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Fabulous News for the Jews in Babylonia…Or is it?

Fabulous News for the Jews in Babylonia…Or is it? Time: 539 BCE = 70 years after Nebucadnezzar sends the Israelites to Babylonia Place: Babylonia

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Fabulous News for the Jews in Babylonia…Or is it?

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  1. Fabulous News for the Jews in Babylonia…Or is it? • Time: 539 BCE = 70 years after Nebucadnezzar sends the Israelites to Babylonia • Place: Babylonia • Situation: Persia conquers Babylonia and becomes the new world power. Cyrus likes to have people that he conquers live according to their own traditions. Cyrus gives permission to the Jews of Babylonia to return to Jerusalem and rebuild their temple. • Question: Of the 400,000 Jews living in Babylonia at this time, how many make their way back to Jerusalem?

  2. Fact: • Of the 400,000 Jews living in Babylonia at this time, about 50,000 make their way back to Jerusalem (8%) • WHY?

  3. You be the Sociologist

  4. FACT #1 In December 1987, President Reagan Meets with USSR Mikhail Gorbachev. Two days earlier 250,000 Jews march on Washington calling for Soviet Jews to be allowed to leave Russia. Reagan is so moved by this demonstration that he spends 5 minutes speaking about this issue. Since 1987, there has been no rally in Washington that has come anywhere close to attracting the # of Jews that assembled in 1987

  5. FACT #2 • Frank Luntz [investigator of college student] reported: Six times we have brought Jewish youth together as a group to talk about their Jewishness and connection to Israel: • Six times the topic of Israel did not come up until it was prompted. • Six times these Jewish youth used the word ‘they’ rather than ‘us’ to describe the situation. • Source: PeterBeinart’s “The Failure of the American Jewish Establishment.”

  6. FACT #3: UJA slogan changes 1960: “We Are One” 1980: “Keep the Promise”(a.k.a. Every Jew is responsible for one another) Present: “Live Generously: It Does a World of Good”

  7. FACT #4: Survey: Caring About Israel is An Important Part of My Being Jewish 1989: 73% Agree 2005: 57%

  8. FACT #5: Survey Question (2001): When People are in distress, American Jews have a greater responsibility to rescue jews than non-Jews 65 yrs & older: 75% Agree 35 and under: 47% Agree

  9. FACT #6: Giving tzedakah to Federation 1985: $656 million (it was a normal year) 2005: Expected amount (taking 656 m. and adding 4% each year = $1.19 billion 2005 Actual = $850 million

  10. The Generation of Change How leaders in their 20s and 30s are reshaping American Jewish Life (Based on Avi Chai Report by Sociologist Jack Wertheimer)

  11. American Jewish Establishment since WWII = PROTECTION and JEWISH DEFENSE Goals of Last 50 years of Jewish American Life: • Protect the Jews against Anti-Semetism • Defend Israel • Fight for Freedeom of Soviet Jews • Offer help to Jewish poor here and abroad • Educating to make Jewish identity stronger

  12. MAINSTREAM JEWISH “PROTECTORS” • Federation • AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) • American Jewish Committee • American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee • Anti-Defamation League (ADL) • Friends of the IDF

  13. GOODBYE PROTECTIONHELLO… • PROGRESSIVE • Are willing to criticize Israel- the non-Zionist Jew. • EXPRESSIVE • Celebrate Diaspora as rich and inclusive –Israel is no longer central.

  14. WHY THE CHANGE? • Jews today do not feel a threat of Anti-Semetism • Jews today like non-Jews • Jews today are searching for meaning, cultural exploration and a way to express themselves personally. • Rise of the Jewish Foundations – (Federation no longer sets the priorities of Jewish Life)

  15. INSIDE THE MINDS OF THE NEW START-UPS • Question the status quo • Are focused on younger Jews • Experiment often • Innovative

  16. AREAS of INNOVATION • RELIGIOUS LIFE • YeshivatHadar • Drisha • IKAR • KAVANNAH • SOCIAL JUSTICE (helping non-Jews more than Jews) • Jcorps • Avodah • Hazon • ISRAEL – ORIENTED ACTIVITES • Encounter • Club 1948 • NEW FORMS OF COMMUNITY • Moishe House • Ravenna Kibbutz in Seattle • CULTURAL PROGRAMS • Jdub records • E-3 • Kfar

  17. NEW DEFINITION OF JEWISH IDENTITY [You] don’t keep kosher, that’s fine; don’t keep Shabbat, that’s fine; marry a non-Jew – whatever. But understand that it will take away your Jewish identity if you don’t fight for justice. (Rabbi DaraFrimmer)

  18. ABOUT THE NEW PARTICIPANTS IN JEWISH LIFE = NO LOYALTY “ Participants go where they please, with little regard to who is sponsoring an activity. They don’t care whether a Federation or a national organization is sponsoring an event, any more than they care if a start-up is. What matters is the QUALITY OF THE EXPERIENCE, the PRESENCE OF PEOPLE with whom they wish to associate and the MEANING (pleasure) they can derive from an event.”

  19. The IRONY = The Outsiders are really the insiders • The young leaders today have been educated by the big mainstream institutions that they now reject. (Many leadership training programs) • The young innovators have almost all (95%) been to Israel and 1/3 have Day School backgrounds • The funding for the new Jewish start-ups is all coming from older Jews and established, mainstream organizations. THE ESTABLISHMENT HAS GIVEN BIRTH TO THE ANTI-ESTABLISHMENT

  20. QUESTIONS/CONCERNS ABOUT THE NEW TRENDS – The Jury is Still Out • Are there too many Jewish opportunities? Are American Jews pulled in too many different directions? Is Community lost with so many different options? Are we a community lacking a center? • What will happen with those Walmart sized Jewish organizations in the past? Will they wither and die or will (can) they reinvent themselves and exist side-by-side the new innovative start-up organizations. • How will your kids rebel? Will young Jews stay a part of these innovative start-ups as they grow older or will they seek out more tradition institutions to be part of when they marry and have kids?

  21. QUESTION: WHEN WE GET RID OF PEOPLEHOOD, WHAT DO WE LOSE? • “Seeing Jews as a global extended family, exhibiting concern…for one’s fellow Jews, are authentic expression of what, from Biblical times forward, it has meant to be Jewish and to act responsibly for the sake of the Jewish future. Jews are not individuals, seeking personal meaning, they are a people with a special role in history – to change the world. To retreat from peoplehood is to retreat from what has been at the core… We have become a people who is no longer proud of what we are and no longer dedicated to the message of caring for our own. How can we be expected, then, to be held in high regard by others? How can we be expected, then, to move the world forward through our message?

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