Community Initiative

"All revolutions, whether in the sciences or world history, occur merely because spirit has changed its categories in order to understand and examine what belongs to it, in order to possess and grasp itself in a truer, deeper, more intimate and unified manner."
- Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831), German philosopher

Lay leadership is one of the critical places to start the conversation on changing the culture of engagement with Israel. With this in mind, the United Jewish Federation of Metrowest and Makom reached out to community scholar Dr. Alex Sinclair of the Jewish Theological Seminary to initiate a lay leadership program called Etgarim ("Challenges"). The aim: to question the prevalent paradigms of engagement with Israel.

"One of the key challenges for a facilitator is to prepare the ground for these quite difficult conversations," says Sinclair. He smoothed potential bumps by beginning the first session with a voucher suggesting four potential dinner party guests: Mother Teresa, Pat Robertson, a homeless person, and Bill Clinton. Participants were asked to choose - most chose Bill Clinton. Sinclair: "Mother Teresa is a perfect, saintly figure – like the big kibbutz in the sky. Pat Robertson is a fiery, fundamentalist preacher who can be alienating - as Israel can be presented in the media. The homeless person is needy and helpless. People want Clinton at their party since he is an interesting, funny, cultured, flawed person. They can both enjoy his company and ask him 'how could you do this and that'?"

During four sessions, Sinclair questioned fundraising strategies based on poverty or terror in Israel and discussed alternatives. “While in the short term, images of poverty and terror may increase fundraising,” says Sinclair, “they do not attract Jews to visit Israel or want it as part of their identity.” In addition, he says, research shows that a “guilt-based” approach works less and less with younger generations.

Sinclair offered new perspectives with which to view Israel. He believes that the multidimensionality of Israel will enable Jews to connect to the country: “Whether it's Hebrew rap music, Israeli movies, art, poetry, literature, TV comedy, or a dozen other things, Israel offers the Jewish people a site where Judaism, Hebrew and Jewishness can inform a modern culture in a multitude of ways. For the majority of Jews in the world who don't define themselves as only religious, these manifestations of culture open up pathways to Jewish identity that would be unimaginable otherwise.” In addition, he offered an image of Israel as a start-up: recently established, naturally encountering problems, yet a worthwhile investment.

To his surprise, he found much readiness to deal with the concepts he was introducing: “I was expecting hostility since the ideas I was proposing go against the Federations' regular mode of action, but in fact the participants were thrilled to have the opportunity to engage Israel in a different way. I think that this was what people were feeling inside anyway and I was validating their feelings - they had been afraid to open the Pandora’s box.”

“Interaction with lay leadership should become part and parcel of every makom lab or local initiative," says Esti Moskovitz, Director of Education at Makom. "Lay leaders are the decision makers and thus it is imperative to train them and constantly have working relations with them." The Etgarim project was both a platform to rethink the nature of engagement with Israel and an innovative professional training program.

Joyce Goldstein, Vice President of the Federation and Chair the Israel and Overseas Function: “This was an exceptional series, with terrific content and a stellar instructor. We tried to attract our emerging leaders, many of whom felt little affiliation with Israel. They were engaged by the material; it was not the usual ‘propaganda,’ and it challenged their assumptions…. I have little faith in a course by itself; it needs to be followed up with additional study and with involvement and perhaps a trip to Israel.”

Mindy Kahn, who is Vice-President of UJC of Metrowest and serves on the Executive Committee, was one of the participants in the sessions. “The program has made people reconsider their views and personal relationship with Israel and Israelis. To me, Federation leadership seems a bit disconnected from the views and attitudes of American Jews in the 20-35 year old age range. They are now thinking about how to engage this population.”

Makom is currently considering documentation of the four sessions to enable replication, and is contemplating the development of additional sessions.

Interview: Orli Dudaie, Executive Shlichah, MetroWest

How were people chosen for this project? Were there any dilemmas on how to select them (e.g., people from different area vs. focusing on one area)?

Several of us (including lay chair of Makom, lay chair of Israel Overseas Committee, lay chair of the Israel Program Center, and VP (professional) in charge of Program & Services) identified names of veteran leaders and up & coming leaders. We wanted a mixture of leaders to be involved and a representative of involvement from: Women’s, Jewish Community Foundation, Executive Committee, Community Relations Council, Young Leadership, etc. All together we mailed invites to about 160 people. In order to give it some attractiveness the actual invite was on the letterhead of the President of Federation and he personally invited them, explaining that the leaders were selectively recruited. Furthermore, it was held at people’s homes.

How many people took part in the project?

We have averaged about 15 per session. The understanding was that they could not attend only one; it was understood they could participate if they could attend at least three.

What were the conclusions and what did you learn from the evaluation forms that were circulated to the participants?

A quote from one of the evaluations is a good summary of what we learned: “This seminar has highlighted the fact that these types of conversations should be discussed throughout our community to increase overall awareness. We also have to really think about how we expect to connect the younger generation.” I think that what was learned from the evaluations was that there still needs a lot to be done in terms of raising consciousness. There was clearly a big difference between the generations. The older generation still wanted to contemplate some of the same issues while the younger generation focused on conveying new, upbeat messages. I think the impact might be greater if we target groups that are connected in some way, to enable the continuation of the dialogue after the Etgarim sessions have come to a conclusion. A synagogue can be a good platform for mixed age groups.

What is the price range of such a project?

Around $4,000, including the cost of a facilitator, and a brunch each session. Participants were charged $72 to attend the four-session series.