Framing a 21st Century American Jewish manifesto

In an age of extraordinary transitions and challenges, how do we re-envision the Jewish communal story?

• How do we rebuild and strengthen the support for Israel at a time of intense division, external criticism, and social unrest that surrounds the Jewish State?
• How should we go about reframing the Jewish communal infrastructure? Core institutions within our communities are experiencing a loss of membership, donor support and community involvement; what steps can be taken to help re-energize and rethink ways to move forward key institutions of our communal system?
• What steps must our community take to rebuild its essential relationships with key ethnic and racial communities across this nation? What strategies should we employ in explaining the value and importance of such connections?
• How proactive have we been in understanding the implications of “AI” and other technological advancements, managing diversity-equity and inclusion, confronting hate, responding to the loss of trust and confidence in our institutions, and anticipating other trends and behaviors that are likely to impact our community and its constituencies?

In exploring these and other questions, it would be beneficial to explore the organizing ideas that framed our existing communal structures. We can identify a number of 19^th Century ideas and beliefs that would give shape and context to our current condition, serve as the basis of our communal beliefs, and help to frame our political relationships and contemporary practices. These include:

Capitalism and Denominationalism: These organizing models would shape 19^th Century American life and more directly, the American Jewish experience. Building around systems of separate corporate entities, the Jewish religious and social service networks were constructed. This implied competition and the division of services.

Assimilationism and Progressivism: These overarching social ideas emphasized the formation of a “melting pot” formula for developing communities and socializing them around a particular set of ideals. The breaking away of distinctiveness in favor of acculturation and the formation of a uniform political and cultural identity further eroded Jewish distinctiveness.

Universalism and Brotherhood: These third ideological elements fostered a perspective of how Jews, among others, might embrace the broader society. This focus de-emphasized particularism and separatism in favor of a global outlook on humanity, and in the process rejected elements of nationalism and communalism.

Manifest Destiny and American Exceptionalism: While seen as competing with the idea of universalism, this distinctive focus on America would also profoundly influence Jewish thought and practice during the latter half of the 19^th Century.

Urbanization and Second Industrial Revolution: The growth of America’s cities and the framework of this nation’s economy would be created in the second half of the 19^th Century, laying the basis of how the Jewish communal system would be organized, funded and operated. A portion of that story is aligned with the arrival of the American railroad as bonding the nation together and providing the means for creating the essential connections not only for business and trade but also for religious and cultural links to be fostered and maintained.

The organizing principles of American Judaism that were shaped during the post-Civil War era would continue to play out well into the 20^th Century. Two distinctive organizing systems, both taken from the broader American culture, served to inform the Jewish experience. A series of religious “awakenings” contributed to the reshaping of American church/synagogue life. In the aftermath of the Civil War, following the third of these revivals, denominationalism would be the formula around which Jews would create their religious identities.

Correspondingly, progressive ideas would influence and shape the Jewish social service model, leading to the formation of federations and their allied agencies. Between 1875 and 1920, the contemporary American Jewish communal enterprise would take shape. From 1880-1985, this dual church-state system proved successful within the American Jewish context. This writer has offered commentary in other settings on how the communal platform has been impacted and altered over the course of the past 150 years by ideas and events that would test and challenge these organizing modalities.

Now, into the 21^st Century, we are encountering an entirely different set of external forces that are in turn reshaping the American experience and directly impacting the Jewish communal model. Among the ideas that today generate concern:

• Post-Modernism/Post Colonialism
• Dynamics of Power: How it is Understood and Employed
• Ethnic and Section Studies

Each of these ideological constructs marginalizes, demonizes and rejects the status and place of Jews, minimizing the centrality and importance of Israel, while rekindling old anti-Semitic tropes in connection with Jewish power and position. If Jewish ideas and influence helped to define much of the second half of the 20^th Century, then in this current time frame, Jews, Judaism and Israel must be seen as problematic notions during a period of revisionist history, intersectionality politics, and woke cultural behaviors.

Jews are seen as either “Super White” or “ White Pretenders.” In the first context, their “whiteness” is understood as aligning them with the existing white power structure. Here, Jews are seen by the far left as trading in their minority status in favor of identifying with the existing power structure.  In turn, for the far right, Jews are defined as white pretenders, seeking to hold power for other minorities. “Jews will not replace us” has been the mantra for those elements opposing Jewish political power and influence.

The reality here is that a whole new paradigm will be needed to serve the next generation. As the Jewish condition is rapidly and radically changing in America, there will be increasing pressure on the community to reposition itself, as a way to reclaim its political and social influence. No doubt, this will become more difficult in light of the internal divisions that today define the American Jewish polity. Power can only accrue as a communal system demonstrates a heightened level of solidarity, focusing on a collective agenda, while effectively managing internal threats and challenges.

What will be required in this century is an entirely different organizing platform for American Jewry, demanding a more nimble, proactive and assertive set of institutional partners. Collaboration and connection will be the operating imperatives in connection with this emergent system of community-based initiatives.

The community will require a 21^st Century Jewish Manifesto, focusing on and organizing around five core objectives:

• INSURING THE SAFETY AND SECURITY OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY.
• PROVIDING MULTIPLE ENTRY POINTS FOR JEWISH LEARNING, ENGAGEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT.
• FOSTERING VARIOUS DIALOGUE OPPORTUNITIES TO ENCOURAGE AND GROW THE DIASPORA-ISRAEL CONNECTION, AS WELL AS INTRA-JEWISH DISCUSSIONS BY INTRODUCING EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCES AND FRAMING DIALOGUE OPTIONS
• CREATING AN ARRAY OF EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL OPPORTUNITIES TO INTRODUCE AMERICANS TO ISRAEL, JUDAISM AND THE JEWISH STORY.
• BUILDING COMMUNAL NETWORKS BRINGING JEWS TOGETHER FOR SHARED LEARNING AND COLLECTIVE ENGAGEMENT AROUND ISRAEL AND THE AMERICAN JEWISH EXPERIENCE.

Here, the basic communal elements for organizing are introduced: security, engagement, connection, education, and relationship. Technology will drive this new framework of community-building, while innovation and entrepreneurship will help shape the new models of organizing.

If the 19th Century created the essential building blocks for the community, the 21st Century will afford American Jewry an opportunity to assert its core priorities, create essential access points, build new partnerships and alliances, and promote the political goals and social policies critical to its well-being.