Enabling the Next Big Jewish Idea http://blogs.jta.org/ENTRY_PERMALINK_HERE/enabling-the-next-big-jewish-idea/ Every so often, a conversation will arise in Jewish professional circles around “the next big Jewish idea.” The question is asked, what’s the next big thing that’s going reinvigorate and renew Jewish life for an increasingly intermarried and disinterested American Jewry? What’s the silver bullet that’s going to save us from our own self-destruction? Brandeis is currently offering a professorship and a six-figure salary graciously provided by Charles Bronfman to someone who can devise, if not a solution, a pathway towards a solution to this question. Yet it is my belief that the next big Jewish idea will not be hatched inside a board room. It will not be the result of a research study. It will not come from within an institution at all. Rather, the next big Jewish idea will be the work of a young, independently minded individual seeking to address the needs of his or her own self or his or her own immediate community. en-us dsieradski@jta.org Copyright 2007 2007-11-12T;18:52:00-05:00 Comment by urbanjewspdx@gmail.com Great speech! I think number 3 is really important too. I spent hours and months trying to get 501c3 to get off the ground. I had pledges I couldn’t collect! It was nuts. It was a frustrating waste of time. Numbers 3 and 5 would really be exciting to implement. Innovators need Federation and vice versa. I think Federation wants to get it. And we can help them understand. Thanks for giving a speech that begins that conversation. Great speech! I think number 3 is really important too. I spent hours and months trying to get 501c3 to get off the ground. I had pledges I couldn’t collect! It was nuts. It was a frustrating waste of time. Numbers 3 and 5 would really be exciting to implement.

Innovators need Federation and vice versa. I think Federation wants to get it. And we can help them understand. Thanks for giving a speech that begins that conversation.

]]> 2009-11-19T;22:58:01-05:00 Comment by periwinklekog@yahoo.com Great speech. Thank you for saying what you did about Federation’s Great Disconnect. I personally cannot relate to Federation most of the time. They seem like a bunch of rich suits and I simply do not fit in with their club. I feel like I do more for the world by promoting sustainable living and midful simplicity—things that just do not fit in with the whole North American Jewish Scene. There’s a lot of energy in the Jewish community that is simply being ignored, not harnessed at all; and Federation is really missing the boat on this. We can’t all be Lions of Judah, but we can all make a real difference if given the chance to do so. Great speech. Thank you for saying what you did about Federation’s Great Disconnect. I personally cannot relate to Federation most of the time. They seem like a bunch of rich suits and I simply do not fit in with their club. I feel like I do more for the world by promoting sustainable living and midful simplicity—things that just do not fit in with the whole North American Jewish Scene. There’s a lot of energy in the Jewish community that is simply being ignored, not harnessed at all; and Federation is really missing the boat on this. We can’t all be Lions of Judah, but we can all make a real difference if given the chance to do so.

]]> 2009-11-19T;22:58:01-05:00 Comment by butno@funding.com Wow.  Some of those proposed ideas are simply fantastic.  I think #5 would cause a boom in experimentation. Wow.  Some of those proposed ideas are simply fantastic.  I think #5 would cause a boom in experimentation.

]]> 2009-11-19T;22:58:01-05:00 Comment by avihein@gmail.com Great speech! I hope someone will listen to you—as the Federations are totally out of touch both with innovation and with the causes they claim to support—Jewish continuity, education, and Israel. I’m glad you were able to speak and glad your speech was what it was (i.e. you were critical in a way that may be taken seriously, in so far as the Federation system is willing to change—which I don’t have too much hopes for) Great speech! I hope someone will listen to you—as the Federations are totally out of touch both with innovation and with the causes they claim to support—Jewish continuity, education, and Israel.

I’m glad you were able to speak and glad your speech was what it was (i.e. you were critical in a way that may be taken seriously, in so far as the Federation system is willing to change—which I don’t have too much hopes for)

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