new york | A Jewish conference focused on a looming crisis might strike some as more of the same.
But a number of recent gatherings has debated the existential problems facing world Jewry, and many are aimed at or driven by new actors.
The slew of new forums focusing on the future of the Jewish people reveals a certain angst about today’s challenges and raises questions about how much faith Jews have in existing institutions to address those challenges.
Dan Mariaschin, the executive vice president of B’nai Brith International, said the conferences were spurred by a “kind of a convergence of issues all coming together at one time,” such as anti-Semitism and a dwindling U.S. Jewish population.
Mariaschin attended a June 22-23 conference in Israel hosted by Israeli President Moshe Katsav. Heads of major Israeli and diaspora groups who met decided to establish a World Jewish Forum — based on the model of the World Economic Forum — to tackle the challenges facing world Jewry.
In May, the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute, a think tank associated with the Jewish Agency for Israel, took a similar approach at a conference in Maryland.
Several have found the conferences invigorating.
“While many of the people invited to the president’s meeting started off skeptical, my sense was that by the end they felt that something significant could be accomplished and were pleased to be part of the effort,” said Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism.
But Yoffie warned against conferences that focus on crises while ignoring the vibrancy of modern Jewish life.
“These conferences have become somewhat of a joke among many younger Jews who wonder aloud why they should be part of a people whose major activity is seminars on survival,” he said. “Do we really need one more conference to tell us that we need to do a better job in Jewish education? As if nobody had thought of that before.”