Needed: A Jewish Summit

by The Editors

The appearance of President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is both a plus and a minus for the upcoming General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America, taking place in Washington, D.C., Nov. 8-10.

The plus, of course, is that these two headliners will give a needed boost in attendance and spirit to an annual conference that has lost much of its luster in recent years as the federation umbrella (until recently known as UJC, United Jewish Communities) has been beset by financial, bureaucratic and morale problems. With a new executive, Jerry Silverman, at the helm, the new name and a commitment to be more responsive to the needs of the 157 member federations in the U.S. and Canada, the organization

is hoping to turn the corner.

But while addresses from the American and Israeli leaders are sure to create international headlines, the program itself may well suffer from the increasingly crammed schedule. Far more attention will be given to the Obama and Netanyahu speeches, however ephemeral, than to the forums and workshops designed to highlight the challenges facing an organized Jewish community at a time of financial despair and growing needs, amid signs of disinterest among large numbers of American Jewry (see story here).

There is only so much a GA, or any two-day assembly can address, especially when part of its purpose is to energize and entertain hundreds of lay leaders from around the country. Perhaps it is time for the community to convene a new form of conference to explore who its core constituency is, what its primary goals are and how they can be realized.

That’s what Steven Windmueller, dean of the Los Angeles Campus of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, suggests in a recent paper, calling for “a national consultation on the American Jewish future.”

Windmueller argues that “the very concept of community as we had come to understand and define it is now being challenged,” and “a new level of uneasiness now dominates the Jewish landscape.”

Contributing to that unease are the Iranian nuclear threat, international terrorism, growing anti-Semitism in Europe and, closer to home, the widening gap between younger and older American Jews in terms of identity, affiliation and support.

He notes that in past times of crises, community leaders came together to focus on specific challenges, from a 1943 gathering resulting in widespread advocacy for a Jewish state in Palestine, to the efforts on behalf of Soviet Jewry in the 1970s and ‘80s.

Over the last five years, in an effort to fill a communication void, The Jewish Week, with support from the Center for Leadership Initiatives and other foundations, has sponsored The Conversation, an annual two-day retreat for leaders and emerging leaders from all walks of Jewish life. But the goal has been networking, idea sharing and dialogue rather than an action agenda.

Windmueller suggests that the federation and synagogue movements join national agencies in convening a summit on re-imagining American Judaism and “the future of the Jewish communal system of governance, leadership and financial viability.”

We echo the sentiment and add that there should be multiple meetings held on the local as well as the national level, and that they be as inclusive as possible in taking the pulse and exploring the dreams, of American Jewry.

Too much is at stake at this moment of change, unrest and concern for us to preserve the status quo. Assessing where we are and what we hope to achieve can lead to new levels of engagement with and passion for the Jewish future.

Signup for our weekly email newsletter here.

Check out the Jewish Week's Facebook page and become a fan! And follow the Jewish Week on Twitter: start here.