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CLAL Convenes Diverse Experts to Explore Future of Religion, Ethnicity and Civic Engagement

By Judy Epstein, Director of Public Affairs

What if the world becomes organized around religions and not nations? What will happen to religious communities if spirituality and meaning are found increasingly in the workplace, the shopping mall or on-line and not in the church or synagogue? How will we build careers and families if the human life span is significantly extended?

These are some of the questions that will be considered at the Jewish Public Forum at CLAL's two-day seminar: "Playing the Jewish Futures: Scenarios on Religion, Ethnicity and Civic Engagement in the Year 2015." The Jewish Public Forum at CLAL-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, is a think tank that generates fresh ideas about the social, political, cultural and technological trends affecting religious, ethnic and other forms of identity and community.

The event will bring together an impressive group of fifty leaders from the worlds of academia, culture, business and science to think in the broadest possible terms about the Jewish future. The workshop will take place from January 14-16, 2001 at the New York Helmsley Hotel (212 East 42nd Street).

"We know that large-scale economic and technological shifts are changing the very experience of being human, " says Shari Cohen, Ph.D., a political scientist and Director of the Jewish Public Forum. "But how can we really begin to understand the implications of developments as different as the mapping of the human genome, advances in neuroscience, or the explosion of cyberculture? Will they fundamentally reshape our communities, our ideas about ourselves and the way we interact in the world? These are some of the questions we hope to explore."

During the conference participants will work through a process called "scenario planning." Developed by the consulting firm Global Business Network, the method was used to help the South African government envision the challenges of post-Apartheid democracy, and to assist major corporations in re-thinking their missions in a rapidly changing economy.

On the first day participants will consider which broad social, economic and technological trends will prove most important over the next decade and a half. On the second day, participants will create four "scenarios" - creative but plausible stories about the vast range of challenges, choices and possibilities that the future might hold for Jewish life. The scenarios will be published and distributed nationally to help communities plan for the future, and will be made available to other religious and ethnic groups facing similar challenges.

Participants will include Saul Perlmutter, a leading astrophysicist at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory; Peter Schwartz, Chairman and co-founder of Global Business Network and author of The Art of the Long View; Shoshana Cardin, President of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency and former Chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations; Norman Kleeblatt, Curator of Fine Arts at The Jewish Museum; Robert Scott, Editor-in-Chief, Spirituality and Health; and Sherry Turkle, Professor of the Sociology of Science at M.I.T. and author of Life on the Screen.

"The American Jewish community is in an era of transition," said Rabbi Irwin Kula, President of CLAL. "By definition, during times of such dramatic change, the 'tried and true' are no longer effective. New ideas and new perspectives are needed. These emerge not when a culture turns inwards, but when it fully engages the world. This more expansive perspective is very much at the heart of CLAL's work."

The January seminar marks the culmination of a two-year project on the Jewish future. Last June, at an unusual seminar on meaning-making in a virtual world, the Jewish Public Forum sent a group of thirty experts from a range of fields out into New York City - to sites like Niketown, beliefnet.com and Times Square - to explore how meaning and identity are being transformed. Its first year, devoted to leadership, led to the spring 2000 publication: "How is Leadership Changing?"

Established in 1998, the Jewish Public Forum at CLAL is an unprecedented effort to broaden the conversation about the Jewish future and the Jewish contribution to the civic and spiritual concerns of North America. Its network includes nearly 200 leading thinkers and opinion-makers, most of whom have not been involved in the organized Jewish community. Its ideas and publications are widely disseminated to an influential audience of analysts, policy makers and practitioners. CLAL is a leading force for innovation and pluralism in North American Jewish life.

The Jewish Public Forum at CLAL is made possible through the generous support of the Eleanor M. and Herbert D. Katz Foundation.