Spotlight on CLAL
Welcome to Spotlight on CLAL. Here you will find stories about what is 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. Bookmark this page if you want to get to know us better.
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Furthering The U.K. Connection
By Judy Epstein, Director of Public Affairs
Reaching out to its United Kingdom
colleagues, CLAL hosted a program, now in its second year, with scholars from
Britain’s prestigious Ashdown Fellowship program for senior Jewish educators. Close
to a dozen participants came to CLAL from February 18-22, to study with faculty and
compare the U.K. and U.S. Jewish worlds. The group visited as part of a yearlong program
for the study of Jewish education and leadership worldwide. The focus of the
scholars’ studies with CLAL was the way in which social, technological and cultural
trends affect Jewish life.
Using New York City
as a laboratory, participants, led by CLAL Senior Fellow Robert Rabinowitz, Ph.D. (who is
also British), visited a variety of sites, including Ground Zero, Ellis Island, Makor, the
new Manhattan JCC, and the Museum of Jewish Heritage. The group also went on
"learning journeys," a method developed by CLAL's Jewish Public Forum, to
explore current transformations in religion and community. Locations included Trinity
Church, an Episcopalian Church that sponsors pluralist religious programming, and
Beliefnet.com, the largest and most visited religious and spiritual dot-com site on the
Internet.
In sessions with
CLAL faculty, participants explored some of the current trends shaping contemporary
spiritual life, including technology, globalization and a melding of inter-religious
rituals and practices. "The program was
designed to look at the different stories that live and get passed on within a
culture,” said Dr. Rabinowitz. “What
we looked at were the central narratives that institutions communicate to their members,
and how we can build on the positive elements within them.”
The Ashdown
scholars will complete their yearlong program with a retreat in Israel this summer. The New York component provides participants with
the opportunity of experiencing firsthand the most thriving and dynamic Diaspora community
worldwide.
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