Moving from Vision to Action: The Reform Jewish Think Tank

More than a dozen years ago (2010-12), I had occasion to co-staff the Reform Jewish Think Tank, a project convened by the three legacy institutions of our movement, the URJ, HUC and the CCAR. Over the course of a year and a half, lay and professional leaders attempted to map out ideas and recommendations that would support a new vision for North American Reform Judaism.  Here, then, are some of the notes and findings taken from those deliberations that would seem to still be of value! 

No action was ever taken to consider or implement these findings.  In light of  the two recently convened Recharging Reform Judaism Conferences (2023-2024), hosted by Stephen Wise Free Synagogue (NY), possibly some of this material will ultimately gain some traction and interest.

We believe that it is not possible to frame a vision without also articulating an action plan. As members of the Reform Jewish Think Tank, we feel a responsibility to the sacred and essential work that must now be initiated. The ideas and recommendations we are introducing represent a reflection of the many voices we have heard during the course of our work as well as reflect our ideas and dreams for our Movement’s future.

Over the course of the past year and a half, we have come together on five occasions, held numerous conference calls, convened working group cluster meetings, and sponsored a wide array of focus groups, surveys, and visioning sessions.  This process has not been conducted without significant challenges and a degree of uncertainty beginning with the lack of clarity associated with our mission.

 Yet, the future of our Movement is core to each of us, and toward that end we offer these proposals.

Section I. Five Core Concepts Ought to Frame the Future Work of our Movement:

• Community: Re-envisioning the Idea and Reality that Every Jew is Sacred, and that each Community is Distinctive and Holy
• Continuity: Drawing on our Past, Building for the Global Future
• Connection: Focusing on the Value and Uses of Technology while Embracing New Modes of Communication in Reaching and Engaging our Community, and Beyond.
• Collaboration: Preserving and Creating Networks of Relationships among those within our Movement, and Beyond
• Creativity: Imagining and Building the Future by Employing our Shared Institutional Resources and Collective Talents

Section II: Challenges Before Us

We have identified a set of questions that as a movement we need to address:

The Movement faces a set of demographic and social challenges, involving such issues as intermarriage, assimilation, the cost of Jewish living, and the changing nature of the Jewish family.  Are we prepared to respond these issues by articulating new and innovative ways to reach Jews?

In this complex moment in time how ought the primary institutions of the Reform Movement organize, govern and manage itself?

How ought we as Movement to engage with Israel and world Jewry? What do we see as our message as part of the global Jewish conversation?

Will our message be heard? Are we invoking the tools of technology and those of social networking that in turn will allow us to reach our constituencies and beyond?   

Where do we stand on issues of religious authority? Who will speak for us on religious affairs and political concerns, and what are they saying? Are we still a faith community committed to the “prophetic voice” within Judaism or is our message today solely one of self-preservation?

Section III: Making Change Happen

 In constructing our future we believe that the institutions within our movement will need to think about these core elements in managing our future:

Defining our Organizational Niche:  namely, can we afford to be a “Walmart”, meeting the diverse interests of an array of different audiences, or might we be seen as “”, specializing in meeting specific needs and serving a particular type of audience? Many of the emerging institutional models today are single-issue constituencies with a defined core message and mandate.

Moving toward Consolidation and Collaboration: If we have learned anything about the current economic crisis, institutions will need in the future to operate invoking a different paradigm. The new normal requires leaders to ask with whom and how can we build a working partnership? In this new culture, organizational collaboration trumps competition and acts of consolidation override the expansion of services.

Building Brand Recognition and Establishing Market Share: the focus on creating a definitive statement and institutional plan of action that is designed to appeal to our target audience(s).

Introducing a Culture of Experimentation and Research:

Institutions that will succeed in this new market environment are committed to an investment in new ideas and alternative institutional delivery models.

Section IV: Core Principles that Shape our Thinking and Inform our Recommendations:

A good deal of the new environment will require us to embrace innovation, by learning to

live with failure and in turn, to understand success in new and even unconventional ways!

We will be committed to the dual priorities of lowering the barrier of entry while raising the level of intellectual discourse and spiritual connection. As we welcome individuals into our community, we also want to excite and challenge them to think differently and seriously about the Jewish enterprise.

We view social networking and the world of media and communications as an opportunity and as a tool for branding and marketing our messages, ideas, and services but not as the core of what we are or will become.  These resources however will allow us to reach unaffiliated Jews and to speak to the many Americans who remain “unchurched”.

We want to move from being seen as builders of institutions to being identified as enablers, allowing for relationship, engagement, and connection to define our standing and our message for those in search of religious meaning, personal relationship, social action, and a commitment to serious Jewish learning.

We need to account for regional patterns of behavior and practice as the nature of change is uneven and may well take on different outcomes in various settings.

Section V: Organizing for this New Moment in Time: Proposals for our Movement

We offer a set of institutional initiatives that we believe will help our core institutions

1. Create a Reform Leadership Academy:  If we are to be successful, we will need to prepare and nurture new generations of knowledgeable and skilled lay leaders who can carry forward the mandate of our Movement and its institutions. Our future leaders will require a 21^st century perspective on organizational behavior and leadership practice and communal trends. We will need to ensure both for our congregations and for our Movement that there exists such a resource center. Institutions can no longer simply assume that leaders will step forward; in this new century, we will need to identify and embrace those we feel can help advance and sustain our institutions. The quality of our leadership bench, both lay and professional, will determine our future!
2. Prepare our Jewish Professional Leaders: To operate in this changing marketplace, our professionals will need to inspire, empower and engage both existing and new constituencies; they will need to understand and invoke recruiting and organizing principles; they must be able to embrace the skills and talents associated with outreach initiatives. Our rabbis, educators and cantors must possess a depth of religious knowledge that will allow them to engage array of seekers, learners, and even skeptics. Our professionals will need to be able to teach in conventional and nonconventional settings as a way to reach and connect to an array of audiences. Our professionals must be seen as the intellectual leaders within American Judaism. The future of our Movement and of our community will rest on the quality of its institutional leadership.
3. Fund for Congregational Innovation and Change: Forming and Sustaining a Jewish Resource Bank . If experimentation and a culture of inquiry are required, the national system of our Movement will need to seed many of these experiments in Jewish living and learning and to assist congregations and communities to invest in models of religious practice.
4. Develop and Support a New Initiative on Liturgy and Learning: As a Movement we ought to explore how collectively we create opportunities for serious learning possibilities that can occur on-site as well as on-line.  Such a resource facility ought to be directed to assist the personal spiritual and learning journeys of our members and to enhance on-line learning opportunities. This resource institute should be seen as the intellectual center of our Movement, in partnership with the College-Institute, engaging our rabbis, educators, and cantors among others in the pursuit of advanced learning and study. This type of educational facility would serve the interests of American Judaism as a whole.
5. Communications Laboratory: Developing Technology to Serve our Institutions and Communities

These proposals along with an array of other ideas about organizational change and practice will require a renewed focus on collaboration among our partner institutions.

We believe that this visioning statement and the recommendations as introduced by the Think Tank should be seen as a framework for further conversation within the Movement. We believe that our work will best be evaluated and judged if the stakeholders within our institutions and among our congregations embrace these documents as a mandate for change.