אירועים

May 3, 2010

The Jewish Peoplehood Hub, a partnership project of the UJA –New York Federation, the NADAV Foundation and the Jewish Agency, has released a research report detailing the response of Jewish community building, educational and religious organizations to the increasing lack of attachment of younger generations of Jews to organized forms of Jewish community and the global Jewish people.

The report, titled: “Best Practices of Organizations that Build Jewish Peoplehood: A Policy-Oriented Analysis of a Field in Formation,” is authored by Ezra Kopelowitz and Shlomi Ravid. Kopelowitz, a sociologist and Ravid, a philosopher have spent the past decade documenting and analyzing the increasing use of the Peoplehood concept by Jewish organizations.

The authors argue that dramatic historical change is underway, which is reflected in the manner that the best Jewish organizations are changing their approach to Jewish community building and education. Prior to World War II Jews spent most of their time with other Jews in neighborhoods in which the differences between Jew and non-Jew were clear. For most Jews, “Jewishness” and membership in the Jewish People were a taken for granted part of life. In the past 50 years Jews have entered into “the open society.” Anti-semitism has reached historical lows and in general there are no significant barriers preventing most Jews from full interaction with non-Jews in everyday life. Given the reality of the open society, why should a Jew today, choose to be a part of the Jewish People?

Kopelowitz and Ravid show that over the past thirty years transformative changes have occurred within veteran Jewish organizations and new forms of organized Jewish life are appearing. The common denominator is an attempt to leave membership models, which rely on number of participant to determine success, and instead create compelling forms of Jewish community, or “meaningful Jewish engagement” which provide the gateway into active membership in the Jewish People for a new generation, for whom Jewish belonging is not an obvious part of life. Not accidentally, many of these organizations are using the concept of “Jewish Peoplehood” to describe the rationale for their work; and as such, the authors argue that the Peoplehood concept serves as a looking glass through which to understand the broader phenomenon.

The research report is based on interviews which were conducted from September through December 2009 with 36 contacts at 22 organizations working in six countries. Eleven organizations work in the United States, four in Israel, two in England, two operating in the Former Soviet Union, two which are international and one in Canada. In addition, use was made of other research to build a number of additional case studies.

The report is available for downloading at NADAV Peoplehood Resources.