Opinion
TURN MICHIGAN
Jewish Education from page 23
These groups are committed to edu-
cating the Jewish community about
Israel's history, culture, peoplehood
and politics as well as its struggle to
survive.
• Jewish Service Learning — The
past decade was all about a new
form of tikkun olam [repair of the
world]. Jews combined Jewish learn-
ing with a zeal for pursuing justice,
causing organizations like American
Jewish World Service, Jewish Funds
for Justice and Avodah to flourish.
They applied their Torah learning to
real-life situations (business ethics
to the Enron and Madoff scandals,
ethical kashrut to the Rubashkin/
Agriprocessors debacle, pursuing
global justice to Darfur, etc.).
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24
January 28 2010
• Inclusion — Gay rights in the
Jewish community came about
through education. The Boston-
based Keshet discovered new ways to
educate the community about GLBT
inclusion, while a gay Orthodox
rabbi came out of the closet to help
create and promote a film about
homosexuality in the Orthodox
world. The Conservative movement's
seminaries opened their doors to
gays and lesbians, and the decade
ended with a majority of Reform
and Conservative rabbis willing to
perform commitment ceremonies
for same-sex couples.
• Informal Ed — In each decade,
JCCs and Hillels have had to adapt
to new trends. Learning Torah with
a local rabbi under the same roof as
your Yoga class and where your child
attends pre-school or high school is
truly impressive.
It's possible that our JCCs and
Hillels are the most underrated edu-
cational agency in our Jewish com-
munity.
• Post-Denominationalism — The
last decade prepared us for true
post-denominationalism in this
new decade. The last 10 years saw
the rise of community day schools
and high schools, and, therefore, the
growth of Raysak — the network of
these non-denominational schools.
It also became common for
Reform and Conservative congrega-
tions to merge in an effort for both
of them to survive. In most cases,
these bi-denominational mergers
proved flawless. Family foundations
and federations created programs,
fellowships and new organizations
that transcended the movements.
With funding from the mega-phi-
lanthropists of the Jewish com-
munity came programs that no one
denomination could claim — the
STAR Foundation's Synaplex and
PEER programs, Taglit-Birthright
free Israel trips, PJ Library, Avi Chai,
PEJE, etc. The growth of organiza-
tions like BBYO and CLAL also
demonstrate a post-denominational,
informal educational spirit.
• Interfaith — Through the out-
of-the-box education offered by the
Jewish Outreach Institute, the Jewish
community began to consider inter-
faith families in new ways. While
the Reform movement was quick to
welcome the interfaith family, the
more traditional movements need to
be educated on why this is of para-
mount importance to the future of
Jewish peoplehood.
• Conclusion: It is through educa-
tion that the Jewish community
reaches new heights. In the new
decade, we'll see the impact on the
organized Jewish community that
the generation influenced by indie
minyan leadership will have.
New advances in technology will
allow us to share Jewish wisdom
across continents at lightning speed.
We'll see much more collaboration
between synagogues, federations,
camps and youth groups to create
community-wide endeavors that will
save money and reach more Jewish
people quicker.
We'll also begin to determine
whether the mega-philanthropists
and federations are really getting
the most out of their million-dollar
investment with Birthright Israel.
Because if we don't see real results
in the coming years, we'll regret how
much money was spent on middle-
class 20-somethings for their free
ride to Israel at the expense of many
other important educational initia-
tives.
Finally, the alphabet soup of
Jewish communal life will get
smaller as we weed out redundant
organizations and support creativity
and innovation — the hallmarks of
Jewish education. El
Rabbi Jason Miller is director of ATID:
Alliance for Teens in Detroit and the
spiritual leader of Oakland County-based
Tamarack Camps. He serves as the part-
time spiritual leader of Congregation
T'chiyah in Oak Park.