.. ., . ... ~ , A COLLECTION OF PAPERS BY ._ ·\ · . ' . C:ONT.EMPORARY JEWISH S'CHO ~ . , . .WI~KERS AND muCATil~ : 4 ,. ... .. THE SOVEREIGN AND THE SITUATED SELF •' ,' THE SOVEREIGN AND THE SITUATED SELF Jewish Identity and Community in the 21st Century A collection of papers by contemporary Jewish scholars, thinkers and educators Edited by Jonathan Boyd I. ~ ~ UJIA ~~- UNIIlniiWI)H --~ I~RAH APPEAL ·~· First published in Great Britain in 2003 by The United Jewish Israel Appeal Balfour House 741 High Road London NI 2 OBQ in association with Profile Books Ltd www.pro.fi/ebooks.eo.uk 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 All essays in this collection are copyright of the author in each case. The United Jewish Israel Appeal is the leading supporter of Israeli charitable causes and young Jewish people in the UK. The moral right of the authors has been asserted. All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above. no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted. in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written pennission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book. A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Typeset in Times by MacGuru Ltd [email protected] Printed and bound in Great Britain by Hobbs the Printers This book has been produced with the generous support of the Lord Ashdown Charitable Settlement. ISBN I 86I97 76I 1 CONTENTS Acknowledgements VIII Introduction The sovereign and the situated self: Jewish identity and community in the 21st century Jonathan Boyd Part 1: What is, and what ought to be? 7 D'varTorah Shalom Orzach 9 Exploring the challenges confronting the contemporary Jewish world lrwin Cot/er 12 Steven M. Cohen 20 A case of new identity: detecting the forces facing Jewish identity and community Steven M. Cohen 26 Kate Loewenthal 30 A case of new identity: what should all Jews know? Hanan Alexander 35 Aviezer Ravitzky 40 Looking in, looking out: the role of the Jew in the contemporary world David Cesarani 45 A/an Hoffmann 50 Looking in, looking out: on what should our educational efforts be focused? Michael Rosenak 54 lrwin Cot/er 59 Educating our children: exploring the role of the Jewish day school Hanan Alexander 65 Barry Kosmin 70 Educating our children: imagining the Jewish day school of the future Barry Chazan 75 Beverly Gribetz 80 Creating community: is the synagogue doing what is needed? Margaret Harris 85 Michae/ Rosenak 90 Creating community: envisaging the synagogue of the 2 I st century Charles Liebman 94 Robert Rabinowitz 98 Judaism and the contemporary world: foundation principles of Jewish identity and community for the 2 I st century Aviezer Ravitzky 103 Jonathan Sacks 108 Part 2: Examining our context 113 D'varTorah Ange/a Cluck Wood 115 Exploring our general context: the impact of national and global trends on identity, community and education Barry Kosmin 118 Steven M. Cohen 123 Exploring our Jewish context: trends in the Jewish world, and how to utilise them for our benefit Jonathan Ariel 128 Tony Bayfield 132 Struggling for Israel: what happens when the classroom becomes dangerous? Barry Chazan 137 Reaching out to others: the role of a social action agenda in Jewish education Edie Friedman 141 Reuven Gal 145 Spiritual exploration: following my head or my heart? Zvi Bekerman 150 Michael Shire !54 Civics: should British Jews swear allegiance to Britain? Clive Lawton 159 Robert Rabinowitz 164 Part 3: In search of vision 169 D'var Torah Raphael Zarum 171 The role of vision in 21st-century education Jonathan Ariel 177 Michael Rosenak 183 Part 4: Case studies from the British Jewish community 189 Case study 1: Texts and Values Project of the UJIA Makor Centre for Informal Jewish Education Raphael Zarum 191 Case study 2: Limmud Jacque/ine Nicholls 196 Case study 3: Synagogue transformation Julian Resnick 200 Case study 4: King Solomon High School Alastair Falk 206 Case study 5: The Saatchi Synagogue Pini Dunner 211 Biographies of contributors 217 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS he UJIA-Hebrew University Conference on 'Jewish Identity and TCommunity in the 21st Century' had its origins in two places. Clive Marks, one of the most well-respected and visionary lay leaders of the British Jewish community, had been pivotal in bringing to­ gether some of the world's greatest Jewish scholars in May 2000 at the President's Conference at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His dream, and that of the Chief Rabbi, Professor Jonathan Sacks, was that that event should serve as a springboard for a series of con­ ferences throughout the Jewish world, designed to encourage dia­ logue and deepen understanding of contemporary Jewish issues. In considering where the first follow-up conference should be, where better than his home city of London? During the same period, Jonathan Ariel, then Executive Director for Jewish Renewal at the United Jewish Israel Appeal in London, was dreaming of coordinating a major conference for senior Jewish com­ munity leaders -both Jay and professional - to help establish Jewish education as a central priority for British Jewry. When UJIA and the Hebrew University learned of each other's plans, it seemed prudent to merge the two initiatives. and hence the shidduch was sealed. As the plans began to take shape, a team was built, led by Clive. Without him, the event would never have taken place- his ideas, his reputation and the funding he brought from the Lord Ashdown Char­ itable Settlement were all critical in turning our dreams into reality. He also helped to build a lay team, chaired by Allan Fisher and ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iX coordinated by Michael Gee and Anthony Spitz from the Friends of the Hebrew University UK, and Professor Leslie Wagner CBE, Michael Goldstein and Tony Danker from UJIA. All of these people gave up considerable amounts of time to help select and invite the speakers, build the programme, and construct the event. Their contri­ bution was priceless and their commitment infectious. In addition to the lay team, a group of committed professionals worked with me in the office on a day-to-day basis, offering me support and, in truth, doing the bulk of the work. Shalom Orzach, Jonathan Ariel's successor at UJIA and my teacher, guide and mentor, was always inspiring and helpful, and lent his considerable experi­ ence and expertise to the entire endeavour. Andrea Mail of the Friends of the Hebrew University and Syma Weinberg from the Office of the Chief Rabbi were also heavily involved, and were an ever-present source of help and advice. The staff team at UJIA Renewal deserves a special mention. Lira Winston, Lisa Capelouto and Dr Raphael Zarum offered more un­ conditional support and advice than I could ever have wished for. Zoe Matthews and Ruth Etzioni deserve particular thanks for all their administrative support; Gila Sacks offered me several sharp and valuable insights, all of which influenced the final programme; and Ruth Silver was a truly exceptional professional throughout, and pulled together the event with great expertise. In the aftermath of the conference, as we began work on this pub­ lication, two people contributed their time and expertise. Gitta Zarum transcribed the entire event, and Anne Joseph both began the editing process and helped me to design the final product. We elected to publish summaries rather than the full proceedings because we wanted people to gain easy access to the wealth of ideas that were presented during the three days of the conference. Conference pro­ ceedings often remain in the realm of academia; our intention was to do everything possible to bring academic thought into the day-to-day world of Jewish community education. In our search for a publisher, Professor Barry Kosmin at the Insti­ tute for Jewish Policy Research was an incredibly helpful source of X THE SOVEREIGN AND THE SITUATED SELF advice, and pointed us in the right direction. We eventually encoun­ tered Paul Forty and Andrew Franklin of Profile Books, who, together with my colleague Zoe Matthews, worked with exceptional profes­ sionalism, dedication and patience to produce this book. My last thank you is reserved for the conference presenters - all of the remarkable individuals who travelled to London in spring 2002 and gave the British Jewish community the benefit of their wisdom and insight. Particular thanks are due to those who came from Israel at that time - the conference took place during an extremely tense period there, and it is never easy to be away from family and friends at such times. Somehow, they all managed to lift themselves out of the extraordinary realities of day-to-day Israel, and to engage fully in the questions that punctuated our deliberations. To them, and to the families who had to be without them for a few days, a genuine and heartfelt todah. Jonathan Boyd Conference Director I t INTRODUCTION THE SOVEREIGN AND THE SITUATED SELF: JEWISH IDENTITY AND COMMUNITY IN THE 21sT CENTURY Jonathan Boyd wo concepts sit at the heart of the Jewish community's delibera­ Ttions about its future today, and both took centre stage at the UJIA-Hebrew University Conference that took place in London in 2002. The first, 'the sovereign self', describes the state of identity in much of the western world, certainly in the decade leading up to 11 September 2001. Sociologists and thinkers such as Robert Putnam, Robert Bellah, Zygmunt Bauman and, in the Jewish world, Steven M. Cohen, have written extensively about the notion of radical individualism. They maintain that people have become increasingly individualised, increasingly caught up in their own individual needs, concerns and quests for meaning, and as a result, increasingly iso­ lated and alone.