SEATTLE — Headlines focused on Benjamin Netanyahu and the politics of religious pluralism. But another, albeit quieter, drama was afoot here last week at the annual General Assembly of the Council of Jewish Federations, the umbrella body serving 200 federations in North America.
Delegates grappled at workshops and plenary sessions with the dilemma of how federations can remain relevant to American Jews, half of whom are not involved with the Jewish organizational world.
They also sought to redefine the meaning of Jewish community and debated how to reinvigorate its institutions.
Underpinning all of this was the knowledge that to keep Jewish institutions alive, federations must compete hard for Jewish dollars solicited for other causes.
Arnold Eisen, a Stanford University religious studies professor, said the “task of imagining federations of the future begins by talking about communities.”
He called on delegates to “redeem the future,” saying there will be few North American Jews left “unless we reimagine and reconstruct our Jewish communities.”
Jews are hungry for meaning and connection and “often don’t find it in Jewish institutions.”
A central challenge in articulating a communal vision is embracing diversity and inclusiveness, he said. “We need the wisdom of all [Jews] at the table at which Torah is studied.”
The G.A. drew nearly 3,000 participants. It featured a speech via satellite by Prime Minister Netanyahu, and appearances by former Prime Minister Shimon Peres and Natan Sharansky, former Soviet dissident-turned-Israeli minister of industry and trade.
Dr. Conrad Giles, the new CJF president, had his first keynote address interrupted by a bomb scare that forced the evacuation of the convention center where the meetings were held (no bomb was found).
Drama aside, G.A. organizers asked delegates to “begin a discussion which will continue in each community” about some core questions:
*When 50 percent of American Jewish households move every six years and the Internet has defined conversation, is community local, national and/or virtual?
*What concerns and visions will bind the Jewish community?
*What will Jews expect and need from Jewish federations?
*What resources will be available?
Federations traditionally have been local communities’ central fund-raisers. They support institutions, services and programs that they deem the highest priorities, including day schools, nursing homes and community centers.
Half the money over the years typically went to the United Jewish Appeal for programs abroad, primarily Israel, though that figure has dropped in recent years.
The annual joint campaign by federations and UJA recently has raised roughly $725 million. CJF and UJA are holding talks on how to forge a closer partnership.
But the G.A. participants, both lay and professional, called on federations to join with other institutions, particularly synagogues, to enlarge their mission.
They are demanding that federations be the anchor of a community-building guided by Jewish values, learning and tradition.
Rabbi Sidney Schwarz, president of the Washington Institute for Jewish Leadership and Values, said Jewish renewal is “exploding.” “A lot of communities are starting to ask the right questions” about how to energize people about Jewish life, he said.
But the Jewish public still does not see federations as relevant.
“The demand is going through the roof” for programs on “how to combine Jewish values with engagement in the world,” he said, noting that his institute alone is working with 90 communities.
The marriage of money and meaning is a rocky one for federations, said Michele Rosen, president of the Federation of Greater Seattle, at a session titled Jewish Identity and Continuity.
The challenge is “to translate values into a communal vision when money is the constant issue,” Rosen said. For example, Seattle is trying to capitalize on the enormous outpouring of energy at the G.A., where 800 locals served as volunteers, both from “the center and the margins”of Jewish life.
The community is planning a Chanukah event called “Don’t Let the Light Go Out” to expose people to other volunteer and learning opportunities.
Rabbi Devora Bartnoff, a member of the Board of Rabbis of Greater Philadelphia, said one of the community’s most crucial tasks is to “bring in the unaffiliated.”
But Marshal Spector, a 36-year-old attorney from Portland, Ore., seeks more. “There is so much talk about outreach, but once people come in” to the system, he said, there must be something “substantive, with meaning and purpose, to have them stay.”