So last night, a little after 10 PM, I received an e-mail from one of my instructors with a mark for the final assignment I submitted as part of my HSRV 433 course. This 26 page paper titled “Jewish Civilization 2.0 - Fostering Jewish Identity Through Online Social Networking, Cultural and Educational Opportunities“ was worth 50% of my final grade and it received a mark of 90 or an A+, which I’m extremely pleased with. Math isn’t my strong suit and I haven’t calculated everything but unless I’m horribly off in my calculations, that last mark means I’ve passed the course with an A+ and that isn’t shabby at all. Essentially this was a part of a fourth year research project which is meant to be tied into two other fourth-year courses which when combined winds up basically being what most of you in America would call a “thesis project”. Basically the way these courses work is that the first course HSRV 433 has students pick a topic of interest and do a three-step research project on it. Then in HSRV 455 the student uses that research to develop some sort of project proposal which builds on or addresses some question raised by the previously completed research. Then finally in HSRV 477 the student is actually to apply/run the project he has developed. I’m not sure how great a job I’ve done explaining things but for those of you who are confused or want to know more feel free to click on the course links above.

I’m not sure whether or not I’m going to post my entire research paper online but now that it’s completed, marked and returned. I guess I’m comfortable enough to post the introduction for those of you who might be curious.

Anyhow here it is (the intro).

The American Jewish 20-40 year-old population is still in many ways one of the most underserved within the broader Jewish community. Because of this, this demographic is most likely to be at a higher risk of disengaging from their Jewish communities and sense of Jewish identity. Of significance is how this demographic has begun turning to the Internet as a tool (often even as a preferred choice) for expressing, understanding, cultivating and engaging their individual and collective senses of Jewish identity. Although there has been a considerable amount of research conducted in the areas of Jewish identity and culture, to date, there unfortunately exists little research on how the Internet and Web 2.0 technologies are being used (or might be used in the future) to address the unique needs of this Jewish demographic.

In order to help address this existing research deficit, the emphasis of this paper will be on discussing how emerging Internet and Web 2.0 technologies are currently being used by this demographic. Additionally, how these technologies might better be used in the future as important strategies for addressing the needs facing this segment of the Jewish population. These needs include new modes of informal engagement over traditional forms of affiliation, and an overall sense of connectedness to Jewish identity.

I will begin by briefly summarizing the data which I have previously collected and analyzed for earlier assignments in this course, all of which are topics relating to current trends within my research demographic. These trends include: Jewish Self-Concept, Community and Institutional affiliation, as well as cultural and religious engagement.

In addition, part of this discussion will include basic information on what the Web 2.0 is as well as several examples of how these technologies are currently being used to address some of the challenges facing the 20-40 year old Jewish population. I will focus specifically on the Web 2.0 and its role in facilitating Social Networking and Self-Directed Learning Opportunities. To conclude, I will provide recommendations on how these technologies might further be used to provide this segment of the Jewish population with improved formal and informal Social Networking and Learning Opportunities.

As usual polite yet constructive feedback is always welcome.

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This morning I received an email from a guy over at the Awakened Heart Project (AHP) telling me about their new website. I decided to check it out and WOW, I am impressed with what I saw. It’s basically an online resource with the stated aim of enhancing peoples understanding and experience of Jewish meditation and prayer.

Here is a blurb from their about page.

The mission of Awakened Heart Project is to promote the use of Jewish contemplative techniques that foster the development of a heart of wisdom and compassion. Cultivating an awakened heart leads to acting in the world with loving-kindness towards all beings recognizing them as manifestations of the Holy One of Being.

The AHP provides opportunities for a focused effort at refining contemplative Jewish practices, such as meditation and prayer, as well as creating opportunities for intensive practice.

Also here is some of what the site offers, as listed on their welcome page.

• • Regularly updated podcasts
  • Essays and articles on Jewish meditation
  • Jewish meditation events calendar
  • Meditation and contemplative Jewish resources

I haven’t spent a whole bunch of time going through these resources yet but they do look good. So I’m sure to be, a frequent visitor to this site. If your interested in the contemplative side of Judaism this site is a must see. If you don’t know anything about contemplative Judaism but are curious, this site will get you up to speed in no time, so check it out.

Technorati tags: Contemplative Judaism, Online Judaism, Jewish Meditation, The Awakened Heart Project, Jewish Audio

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Well I’ve been here for almost 2 months now and I’d say things are going extremely well. That’s saying a lot because I?m not a guy who usually transitions into new situations all that great but all things considered I can’t complain. Yes indeed things are going smoother than I could have ever imagined possible. That’s not to say that there haven’t been bumps along the way Just that there have been few and those that did happen have been minor at best.

I managed to finish a summary report for the first part of my thesis project (albeit a couple of weeks late) and that’s taken a huge amount of pressure off of me.

Tamara and I are having a lot of fun and getting along very well in my opinion. We’ve had the opportunity to do a little bit of traveling and spend some time with her parents which has been nice. We’ve also managed to do a pretty good job of keeping off of each other’s toes, which is not always the easiest thing to do with new couples.

Los Angeles is an incredible city and there’s a lot for us to do and to my pleasant surprise there are lots of very cool things to do for little or no cost at all. We’ve been going on a lot of walks and completed our first rural mountain hike.

Jewishly we are doing a lot of socializing which is great for me because my last few months in Ottawa were spent acting like a Jewish hermit. We’ve been attending a few synagogues regularly as part of our “Shul Shopping” and I believe we have pretty much figured out where it is that we will be joining and that?s VBS. Having said that there are a few other places like IKAR and Knesset Israel where I’m sure will be spending a fair amount of time as well but it looks like we will be calling VBS home.

In terms of daily observance I think we?re doing an excellent job of keeping kosher both in and out of the home and that’s something I’m/we are both really proud of. Although (holy crap I just realized I’ve been keeping kosher at home for about a year now, wow time flies) I was initially very reluctant about taking on Kashrut Observance, I absolutely love it as a spiritual discipline and couldn’t imagine giving it up. Having said that, although Tamara is the one who pushed me in to the kosher thing. I think it’s been harder for her to adjust to keeping kosher out of the house than it has been for me but I’ve got to admit she’s really leaned into it and doing extremely well.

Also we have set ourselves up with one of those fancy hand washing cups and have been washing our hands and reciting blessings/prayers in the morning and although it can be difficult to remember what gets done when, I’m finding it very spiritually rewarding. I think we’re both hoping to gradually introduce more and more of this kind of observance into our daily life but we want to do it in a sustainable fashion, without making ourselves feel overloaded. One thing I know Tamara really is attracted to, is reciting blessings at meals, so we’ve started working on that. As of yet we haven’t been all that successful in this department but were making small steps and it’s getting easier.

As for Shabbat were far from being Shomer Shabbos but I think we’ve both come a long way in a short amount of time. Friday nights we try to have arrangements either to eat at someone’s house (preferably walking distance) or have guests over. If nothing is going on then we just keep it simple but do nonetheless light candles do Kiddush and Hamotzi. If we are just staying home I’ve committed to turning off my computer and staying off of the telephone. A lot of this stuff has been initiated by me but I’m trying not to be a bully about it, so I have also done some compromising. For example Friday nights if nothing is going on then we keep open the option of watching an “in the spirit of Shabbat Oneg” DVD and that’s ok. I myself turn off my computer and won’t watch any television other than the DVD if that’s what we’re doing. Ideally I would like to be a little more Shomer Shabbos in this regard but Tamara has made huge compromises so I’m willing to hold back on this one, until she’s ready to go a little deeper, that’s if she’s willing to go a little deeper. As for Saturday’s were doing very good. No television, no computer, no telephone, no movies, no buying, no radio and no car unless it’s driving to shul (which is acceptable according to conservative Halacha, which is our current measuring stick) and then it?s just to and fro with no radio. So that means driving when we go to VBS or Ikar but if it’s Knesset Israel then we walk about 25 minutes. I really do enjoy walking to shul on Saturday morning but both of us prefer the services at VBS so were still working it all out. However besides that we do not get into the car and I must admit I love it.

Also in the spirit of full disclosure and this is something I’m not exactly proud of because it feels like cheating, even though it was my idea. For the summer we’ve set fixed times for beginning and ending Shabbos, so we’re going from 6:30 PM Fridays to 6:30 PM Saturdays. Even though I realize that this is cheating I also realize that we’re doing much more than a lot of other Jews we know. More importantly we realize that our observance isn’t fixed or static and we both have a committed goal of deepening our connection and practice so it doesn’t feel like we’re being lazy. If anything, I guess the way we see it is where learning to crawl before we walk.

Tamara and I are even doing some formal Jewish studying. We’re both registered for something called “Everyday Holiness” which is an intro to Mussar course, something I’m sure I’ll be blogging a lot about in the coming weeks and months. Were also trying to do Saturday Torah study when we attend shul, which I forgot to mention we’ve committed to doing a minimum of twice a month. We’ve actually been going more but we thought we should put in a minimum just in case we get lazy but to be honest I’m the one who has a hard time with Saturday Shabbat services and not Tamara. I’m used to attending a Reform synagogue back home where there’s a lot of English now that everywhere we go have conservative style services I’m having a very hard time. Which although can be painful is good because it’s taught me that I really need to lean into my Hebrew learning a lot more. We are also attending a Thursday night Torah study series at VBS which is sure to be excellent. Then come October we will be doing the UJ Marriage Preparation course which I’ve already blogged about. I was thinking about starting an adult bar mitzvah course offered at VBS in September but I’ve decided that we just have too much going on. I do want to do an adult bar mitzvah but I think I’m going to wait until after we’ve gotten married so that means sometime next year I guess.

Wow, this post has gotten HUGE and although I haven’t managed to get through everything I wanted to, I think I’m going to wrap up here but try to follow up with another post covering our Jewishness for two’ishness probably sometime next week. There are a few other things I want to get to this week both in terms of blogging and real-world stuff.

Anyhow that’s it for now and as always if you were able to make it through this long-winded post please feel free to share your thoughts and comments because I love to get the feedback.

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I’ve actually been meaning to do this for a few days now but I was just too wrapped up in other stuff.

Anyhow there’s a new blogger on the block and me likes what me sees. His name is Yair ben Avraham and his blog is called Northwood Jew. He is a Minnesota Jew By Choice who blogs about G-d, Judaism and life in his neck of the woods (get it, woods!!). He was nice enough to add me to his blogroll but more importantly we seem to share a lot of the same interests, Jewishly speaking. For example were both in to these Rabbi’s; Mordecai Kaplan, Joseph Telushkin and Rabbi David Cooper.

His blog is new, his posts are interesting and he’s just getting things started. I’m thinking that if you like my blog and the stuff I go on about you probably will like his stuff too.

So check it out.

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So I’ve been in Los Angeles now for just under a month and I’ve noticed a couple of things. At the top of the list is something which has really taken me by surprise and that is (at least thus far) I seem to be more concerned and focused on being observant than many of my Jewish “by birth” friends and acquaintances. Now back home it was the same way but I just chalked that up to the fact that I belonged to a reform community where the patterns of observance where for the most part weekend warrior?s although there certainly were some exceptions. Here the people I associate with are certainly not reform, in fact I wouldn’t be surprised if a few them were to take issue with being labeled as such. However to be honest most of the people I hang out with our newly engaged Jews, meaning that they were not raised in observant families. I would say that most of them have for whatever reason decided as adults to engage or reengaged with their Jewish identity be it spiritual or cultural and in this case most of them are somehow associated with or participating at a Chabad center.

It’s not like I’m hanging out with a bunch of black hats (although there are also a few of those in my extended network) but nonetheless, I’m really surprised at the way many of my friends approach observance. For the most part it seems that people pick one thing (keeping kosher or doing the minyan thing daily) but seem to willfully ignore other patterns of observance. In fact I’ve noticed that some people actually look for reasons to exclude other practices from daily or weekly life. I’ve got to admit that I’m having a hard time understanding why some of my friends are doing this. I’m not trying to say this in a judgmental sort of way or anything; it’s simply that I’m cognitively not getting it. Maybe it’s because I’m a Jew by choice or maybe it’s because I’ve done a non-Orthodox conversion and on some level I feel I need to make sure that I’m at least trying to cross my T’s and dot my I’s because it’s harder for me to be taken seriously in some circles. Who knows?

Since arriving here in Los Angeles I’ve found myself in several situations where I’m actually pushing gently nudging people (in a natural and organic kind of way - I hope) to lean into their observance a little more. Whether it’s wearing a Kippah outside of shul, walking on Shabbos (even if it?s really hot) or encouraging/supporting someone in finding ways to stay off the computer on a Saturday afternoon.

I don’t view the Mitzvot as binding so it’s not like I think people have to do everything in an or else kind of way. In fact one new insight I’ve gained since arriving in Los Angeles is that I seem to approach the Taryag Mitzvot more from a perspective of making a committed vow than I do from a place of submitting myself to a set of external commandments. I don’t want to go too deeply into this subject with this post because all of this is still being worked out in my mind and I don’t want to give anyone the wrong impression, including myself LOL.

So anyhow I suppose what really gets me confused is how people seem to stay willfully ignorant of anything currently outside of their comfort zone observance wise. I know that I’m far from being mitzvah observant in any comprehensive sort of way but I certainly don’t look for ways to exclude new practices from my life. Unfortunately this is something that I have noticed in a few other people down here and I just don’t get it. I myself have worked extremely hard to change my way of thinking about Mitzvot from an attitude of pessimism and punishment to one of spiritual opportunity.

For example take Shabbos which is something I’ve really started to focus on since arriving in Los Angeles. At this point I’ve committed to giving up television, computers/Internet, audio books, telephone, spending money and driving (Unless we’re going to a shul or someone’s home for Shabbos which is just too far away to walk to - at this point anywhere I/we can walk to within an hour is doable at least according me) and to be honest there’s been next to no sense of loss over any of it. I said committed to giving up instead of “have given up” because I live with someone else that I think is having a harder time with this stuff than I am. So I’m trying (note I said trying which does not necessarily mean always pulling it off) to be somewhat flexible and gentle with all of this, albeit in a way that doesn?t make me feel like I’ve sold out my principles.

To be honest I really don’t feel like I’m giving anything up. In fact I increasingly feel like I’m making room for new things that would be impossible to have if I kept doing things the old way. When it comes to observance it’s really easy to come up with the reasons not to do something, O know this because I’ve done it myself many times. However it seems to me that as progressive (non-Orthodox) Jews who want and claim to be serious about our Jewish engagement, the onus is on us to go the full distance (and then some) when it comes to finding ways to make observance relevant because it is too easy to do just the opposite.

To my way of thinking the term “not binding” in no way equates irrelevant. So I suppose it’s just that I feel some of these people choose not to take on the responsibility of finding ways to make wider patterns of observance personally relevant, never mind actually becoming more observant! Its seems like the non-binding thing is just used as an excuse for too being lazy to intellectually engage with this stuff and IMO that’s not kosher (it’s not even kosher style).

I suppose that all of this is kind of funny in a sad sort of way because as I sit here typing this out what comes to mind is that many of us “progressive” Jews consider ourselves to be (in many ways) more evolved because we see ourselves as being much more “inclusive” than those “Orthodox” Jews. The ironically sad part of this is that although we struggle with and fight our own internal prejudices and bigotry in order to become ever more inclusive in terms of issues like sexual orientation or gender and race equality. Yet it would seem that many of us are exclusionists when it comes to Jewish tradition. Especially with regard to the Mitzvot and their potentially significant role in our spiritual development and understanding.

Anyhow I think I’ve rambled on long enough about this so until next time be well.

PS: The title was kind of meant as a joke because although I’m a Jew by choice who converted reform (apparently making me less Jewish and to some even not Jewish at all) I’m still much more frum than many of my friends who happen to be Jews by birth. I know, I’m witty and funny, you don’t need to tell me!

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On Friday Anxiety Maven posted a comment in my Foo Fighters post regarding another post with which she took issue. I responded but then decided to take down both my response and her original comment for several reasons which I’m not going to get into here. However after sitting with her comments this weekend I’ve decided to address them in this post.

I’m not looking to start a debate just address what I consider to be her legitimate points as well as those I feel are inaccurate and then move on to more interesting subjects. I don’t really want to debate this issue any further.

So here we go.

firstly, the idea that the rebbe is moshiach is halachically valid (please consider the wording carefully). the idea that jesus is moshiach is not. if you don’t agree with the rebbe being the messiah, that’s ok, but it’s still a halachically valid opinion.

I personally don’t buy any of the above but I’m certainly not qualified to disprove it. Having said that I believe that the Rebbe is dead and therefore is out of the running for moshiach status but what do I know. Secondly because I don’t view halachick law as binding, it just seems irrelevant to me to try and distinguish between the Rebbe and Jesus in the way that you have.

Incidentally I’m not alone in my halachick thinking because the Reform movement also does not except halachick law as binding. Feel free to disagree but just don’t say that it’s, just me and Jesus who feel this way because that isn’t the case.

secondly; regarding the author of the article: i don’t agree with any jew hurting another jew for differences of opinion like that. that is wrong.

I’m glad that you feel this way.

thirdly, i take great umbrage in your comments about chabad. i disagree with your terms that “chabad undermines interdenominational community building.” the rebbe himself once crossed out wording on a shliach’s flyer, a flyer that read “chabad is open to orthodox, conservative, and reform jews.” the rebbe said this is already creating divisions between yidden. that said, chabad desires to create jewish community/continuity in the deepest, truest of ways.

Oh where do I start because the above is just wrong in so many ways.

First let’s look at your comment regarding crossing out wording on fliers. It’s nice on the surface but it doesn’t take a lot thinking to figure out that it doesn’t mean much. I agree with you that Chabad is open to everyone no matter what denomination they are from. But it’s disingenuous to suggest this means that they equally accept everyone from those denominations as being Jewish. I’m a Reform Jew by choice so would I be counted as a Jew within a Chabad community? I’m quite confident that the answer to that question is no. How about somebody who is patrilineally Jewish, would they count as Jewish? Again I really don’t think so. And I am just scratching the surface regarding the subtle forms of discrimination that are contained within Chabad. Don’t get me wrong Chabad is entitled to feel the way they feel and from their perspective I and many others probably are NOT Jewish. However it is still discrimination nonetheless even if it’s justified from your point of view.

Oh yes in the deepest and truest (would that be like authentic?) ways.

Next lets look at attempts to interfere with the larger Jewish community.

Example 1 Montréal Mikva

Example 2 Chabad at Princeton

Maybe these claims are false (not that I believe they are) but they aren’t my claims and they certainly are enough in my opinion to warrant both concern and comment.

Last but not least and actually the most personally relevant one to this discussion. If I remember correctly you actually e-mailed my fiancé during the early stages of our relationship questioning her choices about me and I call that interference. I can only conclude that it was rooted in a bias against Reform Judaism and its converts.

This is a clear example of how people who believe in an authentic Judaism can and do engage in interference even if they don’t realize it. She’s not your sister, she’s not your friend and she’s not a member of your community. Yet you still felt it was appropriate to stick your nose in other people’s business and it certainly makes your opinion less relevant to anything I say, believe or do.

I found your behavior despicable (and even antagonizing) yet I chose not to call you on it because I understood where you are coming from. But if you’re going to come onto my blog and begin criticizing me for offending your sensibilities, I’m certainly going to bring it up.

your statement that chabad “claims” to be “true and authentic” judiasm, including “their messianic beliefs” is antagonizing, whether purposely or not.

Although from my perspective it is an accurate statement you’re right it’s antagonizing and therefore I removed some of it from the post.

chabad is authentic, and jews believing that their rebbe is moshiach is written about in the gemora.why don’t other chassidim hold that their rebbe is moshiach…? it’s certainly valid and it’s certainly authentic (check out the rambam for more on this topic).

Here in lies the problem at least from my point of view. You see I believe that academic scholarship both biblical and historical disproves any notion of a singular authentic form of Judaism. I and many others just don’t believe in it. I therefore believe that authenticity claims such as the ones made by Chabad are false becuse theres is no one authentic Judaism. Again you are free to believe what you like on the subject and my worldview is big enough to allow room for both of us but it doesn’t mean I’m going to allow myself to be bound by your views of what is authentic and what is not. Please remember this is not just me who feels this way but also The Reform, Reconstructionist and to a lesser degree Conservative movements do as well.

i think you’ve got some deep-seated stuff about the “box thinking it’s car” business. maybe you think if you can knock down chabad, that validates your own judaism? i’m just putting it out there.

Ouch, that was a rather rough poke. There was a time when you may have been right but not anymore. Chabad has painted itself into irrelevance at least to me that is. Don’t get me wrong there are things I like about Chabad and I don’t even mind participating in the Chabad community in Los Angeles. They just don’t have a monopoly on the truth and so I am way beyond defining myself by their opinions.

Having said that as a progressive and educated human being who believes in social justice and equality. Of course I’m going to poke at Chabad when I see them as being dishonest or homophobic, sexist or ehtnocentrically bigoted. Like it or not I’m allowed to be that way and if you don’t like it you are certainly free to avoid the topic with me. That should be pretty easy to do because I don’t believe I’ve ever gone on your blog and badmouthed Chabad, you or your views. In fact I don’t think I’ve ever badmouthed Chabad on anyone else’s blog at all. Come to think of it the few times I have discussed Chabad on other blogs I’ve actually been sticking up for them. But this is my blog and if I want to say something on it I’m certainly going to.

i’m not saying chabad is perfect, we’ve got issues (including dissonance amongst ourselves). that’s not news. nonetheless, i think your approach is vitriolic, though you claim to be respectful.

I’m sorry to read that things aren’t perfect but I’m glad that you can acknowledge it. As for my being vitriolic I believe I’ve already addressed that issue.

regarding considering yourself a post-halachic jew, well, i know somebody who considered himself the same: jesus..

Well speaking of vitriolic this doesn’t read as very kind to me.

Either your ignorant or just being dismissive to make your point and either way it doesn’t really matter because it’s easy enough to set the record straight.

Although the term post-halachick maybe my term and it may even not be a very accurate term the sentiment behind it is certainly not mine alone. Reform, Reconstructionist and again depending who you ask the conservative movement are all in different ways part of the same club.

p.s. my anti-spam word is “santa.” oy, the irony.

Ha ha!

You are welcome to continue reading and commenting on posts but you need to understand I’m a Reform Jew who believes in Reform values. I am sure that this will upon occasion rub you the wrong way but it’s to be expected.  

Also your points have been taken regarding the harshness of some of my criticisms and I will do my best in the future not to be unnecessarily inflammatory. I should be able to express my concerns in a fashion that is respectful and I will continue to build up my abilities in this department.

Be Well.

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I stumbled across this great video of Reb Zalman yesterday and thought it was worth sharing with others. It’s hard not to love this guy and by that I mean relate to him at a heart level. There are certainly things about Renewal that I have a difficult time accepting but Reb Zalman is not one of them. I don’t know if the Judaism which Reb Zalman speaks of is authentic but it certainly comes off as honest.

Please do check these two clips out and share your thoughts.

In this 1st clip from what I’m assuming is some kind of documentary on Reb Zalman and/or Jewish renewal . Zalman manages to cover a fair amount of ground and make some rather interesting points. Including the role of covenant and the importance of the ego in Jewish spirituality.

I often have a hard time with what I perceive as leftist mob rule within organizations such as Jewish Renewal. That’s not to say that they are always like that but simply that I’m often hit by that kind of a vibe when interacting with those involved in Renewal. However I don’t get that from Reb Zalman in the least and this video clip is worth watching just for the fact that he makes it clear that Jewish Renewal needs to be open to people of the right as much as it has been to people in the left. Listening to him I didn’t get the sense it was one of those we will save the people from the right but rather that a true Jewish Renewal is something which needs to be flexible enough to accommodate true diversity.

Anyhow after having seen these two short clips I’m definitely curious about checking out the whole documentary. If anyone has seen the entire thing please let me know what you thought of it.

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This past month Tamara and I began actively exploring what our (as a couple) Jewish community opportunities might be in Los Angeles. Tamara already belongs to a Chabad community which she has been participating in for over a year now. It’s a very nice, friendly community however unfortunately it’s not the best place for me as a non-Orthodox Jew by choice, who isn’t interested at this point in doing a halachick conversion. Besides that I don’t think either of us feel it’s the best fit in terms of an environment for raising our (G-D willing) children with the values and attitudes we feel are most important.

While I was down last fall we did spend time checking out several reform communities but to be honest they were just too big and seemed a little bit on the impersonal side of things.

We are looking for more than just a place to go on Saturdays or for the High Holidays. We are looking for a community and social network we can plug into. You know a group of people that aren’t necessarily identically like us but who share our values, interests and Jewish predilections. Anyhow the good news is that we found a couple of really promising communities and both of us are pretty excited about it.

The first community is called Ikar and it’s a new young and groovy kinda place made up of mostly 20 and 30 something’s. The community is led by Rabbi Sharon Brous who is JTS trained and has been named by foreword as one of 2006’s most distinguished Jewish leaders. From what I gather the community has something of a Reconstructionist/Renewal vibe to it but they are unaffiliated. At first I wasn’t sure how I felt about the unaffiliated status but the more I think about it the more I like it. That’s not to say that I’m against affiliation or anything but it’s nice to just be Jewish and community focused, without unnecessarily abiding by institutional party lines.

From what we’ve gathered they are a very progressive group of people who are interested in study, social action and community building. The only anticipated difficulty is going to be adjusting to their Shabbat services format. Although I’ve been told that they’re very traditional in terms of liturgy much of it is sung and they incorporate the use of drums and bells. Bottom line is if that’s our biggest problem we may have found a really great community.

Tamara got a chance to meet the Rabbi and seemed to be impressed with her.  Although I obviously haven’t met her I did get a chance to watch a short video of her which was impressive.

This post seems to have grown a little larger in size than I had planned so I think I’ll save the second candidate for another post.

Anyhow if anyone reading this is a member or has experience with Ikar please feel free to share your thoughts with me.

Up Date: here is an interesting Radio Interview with Rabbi Sharon Brous. Part 1 begins about 8 minutes in and Part 2 begins about 40:30 minutes into the show.

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The more I Learn about Rabbi Rami Shapiro the more I’m impressed with him. I think it’s because Rabbi Rami is the kind of person who is able to draw beautifully outside of the lines. Reading him I can’t help but think to myself here’s a guy who is an outsider but not in some sort of finger-pointing disgruntled way. Nope, he just comes off as a guy with the right balance of self-deprecation, humor, insight and honesty.

If you haven’t checked out his blog I highly recommend it. I mean you know it’s gotta be good when Steg is commenting on it.

Anyhow Rabbi Rami’s latest post explores the issue of what he’s referring to as Lukewarm Judaism. Although I’m not sure I agreed with it 100%. I would say that 99% of it hit the target in terms of where my thinking on the subject is these days.

Here are a few snippets from his latest post which I found to be rather interesting.

I agree with Michael: “watered down versions of religious faith fail.” Where I disagree is over the implication that Reform Judaism is watered down. Today’s Reform Judaism is actually thickening up. Traditional norms, rituals, and Hebrew liturgy are making just enough of a comeback as to thicken Reform into Conservatism Lite. What I would say is that lukewarm religion fails, and that contemporary Reform Judaism is definitely lukewarm.

I haven’t been around long enough to base my thinking on anything other than intuition and limited experience and although I agree with Rabbi Rami that Reform is indeed thickening up. I’m not certain that I agree that Reform Judaism is just lukewarm. There’s something about the way he phrased it that sounds too definite, too permanent and I’m not sure that I agree. The way I see it reform is doing exactly what it is supposed to do “Reforming” itself and I don’t think that necessarily makes it Conservative light.

The original Reform Judaism of the late 19th century was ice cold. It had bite. It stood for something. You either loved it or hated it. It was either genius or heresy. Today it is long forgotten as Conservative and Reform Judaisms slowly merge into a massive blob of tasteless porridge, Orthodoxy is dynamic, creative, hot, hard, and authentic. It is also homophobic, misogynist, and medieval.

I think it’s great how he’s characterized the polar oppositeness of these two traditions and I think that he’s right on the money. However he may have been a little bit unbalanced because although he’s right in pointing out how orthodoxy is indeed homophobic, misogynist and medieval he leaves out how Classical Reform was in many ways disrespectful, flat and intellectually dishonest. Having said that I’m not sure that he would disagree with my statements (not like I know him or anything) but it would’ve been nice if only for the sake of balance if he had also mentioned these things in his post.

We need a new Judaism. One that is a icy alternative to Orthodoxy’s blistering heat. One that blends the Neo-Hasidic fervor of Jewish Renewal with the theological daring of Mordecai Kaplan, and the religious humanism of Martin Buber. We need a Judaism unafraid to be deeply spiritual, contemplative, postmodern, scientific, soulful, and blessedly anarchistic. We need a Judaism of which Spinoza and Einstein could be proud.

Amen To That!!!

He is indeed right on the money with the above statement and reading it I couldn’t help but be struck by an overwhelming sense of synchronicity. What Rabbi Rami has written is a pithy summary of where my own thinking has found it’s self over the last couple of months.

Anyhow both this post and Rabbi Rami are certainly worth checking out.

Be well

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This is just a quick follow-up to my earlier post today on what I see as the positive inroads currently being made by Progressive Judaism around the world. Actually I won’t lie it’s also something of a reply to Mottel’s comment on my last post.

The following is an interesting short video interview of an American visiting Poland’s Jewish community (presumably sometime in the last year or so). I’m not sure but I believe the person being interviewed is Rabbi Neil Katz a Reform rabbi from Texas.

It’s an interesting video and although it’s far from anything definitive in terms of Jewish revival in Poland, the rabbi does indeed paint an optimistic and promising picture of what’s taking place over there. All of which is just more fuel for my recent sense of optimism

Anyhow enjoy.

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