Spotlight on CLAL Archive

Welcome to Spotlight on CLAL. Here you will find stories about what's happening at CLAL and about the work that CLAL is doing across North America. Sometimes we will focus on a program, or a special event, or upon a CLAL faculty member's work and interests.

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CLAL Quarterly Report

Fall, 1998

Dear Friends,

Time passes so quickly that in less than 16 months, we will welcome in the year 2000. Governments, corporations, non-profit organizations, individuals and families are all planning for the new millennium and, of course, so too is CLAL. This is a period of growth for our organization. Our mission remains as critical today as it was when CLAL was created almost 25 years ago. But our programs and services continue to grow and expand as CLAL helps rabbinic, professional and lay leaders across North America reimagine and reshape Jewish institutions and Judaism to insure vitality and a constant renewal of Jewish life.

Some of the highlights of CLAL's current programs include:
(Click on the title below and go to article ) (link to anchors down the page)
clal website
community building
sh'ma
clal faculty
jewish spirituality
clal highlights

I. THE CLAL WEBSITE - WWW.CLAL.ORG

The CLAL website is getting lots of traffic from people across the continent. You can familiarize yourselfwith our programs and our faculty. You can study with us. You can communicate your ideas to us.

Special features include:

		CLAL-Ha'Shavuah, a weekly magazine which includes a commentary on the week's Torah portion and opinion pieces on events of significance in the Jewish world.
		CLAL Talk, an on-line discussion forum for anyone visiting the site who wishes to address issues of the day, contemporary spirituality and other topics of interest.
		CLAL Alumni/ae Fora, on-line discussion sites for alumni/ae of CLAL programs.

We have now initiated the CLAL Weekly Update, a guide to what's new at the CLAL website. Included are CLAL commentaries on the weekly Torah portion, reflections upon events in the Jewish world, the best of Sh'ma and "links" that take you directly to the CLAL website from your e-mail.

Please fax, e-mail or send us your e-mail address. You will then receive the CLAL Weekly Update by e-mail.

Michael Gottsegen, our webmaster, would appreciate your feedback and any suggestions you may have about this new venture.

II. COMMUNITY BUILDING

Community building is now an integral part of CLAL's work. This is a developmental process which takes time, careful planning, intensive and extensive meetings with rabbinic, professional and lay leaders, and group process. CLAL, whose mission is pluralism, is working hard to bring together the many diverse components of the Jewish community to help shape the future.

Colorado Initiative

The Colorado Initiative has been the model for CLAL's work in this arena. An exciting development in this initiative, funded by Donald and Susan Sturm and directed by Rabbi Irwin Kula and Rabbi Tsvi Blanchard, has been the formation of a Va'ad Ha'Ir/Community Advisory Council composed of all the rabbis and professionals across denominational and institutional lines in the Denver/Boulder community. This is the first self-governing council of its kind in North America.

The Va'ad will be the forum for professionals and rabbis to consider the needs, interests, and goals of each other's institutions, and the funding impact during the planning and implementation of new community initiatives. The members of the Va'ad Steering Committee have already been chosen and are ready to begin their work. This is a major accomplishment for the community, and is the direct result of CLAL's intensive and sensitive community building work over the past year and one-half.

Another exciting outgrowth of the Colorado Initiative is a joint Shabbaton to be held on Shabbat Shuvah, the Shabbat between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, for twenty lay leaders from three congregations and their rabbis. The leading Reform synagogue, Temple Emanuel led by Rabbi Steven E. Foster; the traditional modern Orthodox Synagogue, BMH-BJ Congregation led by Rabbi Yaakov Chaitovsky; and the Chasidic Congregation, TRI led by Rabbi Mordecai Twerski will participate. This precedent-setting experience will be facilitated by CLAL Rabbis Tsvi Blanchard, an Orthodox rabbi, and Rachel Sabath, a Reform rabbi. The Shabbaton is devoted to examining each community's understanding of Judaism, and exploring the appropriateness during the Shabbat of Repentance of doing t'shuvah for the hurtful denominational conflict among the Jewish people during the past year.

Birmingham Initiative

In Birmingham, Alabama, the Federation has invited CLAL to work together with the community professionals in reimagining their Jewish organizations, and to energize and educate potential and emerging lay leaders to connect to Jewish life and institutions in Birmingham. This will project the next generation of Jewish leadership in the community. CLAL Board member Harold Abroms and his wife, Judy, have been instrumental in bringing this new and important program to Birmingham. Extensive planning is now under way for a fall program which will open with a full-day retreat for rabbis and professionals across denominational lines, followed by a series of seminars in which lay participants learn about the importance and relevance of Jewish teaching and traditions to their lives today. The participants will gain an in-depth understanding of how Judaism shapes their values, interests, work, community commitments and home life. They will apply this knowledge as they approach significant communal roles in the uncharted Jewish community of tomorrow.

Atlanta Initiative

An exciting CLAL program focuses on teaching a select group of donors who are young leading entrepreneurs and professionals in Atlanta, Georgia. These individuals have been uninvolved in Jewish organizations. The goal is to help them develop more integrated Jewish identities and connect to Jewish institutions in proactive leadership roles. Of the thirty people who enrolled in the program two years ago, twenty-five have already assumed major leadership positions within the Atlanta Jewish Federation where they are currently lay chairs of continuity, human resource development, allocations and campaign, and chairs or executive officers in seven of the prominent Federation agencies.

Under the direction of Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, together with the guidance of Federation executive David Sarnat and his staff, this program is continuing to grow and expand to reach out to potential young leaders in this dynamic Jewish community.

Philadelphia, PA

A multi-pronged program is evolving in Philadelphia under the guidance of Kenneth Mintzer, Director of Resource Development of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, and CLAL faculty including Dr. David Elcott, Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, Rabbi Rachel Sabath and CLAL President Rabbi Irwin Kula. This innovative program targets adult children of major philanthropists who have been peripheral to the Jewish community. This constituency is studying in programs designed to develop personal Jewish identity and to link these individuals more closely with their Federation and community agencies.

Already a Steering Committee of next generation leaders has been galvanized to plan innovative programs and sponsor a mission to Israel and the former Soviet Union. They are slowly becoming integrated into Jewish life through the joint efforts of CLAL and the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia.

A critical aspect of this program and all of CLAL's community building projects is the ongoing consultation with professionals regarding the program and the participants. The local professional not only attends every CLAL session, but also debriefs every participant following each session and speaks with both the CLAL faculty member who taught the session and the faculty member assigned to teach the following session. In those communities like Philadelphia, in which top level professionals are intimately involved with all aspects of the program, our work with lay people is maximized This is a key difference between traditional adult education and leadership education.

Broward County, FL

In Broward County, a four-year initiative funded jointly by the Katz Foundation and the Soref Foundation is coming to a close. More than seventy young Jewish leaders have been involved in two two-year leadership development programs. Each program included a signature CLAL Shabbaton and concluded with a unique and memorable CLAL mission to Israel. Members of the CLAL program are now in important positions in the newly merged Federation and the many Jewish institutions throughout this fast growing county, including the Jewish community centers and the Jewish day school. According to participants' evaluations, the CLAL program has united these individuals into a cohesive, dedicated corps within the community.

Gainesville, FL

Community building is important in cities of all sizes. Recently Rabbi David Nelson spent some time with the Gainesville, Florida Jewish community which numbers under 500 families. As a direct result of his consultation, the first Gainesville Jewish community newspaper was born and a part-time Jewish communal professional is being hired to facilitate a restructuring of the Gainesville Jewish community and its priorities.

This program was funded by Steven Slutsky, a Gainesville lay leader.

CLAL wishes to express its deepest thanks to Steven Spielberg, Margery Tabankin and Rachel Levin of The Righteous Persons Foundation who recognized the importance of strengthening the community organization skills of the CLAL faculty and enabled Si Kahn, noted union organizer and founder of the Jewish Fund for Justice, to teach the CLAL faculty key lessons in community building. The fruits of their support and his training are emerging in CLAL's community building work with Jewish communities across North America.

III. SH'MA - A JOURNAL FOR JEWISH RESPONSIBILITY

CLAL has transferred Sh'ma, one of American Jewry's leading intellectual journals, to Jewish Family and Life!, the Boston-based non-profit publishing enterprise headed by award-winning journalist, Yosef I. Abramowitz.

CLAL assumed the publication of Sh'ma in 1993. Following in the tradition of excellence established by founding editor and publisher, Rabbi Eugene Borowitz, Sh'ma has continued, under the editorial direction of Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin, to stimulate thought-provoking dialogue on contemporary challenges to Judaism and Jewish life.

CLAL is honored to have had the opportunity for the past five years to publish Sh'ma, one of the few pluralist forums in North American Jewish life in which new voices and established leaders across the religious and political spectrum are able to engage in constructive, engaging and enlightening conversation.

CLAL is confident that, under the leadership of Jewish Family and Life! and Yossi Abramowitz, this dialogue will continue to flourish, affirming creative diversity and our unity as a Jewish people.

CLAL is transferring unfulfilled Sh'ma subscriptions to Jewish Family and Life! which will be contacting subscribers as it assumes responsibility for all future issues of the publication.

IV. CLAL FACULTY GROWS

CLAL is pleased to announce that two of its 1997-98 Fellows, Spielberg Fellow Rabbi Benay Lappe, and Steinhardt Fellow Rabbi Daniel Brenner, have joined the CLAL faculty this fall.

Rabbi Lappe, ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary, brings to CLAL a background in business and Buddhist learning, and a pilot's license, in addition to her Jewish studies, rabbinic training and CLAL experience. She will oversee the Rabbinic Internship Program under the direction of Dr. David Kraemer, teach in CLAL programs and work with CLAL faculty on the Professional Alumni Renewal Program funded by Andrea and Charles Bronfman.

Rabbi Brenner, ordained at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, is a very talented and creative writer, actor, and cartoonist who will work under Vanessa Ochs in developing materials for the CLAL National Resource Center. He will also work with CLAL faculty on the project, "Bringing The Spirit into the Center," which will catalogue and adapt the specially designed rituals of Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi for mainstream Jewish life.

Rabbi Steven Greenberg is returning to CLAL after two years in Israel where he was a Jerusalem Fellow. Rabbi Greenberg, a long-time CLAL faculty member, will bring new insights to CLAL from his studies abroad. He will renew his extensive teaching schedule, and will apply his new expertise in work with Boards of Jewish Education and Jewish day schools.

V. JEWISH SPIRITUALITY AND HEALING

CLAL has just completed the ground-breaking three-year grant entitled "Jewish Spirituality and Healing," funded by The Nathan Cummings Foundation. We are now positioned as a prominent North American organization in the area of Jewish healing. CLAL has produced a compelling five-session curriculum for use with doctors, health care professionals, caretakers and individuals experiencing illness or loss. Using Jewish rituals and texts, and everyday life experiences, the CLAL course provides a sensitive understanding of the Jewish components that address healing for young and old, healthy and infirm, patient and physician.

CLAL has also created a unique series of conferences and seminars, bringing together lay and professional members of the Jewish community, including rabbis, educators, and health practitioners, to share their knowledge of healing. Participants engage in intense dialogue with one another, discovering the resources Judaism offers on the issue of healing. These moving programs, led by CLAL faculty members Rabbi Tsvi Blanchard and Vanessa Ochs, have been held in New York, Washington, San Diego and Denver, each of which had a record attendance, indicating the great interest in this topic.

A CLAL healing booklet will be published in the late fall of 1998.

VI. CLAL HIGHLIGHTS

United Jewish Appeal's Leadership 2000 planning committee once again invited CLAL faculty members Rabbis Irwin Kula, Brad Hirschfield, Shira Milgrom, Rachel Sabath and Dr. David Elcott to serve as teaching faculty at their annual Aspen, CO conference. A special CLAL post-conference seminar on the critical role of lay leadership was attended by more than fifty of the participants. This was an important outreach program for the UJA Federations of North America and for CLAL.

Rabbi Kula will be a major speaker at the General Assembly in Israel, sharing the dais with Rabbi Donniel Hartman, as the conference examines Israel and the Diaspora during the 50 th anniversary year of Israel. A special CLAL event, a Kabbalat Shabbat walk to the Kotel, will take place on Friday, November 13, 1998. For more details, please contact CLAL's office and an invitation will be sent to you.

Rabbi Brad Hirschfield was scholar-in-residence at the UJA Young Leadership Cabinet Retreat in Scottsdale, AZ. He inspired the participants to think Jewishly in a secular world, and stressed the importance of lay leadership involvement in insuring a strong Jewish people as the next century nears.

Rabbi Rachel Sabath was a keynote speaker at the National Hadassah conference in New York. Her prayer for women has resulted in a flood of calls and letters from participants who want to use the prayer at home and in their Hadassah work.

As the New Year begins so, too, do several new projects at CLAL.

Bringing the Spirit into the Center is a project that will involve Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi whose unique and eloquent rituals for the vast array of life experiences resonate to Jews across denominational boundaries and especially to so-called peripheral Jews. CLAL will work with Rav Zalman to catalogue these creative and moving resources and to adapt them for use in mainstream Jewish settings including synagogues, federations, community centers and social service agencies. They will also be tailored for use by Jewish people everywhere. CLAL is deeply grateful for the generosity of The Righteous Persons Foundation, The Nathan Cummings Foundation, The Yesod Foundation, Richard Goldstein and Samuel Fried for their generous contributions toward this project. Other funding partners are encouraged to join this stellar group of supporters to insure the widespread success of this program.

Everyone at CLAL wishes you and your family a very Happy and Healthy New Year. May the year 5759 be filled with joy, love, health and learning, reward and success, and of course tzedakah. May you give of yourself to insure that the Jewish community continues to thrive in North America.