A Response to Richard Pearlstone December 22, 2009
Posted by michgilb in Jewish organizations.Tags: Jewish agency, Jewish Federation
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Richard Pearlstone’s remarks were recently posted in ejewish philanthropy http://ejewishphilanthropy.com/recreating-the-jewish-world/. Here is my response…
This is a wonderful piece, and on the heels of John Ruskay’s speech stirs my Jewish heart with its call for Jewish collective responsibility. I devoted a good part of my career to the Jewish Federation movement – and I still believe in the principle of collective decision making.
However…
It’s just not working. An appeal for Jewish collective responsibility is not going to resonate with teens and young adults, for whom anything that smacks of particularism is a turn-off. I do think that collective action is desirable – even necessary, but as an outcome, not as a demand. Jewish collective responsibility will emerge from really cool projects that serve as magnets to draw younger Jews into a community framework. Such projects will need to provide Jewish lenses on the big themes that are most relevant for the coming generation, such as interfaith; globalism; environmentalism; social media; arts & culture. What we need is for the major Jewish philanthropic, global organizations to stimulate eye-popping, jaw-dropping, great-big-hairy projects in these areas – a far cry from the traditional federation allocations-based annual fund distribution model. Much easier said than done, I know, but if our major Jewish institutions don’t evolve they will ultimately be replaced.
The big challenge is not how do we make a case for collective Jewish responsibility, it’s how do we ensure that being Jewish remains relevant in a new world? Solve that question and collective responsibility will be restored.
