were assured), and I waited for my chance to interview him, which never came. Best I managed was a handshake and thanking him for having us.

Deconstruction: I blame my recent outing to Runyon Canyon - at the top, we looked into the valley and saw houses that were enormous even from afar, houses I will never see from the inside because they are owned by the incredibly wealthy Hollywood elite.

Nice that even in my dreams, I'm a Jewish writer.

Also, I blame this clip (via Cinematical), which I received on Friday afternoon. If you're listening for his trademark gruff, Rolf-the-muppet voice, don't bother - this clip is either shortly after his bar mitzvah or eerily pre-weed. Enjoy.

"About That Email..." - JTA Posts Apology for Email Language

The JTA posted a response today, calling Friday's solicitation letter "ill-advised," which it certainly was, and creating more of a context for the "ask" than recipients of the letter were originally given (this from Dan Sieradski's post on the subject):

I will therefore be the first to admit that Friday's fundraising letter was ill-advised and regrettable. The characterization of bloggers and Twitterers as "non-professional" and unreliable was not only counterproductive but arguably false. Worse yet, by seemingly attacking the blogosphere and Twittersphere, JTA has turned itself into a straw man in the battle between old and new media.

Over the weekend, there's been a lot of angry responses from bloggers and other outraged users of new media. And the JTA realized almost immediately that the email was a mistake. So now that we've had the outrage and the apology, how can we all learn from this experience and move on? What's the lesson, for JTA, which contributes Jewish journalism's mainframe, and for the "bloggers, Twitterers and unprofessionals" whose work complements "just the news" with personal opinion, insight, irreverence, reflections, humor etc?

Jewish Bloggers Are Not the Enemies of Jewish Storytelling

This morning, I opened my email to find a solicitation letter from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) that I found extremely surprising. Since the economy dipped, I'd been getting more solicitations from everyone. But this particular email, headed "The Future of Jewish Storytelling," seemed to be using bloggers (and Twitterers) as a scare tactic designed to elicit donations, the way other organizations use terms like “aging Holocaust population,” “Jewish singles crisis,” and “rise in anti-Semitism.” Unless you act now, the message seemed to say, “bloggers, Twitterers, and nonprofessionals” will take over Jewish journalism entirely and (the ultimate implied leap from any scare tactic used in Jewish fundraising) cause the demise of the Jewish people.

But that couldn’t be what they were saying, could it? I used to blog for the JTA. I've watched with delight as the site revamped its look and content, including blogging and Twitter as two additional tools in the arsenal of Jewish journalism. So I parsed it line-by-line, the way my Talmudic ancestors might have; indeed, the way certain rabbinic discussions in the Haggadah unfold.

“Storytelling is fundamental to the Jewish experience," the letter began. I could not agree more. Storytelling is what Passover is all about, it’s about legacy, family, interpretation, and history. "And, storytelling is what JTA does every day,” the email continues, noting coverage from Mumbai to Gaza, from Obama to Madoff. Now, I wouldn’t have used the word “storytelling,” which for me connotes more of an inventive, imaginative lens on events than say, “journalism,” "news," or “reporting.” But mostly, agreed – JTA’s where I go for my Jewish news, rendered objectively in news pieces and hopefully wielded to larger, more inspiring points by features writers, op-ed columnists and some of their blogging staff members. When JTA made its appearance on Twitter, I couldn’t have been more thrilled: finally, a way to make sure that the stories reached me in “realer” time than a once-daily JTA bulletin could achieve. I’d learn about the news stories as they happened, which is of great help to me as a blogger and Jewish writer, enabling me to stay abreast of news at the speed of technology.That's a media service for the 21st century.

Commenter on JTA Site Thinks Environmentalism Grantors Are "Trouble Makers"

Over at the JTA, every day is a new announcement of a Federation that's cutting spending, programs, staff...but today, there was a glimmer of sunshine: the Jewish Funders Network announced that it will give $750,000 in matching grants to first-time gifts for environmental projects in Israel. Investing in preserving the environment helps to ensure that there is an Israel to live in tomorrow. The grants are "open only to JFN members and will be given to match either first-time gifts or gifts that are at least double a donor’s previous gift to an Israeli environmental nonprofit."

Good news, right? I think most people would celebrate this news. Except for the first commenter on the post at JTA, who offered this commentary:

These Goldmans [Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund Matching Grant Initiative for the Environment in Israel] seem like trouble makers to me. Why worry about water in Israel we have a 50% intermarriage rate in america and on any given friday night some 94% of reform and conservative Jews are not in shul.

Is the commenter serious? If not, she's done a pretty good job of offering up comments with a consistent message. Responding to the proposal that Reform and Conservative movements merge, she had this to say: "If the reform want to continue perhaps they should ask their members to start marrying each other and having children." In response to the news that Hadassah had lost $90 million in the Madoff debacle, she countered with: "hadassa used its money to encourage Jewish women to have abortions and use birth control. Now that hadassa is out of money who will be left to encourage Jews to destroy themselves."

The online Jewish community is sure interesting. Just when you think you've found some good news, someone else will show you how that philanthropic move will destroy the Jewish people. Never a dull moment here, I tell you...

Lindsay Lohan Considering Judaism?

The Daily Mail brings us the latest news about Lindsay Lohan, who is rumored to be considering conversion to Judaism. In case you've been living under a rock, the reason for Lindsay's religious shift is not a driving desire to celebrate the upcoming holiday of Purim but because Lindsay's girlfriend Samantha Ronson is Jewish.

The occasion for the latest frenzy over Lohan's religious affiliation was that she attended Ronson's half-brother's bar mitzvah at a Westminster synagogue:

Showing her seriousness about converting, Lindsay had also visited the synagogue the day before with Samantha and her designer sister Charlotte. Entering the synagogue, a photographer asked Lindsay if she was switching religions, to which she replied: 'I'm trying.' Updating her Facebook status this week, Lindsay wrote 'I'm converting'.

Many commenters on a similar story on Haaretz doubt Lohan's commitment to the religion, and Lindsay's own dad thinks it's another phase of religious exploration, noting that she's already plowed through Kabbalah and Scientology. "But either way, she's involving God in her life, and I'm happy about that," he said.

Besides, we all know that Facebook status updates need to be taken seriously. If I ever convert to another religion, I promise to let you all know about it via Facebook.

From the LimmudLA Notebook: Part 1

LimmudLA ended a little over a week ago, and I've just unearthed some of the notes I took over the course of the weekend. Two of my sessions - Jewish innovation and the dating panel - took place on Shabbat, so there are no written records of what happened there. But as I go through the rest of my notes, which includes some reflections on sessions I attended and conducted as well as the people I met, I'll write up some thoughts and post them here.

**

"Esther? Are you EstherK from Twitter?" The question came at me at the beginning of a session I attended called "Sex, Drugs, Rock and Roll and Judaism for Adults." Someone called me Esther, and this woman overheard. She identified herself as MillerMosaicLLC, and noted that she had found me looking for Tweets about LimmudLA. Apparently I was the only one on Twitter who was hashtagging LimmudLA, at least this year. Next year, expect that number to be much higher.

**

A guy approaches me on my way out of the Jewish innovation session. He's been urged by a mutual friend of ours to step forward and identify himself. About four or five years ago, he says, he wrote a response on one of my JDaters Anonymous posts, telling a story about a woman who had fallen asleep in her linguini while on a date with him. He tells me that I treated the story as so ludicrous that it couldn't possibly be true. (I've done a backsearch of my site and can't seem to track down the story, so we'll just have to trust his recall.) As he stared at me expectantly and I stammered through an apology for not treating his comment (that I didn't remember) seriously, I was reminded of something that all writers and certainly writers who blog should remember: the people who comment (in most cases) are real people with feelings. Most of them we never have to face, but if perchance we do encounter them f2f (that's face-to-face), we will have to stand behind the things that we've written, even if we don't remember them. As we meander through our daily rants and raves, this is a good reminder to have once in a while, because it demands that we ask ourselves to take the unseen others into consideration.

More memories of and reflections on LimmudLA to come...

Jumpstart's New Jewish Organizations Survey: Tweeting and Reflecting

The 2008 Survey on New Jewish Organizations was presented Thursday morning in LA, and is available online here, as are links to video from the NY and LA presentations of the report.

Italicized text represents Twitter posts (Tweets) sent as the meeting progressed, followed by regular text which reflects on the meeting and the findings that were presented. - EDK

at presentation on new jewish orgs coping w the economic situation sponsored by @jmpstrt. they're presenting findings. more tk.

Looking around the board room at the LA Jewish Federation, I realize that I already know a number of people in the room. In addition to Jumpstarters Shawn Landres and Joshua Avedon, I also spy Rhoda Weisman from PLP, Rebecca Guber of Six Points Fellowship, Asher Gellis from JQ International, various others I've met since I moved here, and of course, faces representing the seemingly omnipresent spiritual community/social justice/education organization known as IKAR. After some initial introductory remarks by John Fishel, head of the LA Jewish Federation, Natan's Felicia Herman noted that the reason for the survey and report was the fear that new organizations in the Jewish innovation sector would be "especially vulnerable," but that ultimately hard times create an opportunity not just to figure out who gets which piece of the pie, but what the pie is made of, how it's made, and also how it's sliced up.

Among the findings presented were that many of the organizations were interested in collaboration and mutual support as a model of economizing budgetarily while maximizing potential for impact. There was also some discussion of what the "number of participants reached" category really means - that there are many online free tools at the disposal of today's startups. So if the organization's goal is reaching a smaller number of people, more regularly, and employing programs that encourage deeper connections, that's going to require a different (and smaller) amount of funding to achieve than organizations with large-scale, expensive, one-off events that impress for a night and then have to build cohesion again the next morning.

one woman said @jmpstrt survey will change how funders looks at innovation. i hope that's true but orgs are so change-resistant.

I've worked for Jewish nonprofit organizations, and I've worked with innovative Jewish startups, on both volunteer and paid staff levels. And I constantly tell people that Jewish organizations are not resistant to the idea of innovation - they're just scared by its newness, and intimidated by the prospect of having to implement that change. Beyond the administrative/strategic planning fear, there's also the apprehension that the new project, initiative or staff person will somehow fundamentally change that organization's mission. Maybe it's having watched too many episodes of medical dramas, but this fear reminds me of GVH (graft-vs.-host) disease, when a transplant patient's body treats the transplanted tissue as enemy cells and begins destroying the very organ that may have been its salvation.

@jewliciousfestival gets a shoutout at the new jewish orgs mtg as an example of short term proj that creates stickiness. the new buzzword.

One respondent notes that talking about affiliation is passe because we're Teflon (and nothing sticks to us)...but that initiatives spearheaded by a higher concentration of sticky people are often more successful than larger organizations, which "give lots of tastes of glue sticks."

The more you say the word "sticky," the weirder it sounds, even just phonetically. But I get what they're saying. I mean, I've been to four Jewlicious Festivals, and the experience sticks with everyone who attends. Similar to LimmudLA (but preceding its arrival in LA by two years, I think), JewliciousFestival has enabled hundreds of college and graduate students from across the country to spend a weekend immersed in different sessions amidst their peers, and developing their 21st century identity as Jews in a possibly post-denominational, definitely technologically-centered, world. It's never boring, and usually transformational.

@roicommunity and @presentense get shoutouts too. @videojew is taping for @jewishjournal. more thoughts later.

Among the findings presented were that many of the organizations were interested in collaboration and mutual support as a model of economizing budgetarily while maximizing potential for impact. There was also some discussion of what the "number of participants reached" category really means - that there are many online free tools at the disposal of today's startups. So if the organization's goal is reaching a smaller number of people, more regularly, and employing programs that encourage deeper connections, that's going to require a different (and smaller) amount of funding to achieve than organizations with large-scale, expensive, one-off events that impress for a night and then have to build an audience for their next project the next morning.

Shawn highlighted ROICommunity and PresenTense as examples of initiatives that are building communities of sticky people, and in summary hoped that discussion would move forward about how startups can help the organized Jewish community to change and become more sustainable.