By Michael Regenstreif
The Jewish Federation of Ottawa held one of the most interesting of its semi-annual members’ meetings in recent memory, November 29, thanks to a dynamic presentation by Rabbi Kerry M. Olitzky, executive director of the New York-based Jewish Outreach Institute.
I’ll summarize some of Rabbi Olitzky’s most important points.
• Jewish communities in North America – including ours in Ottawa – are in an “epoch of transition. I’m not sure how long this epoch will last,” he said, “but, when it’s over, Jewish communities will look nothing like they did when it began. All factors of the community will change and some institutions will go out of business.”
The key to both survival and a thriving future for Jewish institutions in this period of great change is that they must be driven by their missions. The organizations that will fall to the wayside are those whose missions are no longer seen – by their constituents and their communities – as relevant in these times, or that do not redefine or re-imagine themselves for the present and future in ways that make them relevant and vital.
Leadership groups, such as Jewish federations can lead the way in helping organizations and institutions adapt and thrive in the future, but they will have to “blow up the models of the past” in which power and decision-making was increasingly centralized. “Decentralization is the new direction.”
• With increasing decentralization, it is already not unusual to see seemingly opposing trends that are not in contradiction with each other. For example, increasing intermarriage rates at the same time there is resurgence in Orthodox observance.
Small groups are already increasingly creating independent opportunities within Jewish communities. This is certainly something that has been identified as happening within Ottawa’s community of young adults.
And many of those things are happening among people regarded as unaffiliated, people who are not necessarily members of a synagogue or Jewish community centre (JCC) or donors to federation campaigns.
The key, Rabbi Olitzky said, is to stop talking about affiliation and focus on engagement. “Engagement leads to affiliation, not the other way around.”
• He said that established institutions like synagogues and JCCs will have to “turn themselves inside out” and become community-based rather than continuing to rely on membership dues for core financing.
“Every Jew in the community should be given a JCC membership,” he said.
• The majority of Jewish marriages in North America are intermarriages, Rabbi Olitzky said. He differentiated between what he termed “inter-faithless” marriages, in which the religion of neither partner is practised and intermarriages in which a commitment is made to raise the children Jewishly.
Intermarried families, he said, “are Jewish families,” and the intermarried need Jewish institutional support.
• “Don’t forget the boomers,” Rabbi Olitzky said. With all the important work being done to engage the emerging generation of young adults, we need to remember that baby boomers – those of us, born between 1946 and 1964 – will continue to be the largest segment of the Jewish community for another two decades, and we must continue to have meaningful roles and opportunities within the community at the same time that opportunities are being extended to young people.
• Acknowledging that “the dream of Israel is alive” and important among Diaspora Jewry, Rabbi Olitzky said it’s important that organized Jewish communities allow honest debate about Israel.
“We have to begin to talk about Israel comfortably. I believe in Big Tent Judaism, and there has to be room in the tent for all of those people I disagree with, or who disagree with me.”
If Rabbi Olitzky’s analyses are correct, and I suspect most, if not all of them, are, these will continue to be challenging, but potentially exciting and rewarding years for Jewish communities.
