Spotlight on CLAL

CLAL Report

Spring, 2002

Dear Friends, 

This year has been one of the most painful and difficult in Israel's history.    For North American Jews, recent events have generated intense feelings of grief, rage, compassion, hopelessness, and the desire to act.  Across the continent, Jews of varied opinions have looked for ways beyond mere slogans to show support.

At CLAL, we believe that a diversity of opinion at a time of vulnerability    fortifies rather than weakens us as a people.  Nurturing the widest array of ideas, from the broadest range of Jewish voices, is essential for long-term strength.  The multiplicity of Jewish thought and practice is, and has always been, the necessary vehicle to carry us through turbulent times.  

In response to the recent turmoil, members of the CLAL faculty joined the busloads of American Jews to the nation's Capitol, to teach, lead services and show support.   In honor of Israeli Independence Day, our faculty produced a multi-vocal commentary on the Blessing for the Peace of the State of Israel, generating powerful dialogue among rabbis, lay leaders, and Jewish institutions.  For Passover, CLAL's resource card focused on liberation in light of today's struggle, encouraging animated dialogue within families around the country. Through the CLAL internship and rabbinic programs, our faculty address issues affecting Israel today. The Jewish Public Forum at CLAL has developed a program for thinking about Israel's future, and in CLAL's online magazine, eCLAL: A Journal of Religion, Public Life and Culture, a variety of articles on the situation continues to appear. 

At the April 15th rally, where tens of thousands of Jews gathered, a link was forged connecting study and personal reflection with public activism and standing together. We are proud of the role that CLAL has played and shall continue to play in strengthening and broadening these ties. Whatever opinions may divide us as a community, coming together in this way will sustain the Jewish people and provide a good model for the rest of the world. 

Sincerely, 

Thomas O. Katz               Donna M. Rosenthal                             Brad Hirschfield Chairman                         Executive Vice Chairman                    Vice President

EXPANDING THE BOUNDARIES 

In the past months, to keep up with the rapidly changing American and Jewish landscape, CLAL accelerated its momentum through the innovative use of Jewish texts, tradition, ritual and practice. The Jewish Public Forum held three seminars on the future of Jewish life: "Family and Tribe," "Education and Cultural Transmission," and "Social Change." For Yom Hashoah, CLAL faculty created a moving recording of Nightwords by David Roskies, with compelling commentary. The Book of Jewish Sacred Practices: CLAL's Guide to Everyday & Holiday Rituals & Blessings still reaches thousands of homes with insights for daily living. Partnering with The Jewish Museum, CLAL faculty brought keen insight to the thought-provoking exhibit "Mirroring Evil: Nazi Imagery/Recent Art" by asking how we keep memory alive. In these as in all of CLAL's efforts, bringing new meaning to modern Jewish experience is central to our work. 

PLURALISM AT WORK 

Pluralism, a core CLAL principle, exemplifies not merely the ability of various Jewish streams to get along, but an appreciation for Jewish expression that transcends the usual denominational boundaries altogether. With this guiding tenet, CLAL continues to work around the country to help educate and inspire potential and emerging leaders. 

• Religious Leadership Symposium

In June, CLAL held a symposium for interdenominational rabbis, religious leaders from multiple traditions, and writers and thinkers about religion in contemporary America.  Called "Religious Leadership in a Spiritual Marketplace," the program asked participants to explore how major societal trends pose both opportunities and challenges for how they function as religious leaders.  

The program focused on several key questions: What does it mean for religious leaders to claim religious authority at a time when many individuals are shaping their own spiritual identities?  How can we build coherent communities when boundaries in religious life are increasingly blurred?   How can a tradition both retain a sense of its own integrity and still connect to other communities and to society-at-large? The event provided a living laboratory for examining how people from different faiths and traditions can come together and celebrate their uniqueness without undermining their participation in the larger world.   

The symposium is the next step in CLAL's long-standing work with rabbis from all  the denominations, extending pluralism across religious boundaries. It is part of CLAL's ongoing programming about how religious traditions might offer their wisdom to the broader society in a time of great change.

• CLAL Internship Program

Preparing future Jewish leaders to meet the challenges of tomorrow is at the heart of CLAL's mission to build dynamic communities. During the yearlong CLAL Internship Program, faculty meets weekly with an interdenominational group of rabbis-in-training and graduate students to explore Jewish identity in North America today. Part of this training is the development of open, pluralist discussion with diverse members of the rabbinic and graduate student body.  

A key piece of the curriculum is the Student Chevra program. Interns selected three topics to explore over the course of three weekends. For the first session of 2001-2002, the interns created a program entitled "United We Stand, Divided I Feel," which focused on post-9/11 issues and tensions that American Jews face. The second, "Masking and Unmasking Jewish Identity," used the story of Esther to examine how Jews are portrayed in contemporary film. The third, "Israel: New Generation, New Realities," featured guest speaker Yocheved Muffs, who participated in the 1948 war for Israeli independence. 

"The CLAL method shows students that dialogue is not only a powerful tool to cut across boundaries, but is the very essence of creative thinking about the Jewish future," said Rabbi Daniel Brenner, co-director of the program. "The interns can freely express their views in a way that allows them to focus on issues of daily life and to develop collaborative, creative approaches in their work with institutions." 

The Student Chevra program is funded through the Paula and Jerome Gottesman Foundation, the Joseph Alexander Foundation, and The Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies.

• Unity and Diversity

A good example of pluralism in action is the "Unity and Diversity" project for the New York Jewish community. Working in partnership with the UJA-Federation of New York, CLAL received a grant for designing and preparing a unique curriculum and recruitment strategy that will take participants beyond mere tolerance for religious differences to a profound appreciation of Jewish diversity as a community asset.   The curriculum is expected to be used by interdenominational groups. 

In the project’s first stage, CLAL faculty members reached out to rabbis from targeted communities to better understand the challenges they face and to ensure that the curriculum accurately preserves the integrity of each denomination's approach to Judaism. Having gained the rabbis’ trust, the faculty is now setting up individual consultations allowing for input and support for the curriculum. 

Upon completing the meetings, CLAL will write and circulate the curriculum among participants for additional feedback. The goal is to build a wide net for Jewish life, linking one strand to another and to its own sense of Jewish identity.

EXPLORING TRENDS 

• Jewish Public Forum at CLAL

The Jewish Public Forum, CLAL's think tank, held a three-part series of seminars on the future of religion, ethnicity and civic engagement.  The seminars, which examined how family, education and social advocacy are changing, will yield publications on each topic and community programs which will be offered around the country.  The seminars are part of the Jewish Public Forum's multifaceted project "Exploring the Jewish Futures," which investigates the challenges and choices that Jews and other ethnic and religious communities might have to face in coming years.  

The first, "The Future of Family and Tribe," brought together a dozen leading thinkers on gender, gay rights, adoption, reproductive law, bioethics, and aging to explore new meanings of family and kinship.  Will genetic engineering and international adoption change our children's children past recognition? How will such changes affect traditional ethnic and religious communities? 

"We know that biotechnology, globalization, the Internet, and new spiritual practices will reshape our communities, families and identities - the question is how," said Dr. Shari Cohen.  "In order to build more meaningful lives and ethical communities in the future, we have to start asking better, broader questions." 

The second, "The Future of Education and Cultural Transmission," gathered experts on education, culture, Judaic studies, and online learning to debate such questions as: Will access to new information technologies alter our relationship to traditional scholarly, scientific and spiritual authorities?  How will older educational and cultural institutions have to think differently in order to remain relevant in the next decades?  Panelists discussed the changing role of the arts, the future of high-tech education, and new ideas about tradition and collective memory.   

"The future often promotes anxiety for traditional religious communities," said Rabbi Brad Hirschfield.  "Leaders worry that their institutions and old forms of identity and social cohesion may erode, threatening the social fabric.  But today, with so much information available, we must rethink what we mean by educational transmission.   At CLAL, we are focused on what is emerging and on bringing new voices to the debate."  

The third, "The Future of Social Change," asked panelists from the worlds of social activism, philanthropy and the arts to consider what kinds of new ethical issues will take center stage in the years ahead and how to create long-term change in the rapidly changing landscape of globalization, new technologies and emerging global conflict. 

Essays by seminar participants will first be posted on CLAL's Webzine and will then be published as a three-volume collection of essays.  The collection will be disseminated widely to religious leaders, philanthropists, academics, community leaders, and other opinion-makers.  The project is funded through the generous support of the Eleanor M. and Herbert D. Katz Family Foundation.

BUILDING COMMUNITY 

Working with communities to build vital Jewish institutions for the future is central to CLAL's vision. Throughout North America, the CLAL faculty      provides creative training, consulting, lectures and classes, and partners with a variety of volunteers and professionals to develop innovative programming for the next phase of Jewish community life.   Recent highlights include:

Alabama

California

• San Diego - A series on leadership and Jewish life was held to help the community move forward.  Sponsored by the United Jewish Federation of San Diego, the program covered such topics as crafting an ethics of affluence, learning from the past, and celebrating the covenant. 

• San Francisco - A new project began to redefine outreach and engage young, successful Jews in their 20s to 30s.  Under a planning grant from the Walter and Elise Haas Fund, it seeks to use Jewish wisdom to explore the possibility of an open Jewish journey that speaks to this young group's lives, while focusing on the authenticity of their individual spiritual pursuits.  

Connecticut

• Greenwich - In partnership with the Greenwich Jewish Federation, faculty work with professional and lay leaders in community development to create and enhance bridge building tools and techniques and provide community agency consulting. 

• Hartford - Concluding a two-year program in leadership with the Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford, a new series asked:  How do leaders both manage diversity and promote inclusiveness?  

• Stamford - Several programs at the United Jewish Federation of Greater Stamford on leadership development and community building concentrated on Jewish life and the art and challenges of Jewish leadership. 

Illinois

• Chicago - The keynote address was delivered at the American Jewish Press Association annual meeting, challenging the press corps to create a civic discourse for Jewish life.  

Massachusetts

• Boston - At a symposium on Judaism and Civic Participation in American Life, faculty led a discussion on the Jewish value of civic engagement at Boston College. The program looked at the role of religion in the public square. 

• Cambridge - At the Harvard Graduate School of Education Principals' Center, a key address on implementing leadership and inspiring change for interdenominational Jewish day school principals was provided. Participants represented almost every Jewish day school in America. 

New Jersey

• Central Jersey - A series using Jewish text and tradition to explore more central questions of personal and Jewish identity was offered for a women's group, sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Central Jersey.  

• MetroWest - A provocative series on Jewish decision making, critical thinking, and development and management skills required for effective leadership in a creative, pluralist 21st century Jewish community for leaders in the United Jewish Federation of MetroWest was held.

New York

• New York City - Ongoing training, teaching and study for more than a half dozen classes sponsored by the UJA-Federation of NY is provided. The programs link the use of biblical text to modern day and focuses on how the ancient wisdom spans both time and the generations.  Topics included Pirkei Avot, Psalms, Proverbs, and a course on women in the Torah and Talmud.  

• New York City - Faculty delivered a spring intensive on making pluralism work at the Academy for Jewish Religion for rabbinic and cantorial students. CLAL has been invited in as the premier teacher for the Torah of pluralism. 

• New York City - Following the world premiere of the documentary film Luboml: My Heart Remembers, faculty led a discussion on "Memories: Bitter and Sweet."  The film is about a vibrant Jewish shtetl in rural Poland, with historic photos gathered by the Aaron Ziegelman Foundation.  It will be shown on PBS in September. 

• Syracuse - A series on education and leadership helped build community with the support of the Syracuse Jewish Federation. Topics ranged from how to support Israel without dividing the Jewish people to personal and communal identity. 

Pennsylvania

• Philadelphia - CLAL joined with the Jewish Federation of Philadelphia to work with a select group of leading Jewish women philanthropists to look at Jewish philanthropy and the next generation.

Texas

• Houston - The Jewish Federation of Greater Houston worked with CLAL to facilitate a communitywide initiative that included every synagogue in the city.

Washington, DC

At the UJC Young Leadership Conference, faculty led a session challenging participants to recover a sense of spirituality that is generated from the inside out and not the outside in.

NEW TOOLS, ANCIENT WISDOM

• Nightwords: A Liturgy on the Holocaust

This year, for Yom Hashoah, CLAL was honored to provide the gripping piece, Nightwords: A Liturgy on the Holocaust, on audiotape.  The two-tape set includes a recording of the piece by CLAL faculty, vocal accompaniment in Yiddish by Cantor Janet Leuchter, and two insightful commentaries about the work.  In one, Rabbis Irving Greenberg, CLAL President Emeritus, and Brad Hirschfield discuss how Nightwords creates new memory and moves beyond traditional Jewish liturgy. They also address the theological and historical issues related to the creation and performance of the piece. In the other, Rabbi Hirschfield, Shari Cohen, Ph.D. and Richard Schechner, Ph.D. of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts talk about the nature of memory and the relationship among liturgy, ritual, theater and art.  Individual and collective or shared memory is also discussed. The text was compiled by David G. Roskies, Ph.D.

Nightwords has been hailed as one of the boldest spiritual responses to the Shoah. The piece bridges time, biblical and Jewish history. It weaves together ancient and modern texts to create a new ritual, sparking individual and communal responses linking past events to the spiritual, intellectual and ethical challenges of today, and offers a way to understand the Holocaust through the generations. 

"We thought that it was important to create a recording that could be used privately or publicly to mark Yom Hashoah and generate new conversations about the meaning and the experience of the tragedy, both individually and communally," said Donna M. Rosenthal. The set of tapes may be purchased from CLAL for $12. 

• The Book of Jewish Sacred Practices: CLAL's Guide to Everyday & Holiday Rituals and Blessings

Now in its second printing, this popular book, edited by Rabbi Irwin Kula and Vanessa L. Ochs, Ph.D. (Jewish Lights, October 2001), has become a pivotal resource for Jews across the country. Offering an original collection of meditations and reflections on the importance of everyday moments, the guide continues to inspire innovative use of blessings, prayer, observance and ritual in daily life. Used in classrooms, for holidays, as gifts, and in individual practice, the book provides new insights and links tradition with contemporary experience. To order, check the CLAL Web site (www.clal.org) or visit your local bookstore.

• Other Resources

This Passover, CLAL distributed more than 40,000 Passover resource cards asking people to think about what liberation from oppression means in light of the world situation today. Other issues - security, privacy, political expression, armed intervention and protection - were raised as part of the theme of redemption. 

CLAL also produced A Day of Reflection: Yom Kippur Katan, in partnership with Aleph: The Alliance for Jewish Renewal. The booklet offers an ancient practice of self-renewal and creates rituals for reflection, and introspection to counter life's harried pace. It is based on Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi’s work on spirituality and self-renewal, and is available from CLAL for $6.

• "Mirroring Evil"

In March, The Jewish Museum opened a thought-provoking new exhibit, "Mirroring Evil: Nazi Imagery/Recent Art." CLAL worked with the museum under a grant from the Ford Foundation/Animating Democracy Initiative and other partners, providing extensive consulting and organizing three programs. 

The first program was geared for philanthropic leaders, 40 of whom joined CLAL faculty for a private viewing of the art and reflection on the issues raised for them. The second was a public event held at the New School University.  Entitled "Is Nothing Sacred in a Consumer Culture? Images of the Holocaust in the Age of Advertising," it raised difficult questions about the power of media and art, and who has the right to represent painful historical subjects. Speakers included Rabbi Irwin Kula, President of CLAL: Norman Kleeblatt, Curator of Fine Arts at The Jewish Museum: Coco Fusco, Associate Professor at the School of the Arts of Columbia University: and Stuart Ewen, Ph.D., Chair of the Department of Film & Media Studies at Hunter College. The third program gathered rabbis and other interfaith leaders for a viewing followed by facilitated dialogue, looking at the issues the art raises for religious communities and institutions.

WIDENING CLAL'S REACH

• Moving Beyond 9/11

In response to the September 11th tragedy, CLAL joined more than 50 business, cultural, religious and community organizations in New York to help create a vision for the redevelopment of lower Manhattan. The project, conceived by the Municipal Arts Society (MAS) and entitled IMAGINE NY, grew out of the belief that any decisions about the remembrance and renewal of the area must include the needs and voices of all who have been affected by the disaster. 

Dr. Shari Cohen also participated in Remembering and Rebuilding: A Neighborhood Conversation on Healing, a program organized by the Museum of Jewish Heritage to mark the six-month anniversary of 9/11. The forum focused on the psychological, religious and communal aspects of mourning and healing, as well as on what the Jewish tradition teaches us about the grieving process. 

At another event, Rabbi Brad Hirschfield provided the concluding address to the American Jewish Press Association at Ground Zero. In a moving session, he spoke about the makeshift shrines and sacred spaces that emerged since 9/11.  He also cited the halachic view for storing objects and how the Jewish tradition could help inform the debate on how to preserve the memory of the event.  At an emotional service, he recited the Kaddish.  Many participants said that he had provided them with a Jewish way for thinking and writing about the tragedy. 

• Furthering the U.K. Connection

Reaching out to its United Kingdom colleagues, CLAL hosted a program, now in its second year, with scholars from Britain's prestigious Ashdown Fellowship for senior Jewish educators. Interns came to learn with CLAL faculty as part of a yearlong study of Jewish education and leadership globally.

Participants explored, with CLAL faculty, some of the current trends shaping contemporary spiritual life, including technology, globalization and a melding of religious rituals and practices from multiple traditions. "The program was designed to look at the different stories that live and get passed on within a culture," said Dr. Robert Rabinowitz, a Senior Fellow. "What we examined were the central narratives that institutions communicate to their members, and how we can build on the positive elements within them." This program is offered to groups of educators from communities across America.

• Leaders from the World's Religious Traditions Come Together

In the last six months, a core question in American society has been how to foster greater understanding, respect and dialogue among the religious traditions so that we can start to build on our mutual wisdom and connection. 

In this spirit, Rabbi Tsvi Blanchard participated in an international conference in Rome on "What Do We Want the Other to Teach About Us?" Sponsored by the Center for Christian-Jewish Understanding, the forum brought together leading religious leaders and thinkers from the Catholic, Jewish and Muslim traditions. In his presentation, Rabbi Blanchard talked about rabbinic prayer and the meditative and spiritual practices found in Judaism that connect the individual to an inner life and to the universe as a whole.

• Aragon: Discovering the Jewish Past

A delegation from Aragon, Spain came to CLAL as one stop in its New York tour to promote a newly rediscovered center of Sephardic Jewish life from over 500 years ago. The delegation, including the President of the provincial government of Zaragoza, came to CLAL to gain a better understanding of how Jewish identity is formed in a time of great diversity.  Historically, Aragon was one of the few centers of life where Muslims, Christians and Jews lived well side by side and is a good example of how particular communities could maintain their distinctiveness while remaining connected to the whole.

CLAL LEADERSHIP 

Always evolving, CLAL announced new leadership responsibilities: 

Thomas O. Katz, Esq., a Florida attorney, longstanding CLAL Board Member and Associate Board Chair, was elected Chairman. He succeeds Barbara B. Friedman. Mr. Katz was instrumental in the creation of leadership training programs led by CLAL faculty in Broward County, Florida and the Jewish Public Forum at CLAL. 

Rabbi Irwin Kula, CLAL President, is focusing his efforts on two special projects in 2002. The first is developing a PBS-TV series on religion and spirituality, for which he will serve as commentator. The second is researching and writing a book on Jewish life in a time of change. 

Rabbi Brad Hirschfield was named Vice President. Formerly, he was the Director of Leadership and Communities. In his new role he oversees the faculty and programs. 

Shari Cohen, Ph.D., the Director of the Jewish Public Forum at CLAL, was named to the management team. 

Donna M. Rosenthal, Executive Vice Chairman, administers all the operations of the organization. 

CLAL ON THE WEB CONTINUES TO GROW 

We hope you will visit www.clal.org, to read more about CLAL and our work. If you would like to receive our weekly online magazine: eCLAL, A Journal of Religion, Public Life and Culture, with its thought-provoking articles on Jewish life and American culture, just send your email address to us at update@clal.org. 

Editor: Judy Epstein 

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