Esther K and I are blog friends, which means (gasp) real friends. We just met online, through our blogs and later in person when work took me to New York and later later in Jerusalem and then back in New York. We’re friends. She’s a part of the extended and diverse Jewish community that I have because I blog/twitter/flickr.
A couple weeks ago she was in Nashville for the General Assembly. Now for some reason, I didn’t look into attending the GA. In part because I thought it was an event associated with the conservtive movement and didn’t realize that it is United Jewish Communities (the org that took me to Israel on my first trip.)
She gave a speech about the new Jewish community and I thought I’d excerpt a tiny bit and then send you over to My Urban Kvetch to read the whole thing and watch the video of it.
“This enigmatic “new generation” is not any less committed than the previous one; we’re just communicating that commitment differently. And to be relevant to the new media generation, old-school organizations have to embrace new modes of communication and new models of commitment…. Our generation lives generously, but gives differently: in measure, in method, and in means. We need to feel the return on our investments—of both time and money—in our hearts and souls. And for those of us who are single or not parents, the community needs to expand the definition of commitment beyond Hebrew school tuition: just because some of us aren’t engaged to be married doesn’t mean we’re not engaged in pursuing a Jewish life.
Well said Esther, well said! Now get over there and read the speech in it’s entirety.
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