Guest Post: Simon says federations, denominations and J. orgs can evolve through new social media
Old wine in new bottles. Unfortunately, this aphorism most aptly describes how Jewish organizations utilize new technologies.
Emerging social media tools offer radically different ways of engaging Jews and inspiring meaningful Jewish thought and action. Yet what too often passes for “technological innovation” in the Jewish world is simply pasting the rabbi’s sermon on the Web. For a community in need of revival, that standard is too low.
This point was driven home for me at the recent annual gathering of the Non-Profit Technology Network (NTEN). While the conference was oversold, with nearly 1,500 not-for-profit professionals attending -- a 26 percent increase over last year -- only half a dozen Jewish institutions were represented.
In a world where new technology empowers individuals to self-organize, Jewish organizations must shift their strategies, tactics and communications to provide something value-added beyond what individuals can do on their own. New media tools can energize Jews with interactive communication, dynamic connections with other Jews and the creation of community around shared interests. Jewish institutions can become facilitators of such creation, providing structures and support without dictating a specific vision for Jewish life.
It is exciting to see that a handful of Jewish organizations are heeding this call in innovative and cutting-edge ways, proving the potential for such approaches.
Independent minyanim, which typically rely on advanced communications tools to recruit and organize, tap into a desire for participatory communities that put the individual or family before the institution. Jewish social entrepreneurs associated with the ROI Community, Darim Online and PresentTense Institute are using and promoting strategies to engage hard-to-reach Jews not through flashy marketing, but by fostering opportunities for Jews to craft their own experiences and engage in open conversations with each other about why Judaism matters. And JTA recently posted its list of Top 100 Most Influential Twitterers, highlighting a number of individuals and organizations utilizing this new medium in effective ways.
To some, effectively using emerging technologies for Jewish engagement and aligning with the social media-empowered culture may feel daunting. But there are many easy opportunities for institutions to communicate, market and evaluate in innovative and effective ways. Federations might experiment with a model similar to the Case Foundation’s America’s Giving Challenge with the allocation of community dollars through online voting by donors. The denominational movements could learn from BBYO’s program enabling teens to create their own prayer services that interweave the personal with the traditional. Jewish learning and advocacy organizations could sponsor engaging online discussions on the relevance of a Jewish holiday or social action in today’s world. And efforts to galvanize and gather Jews could emulate most Hillels’ use of Facebook and YouTube.
The NTEN conference was a missed opportunity for the Jewish community to learn from the not-for-profit organizations and leaders using these tools better than anyone else. Jewish organizations can and must begin earnest and advanced evolution from simply applying our old means of engagement online to unleashing the full power of new media. The Jewish people deserve nothing less.
Next year at NTEN …
Adam Simon is the director of Jewish Programs at the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation
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I also want to note STAR (Synagogues: Transformation and Renewal) has been working with synagogues on Web 2.0 media. Social media offer much potential for building community and marketing. For an excellent post summarizing NTEN’s baseline report on use nonprofit use of social networks-see http://tinyurl.com/omlv7n.
Beyond learning the actual tools, synagogues and Jewish organizations will have to shift their thinking to accept some loss of control as a part of the trade off for interacting with a larger community. And that, I think, is one of the major challenges they will have to overcome. I’m also writing about this issues at http://www.toolsforshuls.com.
Rabbi Herring
Thank you for keeping this crucial agenda on our radar. On one hand this is daunting work on the other hand, if we want to continue to engage people, we need to put aside our own fears and lack of knowledge and forge ahead…
Adam, couldn’t agree more. You might be amused to see an article/posting entitled “old wine in new bottles” on my philanthropy blog site [WisePhilanthropy.blogspot.com] posted last September 18. While that article didn’t focus exclusively on the Jewish community, it was inspired by the response to a talk I gave at a federation in a major North American city. Thanks for continuing to keep this issue on the table.
Adam--you are so right! I was at NTEN last year and it was eye-opening to see so many non-profits way ahead of the Jewish community on utilizing new technologies. Why is our response so slow on this when we say that outreach and engagement are priorities? JCSA is working with Darim onLIne to connect with professionals and organizations who care about this. There is a paradigm shift and those of us who are passionate about the Jewish community need to understand how to adapt to the changes---we have always been an adaptable community and this should be no different. Anyone who doubts the changes should read Clay Shirky’s “Here Comes Everybody”.
And yet..."old wine” is often the best, most sought-after and expensive; they just call it “vintage.”
I am not convinced that any of those initiatives are reaching “hard-to-reach Jews” and would like to see some proof. Aren’t PresenTense’s offices in Jerusalem? Are the young Jews already living in Israel that hard to reach?!
I want a definition of “hard-to-reach Jews.” If you reach ANY Jews ages 15-35, does that mean you’re automatically reaching “hard-to-reach Jews” because those are the traditional drop-out years from organized Jewish life? Or do these folks actually have to be at risk of losing their Judaism. If it’s the latter definition, I bet there are very few Jews participating in ROI that the Jewish community was ever at risk of losing. They may not have been doing a thing about being Jewish before joining ROI, and that may be “proof” enough for the funders (who of course are entitled to do whatever they want with their money). But where are the pre- and post-evaluations? Do many of those participants answer “no” to the question “Do you feel it is important that your future children be raised Jewish?” And now that they’re participating in PresenTense they answer “yes”?
There has been so much talk about how this is different than business-as-usual but so few concrete examples. Can you provide some?
Adam-
Thanks for posting your thoughts from the NTEN conference. I look forward to reconvening at next year’s conference with a larger group of Jewish organizations represented! And - to Truthiness’ comment - I hope we will have more concrete examples at that time; the more examples of how this has worked, the more likely traditional organizations will embrace these new tools.
But t-he reality is that people are already using these tools to engage and discuss our organizations online; it is important that organizations at least listen online to find out what is being said. The next step is to consider your overall outreach and communications strategy and determine where each of these new channels fits in.
You can find more information about effectively using these tools at our website at http://gijptech.org. Feel free to check it out and sign up for our free monthly eNewsletter and Webinars.
I’m thrilled to see pieces like this starting to circulate in the Jewish world. As several people have noted, we are way behind the curve in using these invaluable tools.
I am a bit leery of saying that all we need to do is get everyone to the next NTEN conference. The Jewish world needs more than introduction to the tools (although that’s a start) - it needs to learn this new way of being in community. One conference will simply overwhelm those who don’t understand the medium and that we don’t have the choice of whether or not to use them.
The Jewish world, including (and maybe most importantly) synagogues need to learn a new way of thinking. Now that would be a powerful conference!
Interesting article and very important discussion. Thank you for taking the time to further the awareness of this opportunity.
Adam,
Am I missing something? While social media is indeed an important frontier, your article would appear to be self adulation. What constitutes an effective online community? Is it a bunch of people that met at ROI twittering back and forth.
Where is there exciting Jewish content on the web? A few years ago there were a lot of interesting blogs. But, they have all seemed to close down. Jewsweek and 3 or 4 similar outlets are no longer functioning. Jewcy is a shadow of its former self and Present tense - the paradigm that you give as being effective, hasn’t updated their magazine since January.
Also, I don’t understand how you could neglect to mention Chabad and Aish. They have been on the web for ages. Chabad was on back when there wasn’t an internet and people dialed in to BB systems. At least their content is updated all the time.
If I am missing something please point it out. Otherwise it appears that a small group of people keeps congratulating themselves for things that they do.
Props though to the Fundermentalist The JTA blogs are about the best thing going right now.
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Lisa Colton
05/11/09 09:04 PM
Kol Hakavod, Adam. The paradigm is shifting, and the result is not a new Facebook group, it’s a new way of doing business and achieving our goals. This requires tools, skills and questioning many of our assumptions. The measurement of success is not how many people walk in the door of a program, it’s how that experience impacts their lives, their families, and their community.
Those organizations that recognize this shift and work to align themselves with it will be positioned for success in the coming years. Those who are interested in learning more can read more on Darim’s blog, http://www.JewPoint0.org, and start at NTEN (http://www.nten.org) by joining the online affinity group for Jewish organizations - The Tribe.