Spotlight on CLAL Archive

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Exploring The Future Of Family And Tribe: CLAL Convenes Experts to Examine the Impact of Key Trends on the Family and Community

By Judy Epstein, Director of Public Affairs

What will the families of the future look like?  Will genetic engineering and international adoption change our children’s children past recognition?  How will these changes affect traditional ethnic and religious communities?  These are some of the questions a dozen diverse experts will consider when they gather in New York City on January 28-29 for an unusual seminar considering “The Future of Family and Tribe.”  

The program will bring together leading thinkers on gay and gender issues, adoption, reproductive law, bioethics, and aging.  It is sponsored by the Jewish Public Forum at CLAL, a think tank that generates fresh thinking about how ethnic and religious identities and communities are changing in the face of broad societal and technological shifts. 

“We know that biotechnology, globalization, the Internet, and new spiritual practices will all reshape our communities, families and identities -- the question is how,” said Dr. Shari Cohen, Director of the Jewish Public Forum.  “In order to build more meaningful lives and ethical communities in the future, we have to start asking better, broader questions. New dialogues with a wide range of people, institutions and communities can offer fresh insights about our rapidly changing world.” 

Sessions will examine the changing relationship between work and family life, the shifts in attitude towards marriage and child-rearing; and new meanings of family and kinship. In addition to presenting their remarks, participants will contribute essays for a collection to be published by CLAL. The volume will be disseminated widely to religious leaders, philanthropists, academics, community leaders, and other opinion-makers.  

The program is part of the Jewish Public Forum’s multidimensional project called “Playing the Jewish Futures,” which explores the challenges, choices and possibilities that might face Jews and other ethnic and religious communities in the decades ahead.  Participants represent fields as wide-ranging as religion, international human rights law, journalism, science, business, anthropology, social services, and the rabbinate.  

“The future is often a source of anxiety to the Jewish community, and to other religious and ethnic communities,” said Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, Vice President of CLAL. “Leaders worry that their institutions are disappearing and that the erosion of old forms of identity and social cohesion threatens the social fabric.”   

He continued, “But the future is always filled with possibility.  We ought to be at least as excited by the unknown as anxious about it.  In this spirit, CLAL is focusing on what is emerging rather than on what is disappearing, and on bringing new voices into the debates.”  

“The Future of Family and Tribe” is the first in a series of seminars.  Later in the spring, the Jewish Public Forum will hold two more: “New Currents of Social Change” and “Education, Communication, and Cultural Transmission in a Knowledge Economy.” The project is funded through the generous support of the Eleanor M. and Herbert D. Katz Family Foundation. 

 

    



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