Mandel Colloquium Day 2

Today's theme was Jewish Peoplehood through the lens of various movements.

The morning started with a talk from the Rabbi Dow Marmur.

• Triangular Judaism: faith, people, land (this is a description, not a definition)
• Interaction between the sides are ideal, but most run to a corner.
• Faith - usually religious people
• People - Seculars
• Land - As a source of culture
• To understand Judaism, need to understand Jewish Peoplehood
• How have we evolved from Hebrews?
• Late 19th Century view: America is the promised land.
• Platforms in Reform Movement were developed due to lack of (and rejection of) halachah
• Pittsburg Platform from 1885 - Israel has no purpose for us.
• Columbus in 1930s - Change to Israel as cultural center, added dynamic dimension of peoplehood.
• Hirsch - reconciling Leo Baeck telling him that he was not a Zionist.
• Centenary perspective - language cited as first in binding of our ethic group; responsibility in building Israel
• Patrilineal descent - Who is a Jew? Post-halachic movement. Against a narrow definition of halachah, but we still need rules. Widens the scope of who is a Jew.
• 1999 platform - Encourage Aliyah (moving to Israel), inclusive community.
• Reform Judaism opens as many doors as possible to ever-present God.
• Israel secularism embraces triangle Judaism
• Israeli demographics: +50% identify as secular; 80% of those believe in God
• Land & people are essential, but faith is part of the psyche
• "I don't serve the Anglo-Jewish community. I serve the Jewish people."

Then we watched a film on perspectives on Jewish Peoplehood featuring interviews from people across denominations.

Of course, then we processed, which brought up more questions: what makes a people? We also talked about some of the common threads from the interviews, such as the limits of the Jewish people, self-identification, and the struggle with the terms "peoplehood," "mitzvah," and "halachah." One woman said something that really struck me: we can find unity in the Jewish calendar, even if our observance is different.

After lunch, we had a panel discussion with the three stateside heads of the Rabbinic programs (again, no names, just locations).

LA:

• I've never thought of the term "Jewish Peoplehood" as two separate entities; they have always been intertwined. We bring Judaism into being on a daily basis and in tern, the Jewish culture around us shapes us as Jews. 
• In engaging in this Brit with God, we have a commitment to God and each other.
• No trouble loving Judaism and the Jewish people in the concept, but there are some Jewish people and some aspects of Judaism that trouble me. This is just part of living in a collective.
• Once you establish a community, need to recognize that some people may disturb you.
• Every Jewish community at its best should be a microcosm of k'lal yisrael - being a community that's part of a greater community. 
• This feeds into our vision of membership, and as a community, we must establish how we will live out our values.
• Not good to have prophetic education; we cannot know what Judaism will look like 100-200 years from now. Instead of being responsible for that Judaism, we should shape those who will shape it.
• HUC teaches modeling leadership and k'lal yisrael as a way of addressing the ever-changing Jewish Peoplehood
• The communal obligation is to make God manifest in the world and make the world the way we imagine it.

NY:

• Even growing up in NFTY, we had a gut feeling obligation to tikkun olam and peoplehood.
• Gained a greater sense of Jewish diversity spending time on Kibbutz Yahel.
• How do we engage in a conversation where spirituality is hot and God is not?
• The Jewish heritage mission is to build a better world.

Cinci:

• This will be the last time that we will all be together (students with directors) until placement. 
• When I was here, it was after the Yom Kippur war, so we had to sit guard duty. Instead of weapons, we were given a flashlight, an air horn, and a token to call for help.
• You're hearing a lot of theories this week. Your job is now to take those theories and make something with them.
• What is HUC for the future: Whatever HUC's curriculum is today, it's not what it was 3-5-10 years ago, and is not what it will be 3-5-10 years from now. 
• The synagogues of today are nothing like the synagogues of your parents, and your synagogues in which you will serve will look nothing like the synagogues in which you grew up.
• Peoplehood is a completely different experience today than what it will be when you serve communities. 
• Membership, participation, and leadership will all be different.
• "What you put into your own life will come into your own."

After an afternoon break, we came back together in the evening to enjoy the comedic story of Yisrael Campbell. He talked about his story, how he found Judaism, his two conversions, and his connection to Rabbi Jim Kaufman z"l (one of my camp mentors) and Marla Bennett, a student from San Diego who was murdered in a Hebrew University bombing. His story was incredibly touching and really funny. If you find him on YouTube, you won't be disappointed.