It was with tremendous excitement that I began my post as head of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles earlier this month. Our city is home to one of the most extraordinary Jewish communities in the world, primarily because of our diversity. Community members represent every element of the religious spectrum, every age and every socio-economic category. But we all share one common concern: What is our Jewish future?
Beginning today, we need to bring our many communities together to determine our collective path:
- What should our priorities be and where should we be investing our resources?
- How can we reach out to the tens of thousands of Jews who aren’t engaged in any community?
- How can we combat the increasingly high cost of synagogue affiliation and formal education?
- How can we ensure that future generations will share our love and commitment for Israel?
- Are we doing everything we can to assure that our children and grandchildren remember the Holocaust?
- After this recent and devastating economic downfall, what are our most pressing social service needs?
- How should we be addressing the needs of Jews around the world?
- How do we support the State of Israel as its needs change?
It feels overwhelming to ask these questions and almost impossible to take a step back to consider the answers. But we must.
My goal is create a dynamic new vision for Los Angeles by linking arms with you and beginning a communal conversation. If we’re to create a rich and meaningful Jewish future, we have to be willing to take risks and learn from our failures; to study our past, but not be stuck in it.
I invite you to contribute to the conversation by sending me your questions, or by posting a comment below. Help us as we search for the answers and find the courage to look forward.
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Jay,
I applaud your efforts in opening up a community wide dialogue. While our challenges are many, the talents and ideas in this community are endless. I look forward to moving forward.
How do you secure the perpetuation of the Jewish people? Invest in Jewish Day Schools! You always have to start with the kids. These are the Jewish leaders of tomorrow. Currently the cost of Jewish Day School is becoming out of reach for many families.
You encapsulated very well with your questions both the local, national, and international challenges our community faces. Fortunately, JewishLA is building off of a good foundation with many excellent programs. That said, the Birthright Israel example shows that with the right target, branding, and outreach, there are significant resources in the community to fund the programs.
Question 2 in many ways is the channel to solving the rest of the questions, because if we can reach out and engage the tens of thousands of “silent” Jews, we will tremendously grow the army of foot soldiers available to tackle all the other questions you posed.
My interests are social. It’s so hard to find time and meet people with similar goals and aspirations. I remember a great evening on Sunset Blvd, and a great weekend even in Beverly Hills, but think I fell off the guest list (no really.. I’m a nice guy..)
Modest goals, perhaps, but with my special book to try and spread good information off to the publisher for May 1 publication, that’s what I hope for from the Jewish Federation
Thanks, Simon Lewis
It should come as no surprise that I totally support your use of social media in taking the pulse of the Los Angeles community, and using it as an open forum to hear concerns, suggestions, and hopefully, also a few commendations.
I hope that many of us will take up your challenge of dialogue and communication toward a stronger Jewish community here in Los Angeles. Best of luck to us all in our new directions.
Yasher koach, Jay!
I have no answers for you tonight, but I’m glad you’re asking the questions and sharing the answers!
Hi Jay,
Congratulations on your new position! Thank you for tackling our toughest issues.
Personally, I think synagogue affiliation for families who wish to engage should be a central tenant. My family is unaffiliated with a synagogue at this time. Swimming upstream in this economy, our family budget can no longer handle the costs of membership and religious school at this time.
My 13 year old is begging for a Bat Mitzvah, but we are not in a postion to provide the training.
I always wonder if my family, which wants to and doesn’t have the resources to participate, then what about those who are more ambivalent?
Please don’t suggest Chabad as an alternative. Chabad will not train for a Bat Mitzvah and does not consider women to be equal members of the community.
I do worry that my children are missing important stepping stones in their Jewish education, which will probably never be replaced.
Thank you
Hello again, Jay, As a Holocaust survivor, I believe that the best way to remember the Holocaust and also to teach our children its lessons (if lessens there be) is to emphasize our role as citizens of the world, as Jews who have directly suffered from persecution and intolerance, to be very mindful of the needs of other underprivileged people. We do so in the name of our martyrs, in the name of all of us who long to help create a better world in the future. Therefore, we should emphasize our role as rescuers, always remembering that some of use were indeed rescued by good people of all faiths and nationalities.
Dear Jay:
I can’t recall anyone from JFC asking those questions before. Wow!
Oh, for sure the way to answer all of these questions is to focus on ENDING HUNGER IN LA and KOREH LA, so that way there will be no resources left to deal with any of your questions.
We benefit by ignoring your questions and focusing on other peoples’ problems. Isn’t avoidance great? Has this not been the direction of the Federation over the last couple years?
On the other hand…
If you really really want to face up to these issues, the answers are brutal, not derived by taking a step back, but by looking forward:
1. Liberal Jews have not been reproducing Jews: only Democrats:
a. The average non-Orthodox American Jewish woman today has fewer than one Jewish child.
b. The vast majority of those children get little or no Jewish education.
c. They will “marry out” at an at least 60% rate, marry late and be quick to divorce.
2. This community is now sustained primarily by the retired generation, when that’s gone, there goes the budget.
3. The liberal temples long ago failed miserably to generate Jewish Temple commitment in their kids. Temple costs / capita soar as membership decreases. (Time to consolidate? Have a fund to promote consolidation! For those who come once a year, they’ll only notice the reduced price anyway.)
4. Going after the uncommitted Jew is like chasing after the blown away feathers of a pillow: expensive if not futile. The job of Jewish involvement belongs not to JFC but to the same Temples which have failed massively. (Use your fingers to count those in post-bar mitzvah Jewish ed.)
5. Only solutions: You need a $1 billion Jewish ed. endowment (which aint gonna happen) (at 2.5% net return) to have any noticeable impact on reducing tuition costs for Jewish Day Schools and other formal Jewish education programs.
But, we can at least try to retain those few children still in early childhood forward. The current BJE budget compared with total JFC allocations is simply a shandeh for this community. THAT IS WHY THE LIBERAL JEWISH COMMUNITY OF LA WILL BE GONE IN TWO GENERATIONS and it can’t be helped. Too late.
The sooner this is universally accepted as a fact, the sooner our priorities can be focused on reality instead of false hopes. (Don’t believe it? Ask Gill and count the number of non-Ortho kids enrolled in BJE schools compared with total number of Jewish children, assume intermarriage, late marriage, high divorce rate, no commitment to Jewish ed, times two generations: Result: There’s nothing significant left). Evidence: Do the numbers of involved children of JFC leaders equal or exceed their own? Don’t cry, but QED.
6. It is time to end the JFC allienation of the fastest and only growing segment of this community: the Orthodox. They are the committed heroes who massively sacrifice life-style consumption to have and Jewishly educate lots of children. To attract them requires a complete turn-around of JFC allocations toward primarily items of Jewish continuity. If you solve this one, it answers all the other questions.
7. I suggest a new program called: “READ L.A”., A campaign to end ILLITERACY in the 80%+ of LA’s JEWISH youth: They don’t read, write or understand enough Hebrew to find a bathroom. You have a model: Set up volunteer teachers and classes to teach in local areas, in homes, community centers, everywhere at little or no cost. Yeshiva students from 6th grade on might be asked to volunteer a couple hours a week of freed-up time to teach such classes in their own schools or elsewhere after hours. This will create a new intra-Jewish youth bonding which does not currently exist. Marketing efforts must show uncommitted Jewish parents why Hebrew and Jewish culture are important for their kids’ and the communities’ Jewish contintuity. (Most don’t perceive this.) This program serves multiple purposes: brings communites now at odds together, reduces education costs for minimal Jewish ed. and possibly salvages future Jews who otherwise would know nothing and then do nothing. Pay for it with that Koreh LA $.
8. Create initiatives for Hebrew Language Magnet Schools, with supplemental after-hour Jewish enrichment programs. Start with Little Tel Aviv in the Valley.
9. Quadruple $upport to Tomchei Shabbos, which never has enough for the needy. Here is an agency which embodies the highest ideals of communal service for Jews in need, with the barest of paper work, staff and in complete anonimity of recipients. (Yes, Jews Only.) No other charitable org. in LA comes even close to the pure good that this almost completely volunteer org. does. They could use more distribution centers and need more stuff to distrubute. ( Get Sova and Mazon to help… just joking…fat chance.)
9. Dump all the projects that help non-Jews onto the ‘Jewish Division’ of the United Way, which can call on 7 million Angelinos for help. That is their responsibility, not ours. There is no United Way allocation for the Jews of Los Angeles. We are not fulfilling our obligations to our Jews and JFC has never seemed to care.
I understand that the leadership of Federation has a problem with the above outlandish suggestions. That’s why I, and the Ortho community hold out no hope at all for JFC to do what is needed, until some day, in perhaps 20-30 years, the JFC leadership will wake up to discover they are plum out of new Liberal Jewish donors and will feel helpless to do something.
On that day, JFC leaders will be forced to give up with their own fruitless answers. That’s when the future majority of Jews,the kids now in the yeshivot, will take charge. Only then will the JFC budget make the course corrections it should have taken decades ago to earn their respect.
Rots o’ ruck, Jay
we’re all counting on major changes. Hope you @ us back on your own blog posts otherwise what’s the f’in point?!
Fishel didn’t listen to the community. Never allowed the community a voice. Now that you have our ear, are you listening?
The only way to get where we need to go is by starting with asking the right questions. I am confident that you are going to get us through the process that will be needed to get us to the right decisions so that we will be a stronger, more vibrant, and growing community. The world is a different place than it was 20 years ago, even five years ago. In spite of what some may think, we have gone through this process before; but now is now and it’s time to do it again. We’re with you all the way.
Jay,
I hope to continue our discussions in crafting a more responsive and quantifiable Hebrew School model.
Thank you Larry, David, Dennis, Sonia, Jill and Bettina for your support! Lynda, I agree we must develop a strategy to make day school education more affordable. We plan to convene a meeting with the heads of all the day schools to discuss this. DG, we would be happy to connect you to a synagogue in your area and try to help you and your family! Please e-mail me at the above address. Esther, couldn’t agree with you more — we have just initiated a dynamic new web initiative that will launch in May — stay tuned! Simon, please check out the many Federation groups that mix social, philanthropy and community. Finally, Abbushuki — I wish your comments were more “inclusive” but suffice it to say we will be reaching out in a more significant way to the Orthodox community. THANKS FOR ALL YOUR COMMENTS!
I love the questions, and echo Esther’s comment on the use of social media, as I am both a fan of the Fed on FB and follow the tweets on twitter. Are there any ideas, or questions being raised on how to improve the “Jewish job” climate here in LA? One thing that has bothered me is the lack of rebound in the “Jewish job” market in LA….Good luck!
if we don’t begin subsidizing day school education and making it affordable for the middle and upper middle class jews of los angeles than we won’t have educated jews furthering jewish causes and making contributions to the world as committed cultural or religious jews in the near future. it is a struggle to provide a jewish education, jewish summer camp in addition to the basic synagogue membership, a kosher kitchen and the b’nei mitzvot. what is really criminal is that jewish professionals, those passionate enough to work for the federation and the myriad other jewish institutions aren’t financially in a position to save for the future and pay for their children to attend jewish day school which costs at a minimum $15,000-30,000 a year depending on the school and age of the child.
JEWISH DAY SCHOOL!!!! As a product of Jewish Day School and a parent who sendS her kids to Jewish Day School, there is nothing better to solidify Jewish identity and create Jewish leaders. STUDIES HAVE ALREADY TOLD US THIS. But the costs to educate our kids are becoming exorbitant and we need more support from the Federation.
We also need more funding for JEWISH CAMPING. If you can’t do day school, Jewish camp is the next best thing. But current grants only apply to first time campers and Day School kids are not eligible–if you are paying for Jewish Day School already, shouldn’t you be eligible for a scholarship to Jewish camp?
Will be following your progress from here in Israel.
Wishing you much success!
Religion and State in Israel
@religion_state on Twitter
All of your questions can be answered with these three beautiful words: Jewish Day School. My husband and I struggle every day to make sure that our children can continue the wonderful education they are receiving at Valley Beth Shalom Day School. It is essentially unaffordable, but we cannot imagine them any where else. It is our hope that they will aquire a love of Judaism that will ensure a Jewish future for each of them.
Making Jewish education affordable and accesible must be a priority.
Thank you, Jill Pearl
I am delighted to see that someone is asking these questions. They are truly central to the continuity of our Jewish cultural heritage. I know that there has been focus on how to bring, keep, and hold people in the “fold” and the problems of intermarriage. I think that we must concentrate on quality, rather than quantity. If we celebrate and revel in our Judaism, others will want to see what it is all about, what draws us, and will look to us to show them. It is not enough simply to have numbers, but to have the deeply felt and lovingly celebrated traditions of our people. We must “live our Judaism”, by being a light unto the world. People have always drawn near to light, for warmth and for safety, and from this communities are born. I congratulate you for asking the questions and for raising new ones. I hope that thinking about the answers will bring new and enlightened thinking to our Jewish world
I am sorry to read the bitterness above, and I do not believe that Jewish day schools are the only way to have Jewish children who are committed and happy Jews. My children spent their formative years in a community that was 50% Asian, and my kids were two of the four Jews in our public school. We celebrated our friends holidays with them, and they celebrated ours with us. At a recent Shabbat dinner, we said our blessings and then asked our Catholic guests to say grace. Then we celebrated with a traditional kosher Shabbat dinner, enjoyed by all. My grown daughters celebrate Shabbt and holidays, read hebrew, and I, at the advanced age of 64 am learning conversational Hebrew. My children saw my, and my parents commitment to Judaism, and they too are committed. We have our annual Christmas light tour of the neighborhood, and then invite our neighbors in for latkes, sufganiot, and candle lighting and singing and playing games. I say, be easy in your Judaism, wear it like a warm and comfortable coat and it will wrap you in its warmth all your life.
Thanks so much for initiating this dialogue. As Executive Director of the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust, I welcome the opportunity to examine our communal priorities, especially as they relate to the Holocaust.
In terms of the Holocaust, I recommend we begin by broadening your question. The Holocaust was simultaneously a Jewish event and a world event. Thus, when we examine our commitment to education and commemoration we can’t limit it only to future Jewish generations. Knowing our history – world history — is essential If we truly want the 21st century to be better than the 20th. The Holocaust’s Jewish focus gives us as Jews a responsibility to lead in recounting that history. We have to do it for who we are. But if we are doing it with only ourselves in mind, we won’t succeed.
In sum, we have to make a significant commitment ourselves, and we have to reach out to the wider community.
I wish you great luck in tackling our community’s challenges and applaud your efforts to realize our community’s opportunities for rebirth. As a member and leader of the Queer Jewish community that is seeking a healthy place in the community via proactive reconciliation and recognition efforts, I hope that the needs of the most under-served and most at-risk Jews in our community are allowed to be heard at the big table. The issues are not just cost prohibitive (which I feel strongly myself) they are also recognition prohibitive. Looking forward to hearing all of our voices at the table!
Thank you Jay for recognizing the important questions and for wasting little time in asking them. As a young mother of 3 small children, I agree with many who have written above that Jewish education is absolutely vital to the future of the American Jewish community. The ever-increasing cost of tuition is making Jewish education inaccessible to more and more families, and to those families for whom a Jewish education is non-negotiable, they are increasingly having to struggle with difficult questions about limiting family size, in order to provide that quality Jewish education. These are terrible choices to have to make, and perhaps the Federation can help solve this problem.
As a former employee of the Jewish Federation and the Professional Leaders Project, I’ve witnessed first-hand the deep longing on the part of many 20 and 30-something young Jews for a place that they can feel comfortable exploring their Judaism, feel accepted and meet other like-minded, curious, passionate and growing Jews. The Jewish Federation used to claim to be the “central address of the LA Jewish community”. If this is to be the case, then meaningful and inclusive conversations and opportunities for growth must occur here. If not, then we need to point people in the right direction for them, perhaps acting as a concierge service, opening up the vastness of the Jewish community, both locally and greater, to the many different types of Jews and many ways people express their Judaism. When people are seeking connection, we shouldn’t waste this opportunity to help plug them in where they can best find meaning.
Israel should be central to all Jewish conversations. An idea that was batted around with Stanley Gold but not ultimately funded was for a Birthright-style subsidized trip to Israel for families. This could include grouping families from similar regional backgrounds, interfaith families, families with children with special needs, or simply families seeking to strengthen their connection to Judaism and Israel. I do believe a trip to Israel has the possibility of being a tranformative experience.
Finally, the many wonderful and vitally important services the Federation provides to the most vulnerable in our community need to be made more public, so more people know of the great deeds the Federation is doing, and so they can find ways of getting involved, and thus connecting Jewishly through community service and social justice work.
Kol hakavod on starting this conversation, and hazlacha on the work ahead!