Since Hamas’ onslaught of October 7 and the alarming, unsettling, enraging reaction by so many individuals and institutions at home and abroad, to Israel’s fighting back against the genocidal perpetrators, most of us have sought “navigational guidance” from selected commentators and commentaries to help us find our way, if not also, our balance through these darkening days.
In this update we call readers’ attention to one such commentary that is superbly informative and strengthening. It is a podcast from Sapir Conversations, presented on October 20 entitled, American Jewry and the War in Israel: What Do We Do Now? The participants were Bret Stephens, columnist, writer, Editor-in-Chief, Sapir: A quarterly journal of ideas for a thriving Jewish future, Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove of Park Avenue Synagogue, and Rachel Fish, co-founder of the non-profit, Boundless, discuss the geopolitical impact of the war in Israel, the implications for the American Jewish community, and our collective responsibilities during this crisis and beyond.
The podcast is 1 hour and 16 minutes in length. Rabbi Cosgrove moderates an electric discussion with Stephens and Fish that is wide-ranging, substantive, impassioned and direct. It is an outstretched hand extended to a shell-shocked community. We will not attempt to summarize the podcast. It contains too much that is worthy. Rather, we will provide two nuggets on the subject of the difficulties facing Jewish youth on campus.
Fish synthesized the needs of our children on campus as that of content and courage. “Students need to know content” and then be able to deliver what they know, Fish said. “They need an operating system that is one of Jewishness. But it all begins before they walk onto campus” she emphasized.
Stephens forthrightly called for the Jewish community to create new “institutions” to replace the existing ones that have clearly failed to be true to the values they purport to teach. He pleaded with philanthropists to be as entrepreneurial, i.e., risk-taking and purposive in their philanthropy as they are in business. And then, picking up on Fish’s cue regarding an operating system that is one of Jewishness, Stephens said “the biggest thing that an engaged Jewish community can do is make it possible for every Jewish family to afford a first-class K-12 Jewish education. Nothing better guarantees a proud Jewish individual.”
With this bold, unequivocal formulation, Stephens echoed what community leaders here understand and are trying assiduously to achieve. It also echoes GAJE’s oft’ expressed mission.
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Readers can listen to the podcast at:
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Am Yisrael Chai. The People of Israel Lives and will always.
Shabbat shalom
Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)
November 17, 2023
Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education 