I Can't Get No Dissatisfaction: Report from the GA

by Liza Schwartz
Special to the Jewish Week

This year's General Assembly of the United Jewish Communities (UJC), held last week in Jerusalem, was an excellent example of customer satisfaction. Thousands of people moved smoothly from session to session at the annual gathering of the 155 North American Jewish Federations, and the highest-ranking Israeli officials took turns offering inspiring words.

The idea of dissatisfaction wouldn't have crossed my mind if not for President Shimon Peres's Nov. 17 speech in which he identified this trait as the Jewish people's greatest contribution to the world. This desire for change drove us to donate the millions of dollars celebrated at the GA that support Jewish social service causes across the globe.

Taking a lesson from Peres, I decided to find out what some of the 4,500

participants were dissatisfied about within the Jewish community. And as a participant in Do the Write Thing, a WZO-Hagshama sponsored program that brings young journalists to the GA each year, I was particularly interested in what my fellow millennials at the conference were complaining about.

Rinat Divon, program director of Hillel at Tel Aviv University, cited the fact that "I cannot marry my own way in Israel." She said she has considered marrying in Cyprus or forgoing it completely if an Orthodox wedding is the only option.

Divon added that she faces related challenges when recruiting secular students for Hillel activities.

"Every time you say 'Judaism' in Israel, most people think about one thing, Orthodox Judaism," she said. According to Divon, the sense of pluralism found in the diaspora does not exist in Israel.

In one corner of the diaspora, Adam Schwartz makes use of a sense of minority cohesion among Jews at the University of Tennessee. Schwartz is disappointed by the large percentage of nonaffiliated young Jews at the school, where he is a student, but he works with Hillel to get more people involved.

"One of the nice things about being Jewish in the South is that because there's relatively few of us we tend to stick together more," he said, explaining that it's also easier to overcome denominational differences.

At the other end of the convention hall, Katie Freeman, dressed in an Israel Defense Forces uniform, but speaking with an American accent, voiced her own dissatisfaction.

"When I go home everybody is busy worrying about property in Mexico," said the Los Angeles native. "Jews are not worrying about what's going on in Israel. They think it's too dangerous and they don't really care."

In some settings the Jewish talent for complaining may be nothing more than fodder for comedians. But as Peres said, dissatisfaction keeps us "on guard not to miss a way to improve relations among mankind," and these young GA attendees offered solutions as well as critiques.

At Tel Aviv University, Divon runs programs that bridge the religious-secular divide, like a concert featuring a modern Israeli musician alongside a cantor. Freeman, who made aliyah three years ago, hopes to see more Israel awareness groups that show outsiders the country isn't always at war.

When my conversation with Freeman was interrupted by an announcement that the next speech was starting, I realized my own dissatisfaction: the GA is too comfortable. It needs fewer spokespeople and more "real" people. The solutions offered by Freeman and the others all depend on getting diverse people talking. Representatives from the full spectrum of world Jewry gathered at the GA, so it's a shame that so much time was spent sitting silently in a dark auditorium, listening to a few highlighted speakers.

Encouragingly, the schedule did include a two-hour mifgash, or encounter, where Israelis and visitors spoke in informal groups. I couldn't attend, but between and during speeches I spoke to soldiers, students, a philanthropist, and of course fellow Do the Write Thing participants who offered their views on everything from the American-Israel relationship to the best falafel in Jerusalem.

Some conversations ended with laughter, others with reflection, but all involved the kind of dialogue that reveals issues and possible solutions. Next year at the GA, a little more conversation, and less satisfied applause, would go a long way to address the dissatisfied.

Liza Schwartz of New York is in Tel Aviv this year, interning at Ha'aretz, the Israeli daily. She participated at the GA through Do The Write Thing.

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