MY URBAN KVETCH

Smashing the Idols: A Not-Quite-Live-Blog Inspired by the Jewish Futures Conference

Tonight, JESNA, the Jewish Education Project, and UJA-Federation of New York sponsored the Jewish Futures Conference in New York City. The conference aimed to provide "a space to imagine, learn and engage in purposeful and courageous conversation about the future of Jewish community and education and how it can thrive in today's and tomorrow's world." (List of speakers here, and @askdeb's liveblog of the opening conference session here.)

Along with the 450 or so people in the room, the conference reached many Jewish Tweeters as well, resulting in a "virtual conference" of sorts as people outside the room watched the live stream and monitored the tweets tagged with #jewishfutures as they scrolled by. 

I had to go to sleep during the dinner break (I'm in Israel, 7 hours ahead of NY, which literally places me in the Jewish future), but I wanted to write a quick blog post about one of the more interesting exercises/challenges given by a speaker during the program. Rabbi Laura Baum, of OurJewishCommunity.org, involved people inside and outside the room by asking us (the entirety of the us) to challenge ourselves to identify which Jewish community idols we should smash. Here is a not-entirely-complete - but nonetheless fascinating - list of the words shouted out on Twitter as being in dire need of smashage. (Links to Twitter handles to come when I have time)...

Status  – bag the top 50 lists - @shaplev

Will I get in trouble for saying God, Torah, Israel? - @paulgolin

Unity - @nftyisrael

Synagogue school - @geek4grammar

Dual curriculum, denominations, comfort zone - @rabbirebecca

Classrooms – the physical space - @hopenyc

Dues - @momwig

Ownership, clergy, bnei mitzvah, education, shuls, lay leadership, denominations, business, consumerism, technology - @deborahfishman

Dues, rabbis, free, frontal, fear, exclusions, membership, boards, status - @ilanagarber

Denominations - @afine

Is it too controversial to answer Orthodox Rabbis? - @rsaidlower

History, classrooms, committees, conformity, supplementary - @irajwise

Hebrew school, the unknown, exclusivity, empty holiday rituals, membership - @lilylozovsky

The notion that failure is not an option - @david_wolkin

Free - @tamarsnyder

Hebrew school, denomination, bar mitzvahs/7^th grade grads, rabbis, otherness, bricks-and-mortar - @BI_Next

Denominations - @morahjulie

Hebrew - @multitaskr

Membership bar mitzvah dues programs overindulged free entitlement consumerism status overpriced tradition conservative - @ercomisar

Hebrew school - @nyccantor

Free, money, naming, ageism, bnai mitzvah - @jlearn20

Territorialism - @aimeeweiss

Services, congregations, bricks and mortar - @detfederation

getting rid of b'nei mitzvah ceremonies frees up supplemental education to meaning not performance - @jewishgps

JDate - (overheard at event and reported by) @pelie_org

Buildings, religious school, membership dues, Sat am worship - @jchicksrock

Affiliation - @denasw

Alienation from Jewish heritage - @reuw

Innovation - @saulkaiserman (overheard at his table)

mash the idol of youth=innovation. Here's to a boomer or a greatest-generationer winning #jewishfutures next year. - @Liz_fisher

While this is pretty unscientific data, it provides instant community biofeedback, takes the pulse of "the people" on which sacred cows might be holding back contemporary Judaism from maximizing its potential (or "the people"'s perception of what potential is). For instance, on that list is a rabbi saying that rabbis should be smashed, a Federation identifying bricks-and-mortar as an idol, and a pluralistic youth organization advocating for the decentralization of the concept of unity. Deeper analysis of the Tweeters and their words may reveal additional levels of this discussion (eliminating Hebrew, really?) and undoubtedly, echoes of this will continue online over the next day or so. How do we integrate all of these objections?

Of course, although this is only an exercise, designed to get us thinking outside the box by imagining a world where the biggest pains in our communal side get thornectomized, also identifies the excuses we use for not being able to move ahead with our own personal visions and projects. The question is how we use this generated list - do we ignore these challenges, succumb to them, blame them for our lack of progress, or choose to negotiate, to identify small changes we can make or bridges we can build between our visions of a Jewish future. 

You've read the list now. Maybe you've even watched the livestream. So? What do you think?

Some of the Things You Wanted to Know About Kaddish (But Were Afraid to Ask)

If you’ve just lost a family member, you may find yourself considering Kaddish, a traditional prayer said by mourners during daily services, which helps the grieving to reconnect to community and society in the aftermath of a serious loss.

I’ve been saying Kaddish daily (unless something prevents me) since my mother’s funeral on May 15. On days when I go twice a day, this represents a 200% increase in my normal weekday synagogue attendance. Sometimes I’m late, and occasionally, I miss it entirely - sometimes because I overslept, because of a work obligation, or because I had the opportunity to do something social that I know my mother wouldn’t want me to miss on her behalf.

This new commitment is a challenge: sometimes it’s a hassle, sometimes it’s upsetting, but on the whole I find the structure is encouraging a return to whatever my new normal is supposed to be - going out there into the world and into my Jewish community at-large, and putting one foot in front of the other, rejoining society through a new kind of daily grind.

The beneficiary of a day school education, I knew most of the words to kaddish already, but I had no idea what the experience of saying kaddish was supposed to be like. During shiva, I tried to keep up with my father and brothers; after that first seven days, on my twice daily visits to the Conservative synagogue that is halfway between my home and my office, my confusion continued. The more times I went, the more questions I had.

I wished I’d had a guide that approached the Kaddish-saying experience with honesty, information and humor. (And pop culture references.) So that’s what this is - a guide in process, which will hopefully help and perhaps pry a wry, reluctant smile from people going through a process of mourning.

Mobster or Jersey Shore Cast Member?

Welcome to the first utterly pointless post I've put up in some time.

Several months ago, I went to a trivia night at a bar in Santa Monica - that night, the other teams all knew math and circumferences and astronomy references, while I managed to eke out two correct answers to pop culture items, but that was about it. Suffice it to say, that evening did not make me feel smart.

But in going through my receipts and papers in preparation for taxes last week, I found a piece of paper from Trivia Night, which challenged us to determine - from a list of Italian names - which names belong to members of the mob, and which are members of the Jersey Shore cast. I am sad to say / happy to report that I got them all right.

I have reproduced the list below for your entertainment: to test which group is actually more dangerous, and so I can finally throw away this piece of paper (because I wanted to blog about this months ago). Good guessing to you all.

Tell me whether this person is a member of the show Jersey Shore or may have buried someone there, i.e. a member of the mob. [Then there were two columns: you had to write "member" or "burier" in one column, and the person's nickname in the other.]

Sammi Giancola

Sammi Gravano

Vincent Gigante

Michael Sorrentino

John Gotti

Nicole Polozzi

Paul DelVecchio

Dominick Napolitano

Jewish Innovation: The Real Next Generation?

When we say "Jewish innovation" these days, we usually mean "Next Gen Jewish innovation." And when we say "Next Gen," we usually mean 20s and 30s. But the truth is that 20s and 30s are a current generation of adults, not an emergent population, at some future point to inherit the Earth. But teenagers? As I was reminded during the recent LimmudLA conference, at which the teenagers had their own track of sessions planned and presented by their peers - teenagers are the real "Next Gen." Now a project has emerged in Los Angeles to remind us of that.

Perhaps inspired by today's emerging Jewish innovation scene, as well as searches for big ideas like the Next Big Jewish Idea (Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles) and the Jewish Futures Conference (convened by top Jewish educational organizations at the November GA), Wednesday, April 6th, 2011 at 7:00 PM the Milken Community High School students are having a "Jewish Futures Conference." This experience will provide them with a chance to network, hear their pitches & presentations and share feedback. The projects are available online for public review - students will pitch their projects to a group of judges.

Here's some explanatory text from the Milken site about the conference - as well as a teaser video:

In a transformation of Jewish education, Milken Community High School students engaged in a laboratory for the Jewish Future, developing projects that will renew and innovate Judaism for the betterment of Jewish society.  As these teens depart from their immersion on a strong and vibrant Jewish learning community, they will contribute to the Jewish community through their visionary ideas and developed leadership.  This conference will provide a unique opportunity for students to receive feedback and build partnerships with community leaders, allowing these young innovative leaders to take their vision to the next level.  These efforts serve as a precursor and practice at combining “real” world practicality with core Jewish values.

I'll be there, and am looking forward to experiencing the energy and innovative creative power of the real next generation.

Late for the Jewish Future - A Post from the JFNA General Assembly

(Updated - now contains video of PunkTorah's presentation...)

I admit it - I was late for the Jewish future. Luckily, they had the good sense to take the other 400 people in the room and start without me.

The Jewish Futures Conference, sponsored by the Covenant Foundation, BJENY-SAJES, JESNA/Lippman Kanfer Institute and others, began with breakfast (which I missed), coffee (which was thankfully still available), and featured some of the freshest ideas which will be shaping the Jewish future.

Among those ideas were two videos, submitted by Punk Torah's Patrick Aleph and Michael Sabani (video of their presentation below), and Russel Neiss and Charlie Schwartz from Media Midrash (video below), which were the winners of the Jewish Futures Competition: Visions for Jewish education in the 21st Century.

Presented were some interesting ideas, including challenging the meaning of "actively engaged," and the concept - rendered by the inimitable Patrick Aleph - that "Apple is the fastest-growing religion in the United States." 

Check out PunkTorah's and MediaMidrash's videos below, and watch the #jewishfutures and #nolaga hashtags for more coverage as the session continues...

 

 



What is 'Sacred Text' in the Age of Information and Technology?

Today's texts are fluid. They're online and off; sacred, profane, and sometimes a mixture of both; written for the people, by the people. But considering sacred Jewish texts through the lens of the contemporary reality for writing, how broadly are we willing to define "text"? Is it anything that was handed down at Sinai, or by Talmud-era rabbis, or by contemporary rabbis; do compilations (like a siddur, mahzor or haggadah, for instance) qualify for classical text status, even if parts of them are always changing?

A few months ago, I was part of a panel discussion on text, context, art and tradition, as seen through a series of short films about the steps of the Passover seder. "Projecting Freedom," a project of the Skirball Center for Adult Jewish Learning at Temple Emanu-El and underwritten by an Ignition Grant from The Covenant Foundation, gathered video and visual artists in an intensive exploration of the themes and images of Passover, giving them the textual tools to interpret the Haggadah in new ways. (Check out Hanan Harchol's "Maror" segment below.)

In preparation for the panel, Skirball's Founding Director, Rabbi Leon Morris, sent the panelists a series of questions to have in mind during our preparation. I found these questions really interesting, and wrote out some responses. Give them a read and let me know what your thoughts are on tradition, art and text in the age of technology. 

Experiential Education: Beginning the Conversation

I recently was invited to participate in a ThinkTank about Experiential Jewish Education in New York, sponsored by Yeshiva University, which held the private meeting of educators, Jewish thought leaders, and people involved in the Jewish innovation sector as an exploratory step in creating a certificate program in the subject. (This is part of a grant between YU, JTS, HUC-JIR and the Jim Joseph Foundation to create better training for Jewish educators, independent of their denominations - you can read more about it here in the Fundermentalist at JTA.) The ThinkTank pulled participants from different streams of Jewish affiliation and observance for a candid, respectful series of conversations, under the leadership of the Center for the Jewish Future (and CJF director Rabbi Kenneth Brander), and expertly moderated by facilitator Marc N. Kramer.

The chance to participate in the exploratory stage for this academic program, to witness the emergence of and ask questions about a nascent field was a particularly interesting opportunity for me that raised questions for all of us.

Experiential education sounds simple to define, but is actually far more nuanced and complicated than it might originally seem. If we agree that experiential education is more effective education, why shouldn't all education contain elements of the experiential? Is experiential necessarily interactive and innovative? What does interactive mean? How do you make specific the nonspecific of "I know experiential education when I feel it"? Who decides on what constitutes innovation, and how it differs from what constitutes informal or experiential education? Are meaningful experiences about teaching methodology, teacher personality, or about the environment? Can you formalize training for a field with such limitless possibility and definition? 

There were also logistical questions: How do you integrate innovation or experiential education into a pre-existing, traditional educational structure? How do you encourage longtime, experienced teachers to open their minds to new methodologies that may sharply conflict with their teaching styles and experiences? And how do you translate the potential for learning into meaningful or inspiring, measurable educational outcomes?

As we considered these questions, we talked tachlis about "defining the core curriculum," broken down into skills, tools, knowledge, traits and experiences; and visualizing all of these things in categories, buckets, paints and brushes, tires and boxes, tools, computers and BlackBerrys. We wrote a press release of the future, noting in a retrospective style the highlights of this program and what it had been able to accomplish in the five years since we founded it - this is one of my favorite exercises, using writing skills and projecting into a future to imagine outcomes and perhaps thereby track back to the core of the task. And we engaged in "getting-to-know" you conversations which helped us work together in teams, and which were also, in their own ways, instructive in the mode of the experiential.

I know some of you out there are educators, informal or formal, experiential or innovative and/or traditional. What's your understanding of the definition of experiential education? Must it be innovative? Is it the approach, or the teacher, or the environment that defines either the experiential, the innovative, or both?

Looking forward to your feedback.