Think MTV – Holocaust – It Happened To People Like Us

Last Updated on Saturday, 17 April 2010 02:56 Written by bryfy Saturday, 17 April 2010 02:56

As a follow up to last week’s post…

Just Light a Candle

Last Updated on Saturday, 17 April 2010 02:55 Written by bryfy Sunday, 11 April 2010 11:56

Some would say that today is an inappropriate day for today’s posting. Others would say that there could be no better time – I will let you decide.

Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day, Yom HaShoah (or to be more precise Yom HaZikaron La Shoah Ve La Gvurah – Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day). Today we must remember the Shoah, Lest we forget and so that Never Again shall such a tragedy occur again. But how? How should we remember?

Peoplehood, Shmeeplehood

Last Updated on Sunday, 21 March 2010 05:43 Written by bryfy Sunday, 21 March 2010 05:43

Last week I was fortunate enough to attend the very stimulating and high level Foundation for Jewish Camp’s Leader’s Assembly. The opportunity to meet and mix with colleagues old and new is always welcomed. This networking is the most important piece of many of these Jewish gatherings – and perhaps the topic for another blog post.

On Tuesday morning I was fortunate to be part of a session dedicated to looking at Learner Outcomes at Jewish Summer Camps – specifically asking the question of what a camper will learn in terms of their attitudes, knowledge and behaviors (what will they feel, know and do) as a result of spending a summer (or summers) at your camp. It’s a great question and one that any educational institution should continually be asking themselves. (special shout out to Rebecca and Adam!)

Well as luck would have it – I got stuck with the Jewish value of Jewish Peoplehood. My problems with Peoplehood stem from the fact that it never comes up as a real world on spell check. So, my first task was to not only analyze with camp directors and assistant directors what the learner outcomes of this overly used concept is, but to explain what it means – and thus began our discussions….

Before starting I should say that some of my best friends (colleagues and people I admire) are Jewish Peoplehood experts. (Melissa Zalkin Stollman, Yossi Abramovitz, Ezra Kopelowitz, Jewish Peoplehood HUB et al) And with that caveat I now have permission to offend everyone….

I want to share with you some of my insights from the session and see where it might take us:

1. The term Jewish Peoplehood is overused and misunderstood in the Jewish world today because not enough time and energy has been spent trying to understand it. Let me rephrase that, a lot of people have been discussing Jewish Peoplehood for many years, and few have been able to successfully translate their theoretical and philosophical understandings of the term into practical and implementable strategies.