Awakenings: Rabbi Benjamin Spratt

Awakenings: American Jewish Transformations in Identity, Leadership, and Belonging – Rabbi Stanton

Saturday, Nov. 13, 1pm

Why are religious organizations on the decline? What changes have caused many of them to lose touch with modern spiritual needs?  What does it take to remain relevant in today's world? Rabbis Joshua Stanton and Benjamin Spratt take on these and other critical questions facing religion today. And they have answers that are frank and yet surprisingly upbeat.

Nearly every facet of American Jewish life--and of American religious life in general--faces both disruption and great prospects for renewal. In every corner of our community, Jewish identity, wisdom, ritual, and power are being remixed and reimagined. As centralized authority declines, American Judaism moves and grows in a multitude of directions. 

As technology reduces the importance of geographic boundaries, new opportunities for connection and new modes of exercising power emerge. New mixtures of ancient Jewish practice and modern needs are beginning to shape the renewal of American Judaism, widening access to Jewish wisdom and ritual, transforming Jewish consumers into Jewish co-creators, and building new networks of Jewish belonging.

 

The initial purposes that inspired much of the American Jewish infrastructure are now falling victim to their own success. An emphasis on nostalgia and authenticity encourages us to mythologize the past and narrow our awareness of the present. A focus on buildings and centralized power by much of American Judaism reflects the realities of a century ago. In understanding what keeps these organizations mired in the past, we can unearth a new purpose to unify the American Diaspora and guide it toward a new golden age. 

 

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