Jewish Megatrends: Charting the Course of the American Jewish Future

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Visionary solutions for a community ripe for transformational change―from fourteen leading innovators of Jewish life. "Jewish Megatrends offers a vision for a community that can simultaneously strengthen the institutions that serve those who seek greater Jewish identification and attract younger Jews, many of whom are currently outside the orbit of Jewish communal life. Schwarz and his collaborators provide an exciting path, building on proven examples, that we ignore at our peril." ―from the Foreword The American Jewish community is riddled with doubts about the viability of the institutions that well served the Jewish community of the twentieth century. Synagogues, Federations and Jewish membership organizations have yet to figure out how to meet the changing interests and needs of the next generation. In this challenging yet hopeful call for transformational change, visionary leader Rabbi Sidney Schwarz looks at the social norms that are shaping the habits and lifestyles of younger American Jews and why the next generation is so resistant to participate in the institutions of Jewish communal life as they currently exist. He sets out four guiding principles that can drive a renaissance in Jewish life and gives evidence of how, on the margins of the Jewish community, those principles are already generating enthusiasm and engagement from the very millennials that the organized Jewish community has yet to engage. Contributors―leading innovators from different sectors of the Jewish community―each use Rabbi Schwarz's framework as a springboard to set forth their particular vision for the future of their sector of Jewish life and beyond. CONTRIBUTORS: Elise Bernhardt • Rabbi Sharon Brous • Sandy Cardin • Dr. Barry Chazan • Dr. David Ellenson • Wayne Firestone • Rabbi Jill Jacobs • Anne Lanski • Rabbi Joy Levitt • Rabbi Asher Lopatin • Rabbi Or N. Rose • Nigel Savage • Barry Shrage • Dr. Jonathan Woocher