This past week I attended the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America (formerly known as the United Jewish Communities) in Washington D.C. Over 3000 people from across North America came to the conference from all walks of life. I found it heartening to see so many Jews actively interested in contributing to the Jewish community. While there were plenty of Jewish professionals in attendance there were also many lay leaders and volunteers who had taken off time from work and spent a significant amount of their own money to attend the General Assembly and their dedication should be honored.
Overall, I left the assembly with a few critiques that I offer for people to consider:
- Disconnect between rhetoric and reality: During the first plenary the new C.E.O. of the Jewish Federations of North America, Jerry Silverman, addressed the urgent need to make Jewish life more affordable. How though could he genuinely address this very important need while utilizing a caterer that charged $16 for a kosher sandwich at the conference? One needs to keep in mind that access to food at all, not to mention kosher food, was very hard to come by at the conference and this caterer (I believe it was Prestige Catering) essentially had a monopoly. How is charging $16 for a sandwich modeling affordable Jewish life?
- The balance between lecture and discussion: I made an effort to attend as many sessions as I could and having done so I noticed that the conference relied heavily on the frontal, lecture style of presentation. There was one session in particular that even attempted to have a discussion format ("Growing Jewish Education in Challenging Times") but ended up utilizing about three quarters of its time with two frontal lectures. Furthermore, during the last quarter of the session when the audience was invited to have smaller conversations the organizers of the session had people at each table which presented even more in a lecture format rather than facilitating conversation amongst the attendees.
- Quality vs. Quantity: There were lots of sessions to choose from at the General Assembly but I, along with many other educators who attended, found the sessions to be quite underwhelming. The last GA that I attended in 2007 had a scholar-in-residence, Rabbi Dr. J.J. Schachter, who presented sessions for rabbis and educators that were quite thought provoking and rich in content. This year, however, there was no scholar-in-residence and I also noticed there was no "rabbinic cabinet" sessions, which provided a smaller forum for some very engaging learning opportunities.
- Anti-Climactic: During the closing plenary there were two separate events which ended up being very anti-climactic. Firstly, there was a moment of pomp and circumstance when a delegation of high ranking Jewish officers marched an incomplete Torah scroll to the front stage where a scribe was waiting to, what looked like, finish the Torah scroll. It ended up that the scribe only was going to write a couple more letters in the scroll and not finish it. Before this became clear the idea that a scroll was being finished for the Jewish soldiers of the U.S. Army had spread throughout the Jewish Twitterverse and ended up being a major let down. Secondly, for the past three months an intense competition for The Jewish Community Hero of the Year had been occurring on the internet. The winner, out of the five finalists, was chosen at the closing plenary. This should have been a moment of excitement and build up. Rather, the ceremony was done after the keynote speaker, Rahm Emanuel, had addressed the conference and everyone was making their way out of the room. It was done quickly and promptly with no enthusiasm.
There is certainly much excitement about the new name for the organization and its new C.E.O. and this excitement was palpable at the General Assembly. I hope my critiques will help make the next General Assembly in Orlando an even greater opportunity for people to engage with their Jewish community.
No comments:
Post a Comment