Articles

Smaller Jewish communities across the globe are experiencing an extraordinary set of organizational challenges. Young Jews are sharing stories of intimidation, isolation and ridicule as they seek to build meaningful and inclusive communities. In my work this past week with scores of millennial Jewish leaders from across the world, one finds a disturbing story of generational wars and institutional rivalries.

The American Jewish community is undergoing a major demographic transformation, driven by the imprint of the millennial generation and influenced by a collection of economic and cultural forces. This new Jewish paradigm encompasses a number of operating principles.

The End of Community: We are observing the final phases of the legacy Jewish communal system. This is not to suggest that these centennial organizations will necessarily leave the Jewish scene but rather their operational structures and missions are fundamentally changing.

At we observe Israel’s 68th anniversary of statehood, one finds a deepening divide on the part of younger Jews toward Israel. The internecine warfare around Israel that today seems to dominate the American Jewish political landscape has led some Jews to jettison their involvement with Israel and its politics or at times to adopt positions hostile to the Jewish State.

As key funders gather this week in San Diego to assess the Jewish and American landscape, a number of key factors are emerging that will generate a profound and sustaining impact on the “state” of our nation and its Jewish community. For those who help to set the financial agenda and institutional priorities of the American Jewish enterprise, indeed there are some sobering and challenging new realities associated with our society and its future.

Today, our federations sadly reflect the general political polarization afflicting our country. This is particularly detrimental to the effectiveness of the federation movement and its community relations’ function, locally and nationally. We as a community must resist polarization and stress the need for seeking common-sense solutions.

Earlier today, the Pew Study on the “Jewishness of Israelis” was released. It would be the first such comprehensive study on the State of Israel since the Jewish State was established nearly 70 years ago.

The report seems to suggest that there remains a significant bond on the part of Jews with their religious and cultural identity, even when Jews describe themselves as “non observant.” Such an identity transcends their loyalty and commitment to statehood. Israelis remain committed to preserving the two key ingredients for their national identity, maintaining Israel as a democracy and promoting the Jewish character of the State.

As this nation prepares for the 2016 Presidential campaign, this country is once again on political overload, as candidate commercials begin to interrupt sitcoms, political party debates dominate office conversations, and as well as blogs and twitter accounts flood our computer screens with messages offered by these candidates. At the same instance, American audiences are being asked to consider such policy questions as containing ISIS, battling international terrorism, and managing the Syrian refugee crisis while creating a coherent immigration policy. These international concerns are joined together with an array of domestic and family value issues to complete the political landscape.

Our community conducted its last population study in 1997. We learned a good deal from it about our community, in particular vital information about those in need of community services, many of whom were living at or below the poverty line. The study pointed to the doubling of Los Angeles’ Jewish senior population within a 20-year period. In a city as dynamic and changing as Los Angeles, don’t we need to know more about our community today?

Possibly the most significant social and structural transition taking place within the Jewish institutional world is the departure of a significant part of the “middle sector” of Jewish families and singles from the communal system, in favor of alternative models of participation and engagement. This pattern of disaffiliation is accompanied by the rise of the Millennials and that generation’s disconnect from established institutional loyalties.

When the film “The Force Awakens” opened this past month, we were reminded that Disney had once again reasserted its position as a premier film maker, accompanied as well by its supporting theme parks, merchandise, publishing, and television holdings. There is much that Disney does “right” that can provide to the nonprofit sector, and more directly to the Jewish community, some particularly valuable leadership tools and operational insights: