Elie Kaunfer
Is It Possible to Grow Jewish Community From the Margins?
The posts on The New Spirituality blog are responses to Rabbi Sid Schwarz’s lead essay in his book, Jewish Megatrends: Charting the Course of the American Jewish Future (Jewish Lights). In that essay, which was posted on this site on May 5, 2016, Schwarz argues that any organization that hopes to speak to the next generation of American Jews needs to advance one or more of four key value propositions. They are: Chochma, engaging with the wisdom and practice of our inherited Jewish heritage; Kedusha, helping people live lives of sacred purpose; Tzedek, inspiring people to work for a more just and peaceful world; and Kehillah, creating intentional, covenantal communities that bind people to one another and to a shared mission.
Core Stories
Our past stories — no matter how distant and no matter how removed from our current experience — always stay with us.
In Israel, Religion Is Reduced To Simplistic Categories
Do Israelis put too many labels on faith, like Orthodox or secular? Elie Kaunfer argues that the convenience of easy categorization is outweighed by the danger of oversimplification.
Authentically Egalitarian
This is the thirteenth entry of an ongoing series exploring Jewish feminism.
Supply-Side Judaism
The Jewish community is expert at anticipating failure, even disaster. Declining affiliation rates, rampant intermarriage, collapsing schools and synagogues — these are the problems that top the communal agenda. Judaism, it is said, is a product that no one wants to buy anymore. The question is then posed: How can we convince people that Judaism is still relevant?
