Instead, young Jews should be introduced to “the wonders of Judaism and the beauty of Judaism,” she said.
Lipstadt’s talk, “The Best of Times, the Worst of Times, the Jewish Community on the Eve of the 21st Century,” will highlight a fund-raiser for Friends of Jewish Education, which supports programs for teens and families under the auspices of the Jewish Federation of the Greater East Bay’s Center for Jewish Living and Learning. Sharon Ufberg and Jennifer Miller are chair and vice chair of the dinner, respectively. Rabbi Glenn Karonsky is executive director of the CJLL.
The event will also honor Jo-Ann Seitman Jacobson, a long-time advocate for Jewish education, who has served on the boards of the Center for Jewish Living and Learning, Lehrhaus Judaica and Temple Isaiah as well as the executive board of the federation.
Lipstadt, the author of “Denying the Holocaust: The Secret Assault on Truth and Memory” and “Beyond Belief: The American Press and the Coming of the Holocaust,” said she is looking forward to switching gears to address issues of Jewish continuity.
“My scholarly work is on the Holocaust. I’m relishing the opportunity to go outside of that and talk about not what what’s done to Jews but how Jews can build a better future,” Lipstadt said from Atlanta, where she is Dorot associate professor of modern Jewish and Holocaust studies at Emory University.
“It allows me to wear my scholarly kippah and my personal kippah as a committed Jew.”
In her scholarly role, Lipstadt is a historical consultant to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., and has spoken out forcefully on the “lies and distortions” perpetuated by Holocaust deniers.
She also is directing a research project on the impact of the American experience on the values of ethnic and religious groups in Los Angeles.
Personally and as an educator, Lipstadt is concerned about building a Jewish community that involves young people. Many Jews have lost sight of the communal values and don’t know what Judaism offers, she said.
“I think in many respects, Judaism has become irrelevant to a whole generation of people,” she said.
In addition, “a lot of attention has been placed on outreach to the totally uninvolved, ignoring people on the periphery.”
What’s needed is a greater focus on what Lipstadt called the “Jell-O Jews,” members of a synagogue who drop out after their children become b’nai mitzvah, or those who are marginally involved in Jewish activities.
The key, she said, lies in strengthening both spiritual and community bonds. Synagogues need to recognize the importance of nourishing the Jewish soul.
“I think for a lot of people, they go into a synagogue and every spiritual bone in their body deadened,” she said. “There are very few synagogues that reach people on a deep, neshamahdik [soulful] level.”
Beyond the synagogue, Judaism also offers a “sense of community, an ethical practice,” she said.
“But you have to find a community with which to share. That’s why some of the healing services touch people so deeply, why camps, trips to Israel, retreats, touch people, allowing them to share a spiritual moment with a like-minded community.”
At Emory, where she has worked for the past four years, Lipstadt directs the graduate program in Jewish studies and also works with undergraduates. She previously served on the faculty of UCLA and Occidental College as well as the University of Washington in Seattle.
While she speaks out forcefully on Holocaust issues and believes it’s vital to keep the memories and stories alive, Lipstadt just as adamantly condemns what she calls the “misuse of the Holocaust.”
“I don’t think the Holocaust should have ever been used to bring Jews into Judaism, to rouse Jewish identity,” she said.
“That’s the wrong way to build Jewish identity. You don’t forget, you remember. But you don’t ever say, `Be a Jew because of anti-Semitism.’
“It’s all the wonders of Judaism and the beauties of Judaism that you want to convey to young people and the unaffiliated.”
Jacobson, the honoree at the dinner and Danville real-estate broker, agrees. She and her husband, Arnold, began studying Judaism together more than 20 years ago at Temple Isaiah’s Adult School. The mother of two grown children, Jacobson said she “had no inkling of my heritage until I began to explore it” as an adult.
“I did not, unfortunately, have the kind of education that most people should have and I feel obligated to pass this on,” she said.
“That’s why I’m involved. It’s brought a new depth to my life. Jewish education isn’t just for children. It’s there for everybody.”