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February 2010/Shevat 5770
A JOURNAL OF JEWISH RESPONSIBILITY
Do-it-Yourself
Judaism
Benj Kamm
A Web of
Interconnection . . . . . . . 1
Sharon Strassfeld
Knowing What
WeNeed ............ 2
Steven M. Cohen
The New Jewish
Organizing. . . . . . . . . . . 3
Talya Oberfield
Living on the Edge . . . . . 5
Nati Passow
Food and Community . . . 6
Sarah Lefton
Podcasting God. . . . . . . . 6
Rachel Nussbaum
Demanding More of
Community .......... 7
Maya Bernstein
Doing Jewish, Together . . 8
Nina Bruder, Lisa Farber
Miller, Aharon Horwitz,
Elie Kaunfer, Lisa Lepson
Parallel Track or
Continuous Loop:
ARound Table ........ 8
Discussion Guide. . . . . . 11
Shaul Kelner
A Lexicon in Flux . . . . . 12
Saul Kaiserman
Do-It-Together Jewish
Education. . . . . . . . . . . 13
Daniel Sieradski
A Jew-It-Yourself
Mini-Manifesto . . . . . . . 14
Andy Bachman
Moving In-stream . . . . . 15
Beth Cousens
Book Review:
Empowering Judaism . . 16
Yisrael Campbell
The Sickness of Never
Taking a Sick Day . . . . . 17
Nigel Savage
Sh’ma Ethics: Keeping
Kosher: Now What? . . . 18
Purim Sh’ma
36 Years After The
Jewish Catalog . . . . . . . . 20
Ibegan thinking about this issue a couple of years ago, wondering about the ways in which communities are now constructed. Since my 20s, I’ve been drawn to an array of experiments, projects, people, and programs aimed at creating community and nurturing
engaged Jewish living, and I now find myself quite curious about the new “ecosystem” of
niche-based innovation bubbling up around the country. Ten years ago, Sh’ma explored a
renaissance in Jewish literary arts and culture; five years ago, we devoted one issue to
projects fostering Jewish identity among secular Israelis and another to sustainable
innovation in the Jewish community. Along similar lines this month we probe the role that
community, yearning, and creativity play in a growing phenomenon of new Jewish initiatives,
offering glimpses into the lives of Jewish innovators and “do-it-yourselfers.” Readers will
also find a round table and essays that explore questions about sustainability, funding,
consumerism, surprising pathways for engagement, the relationship between new innovative
groups and the existing communal infrastructure, and what it is that continues to inspire the
creative re-imagining of Jewish life in America. —SB
A Web of Interconnection
BENJ KAMM
AJewish proverb teaches, “It takes a minyan to raise a child.” In my case, it ook many minyanim. I grew up in
Wilmington, Del., in a liberal Orthodox shul.
The parents of young children in the synagogue organized a havurah in which we celebrated Shabbat and holidays. When I was ten,
we moved to Philadelphia and joined a lay-led
havurah within a large Conservative synagogue. I started Jewish day school, where fellow students represented a range of beliefs and
practices. I spent summers at a Habonim Dror
camp, where Judaism was expressed through
culture, values, and seeking justice, and where campers learned
to take ever greater responsibility
for our own programming. By my
bar mitzvah, I was at home in several Jewish communities, and each influenced
the way I understood and valued community
and how I contributed toward shaping it.
While all my communities have not called
themselves “independent minyanim,” almost
all have been participatory and lay-driven.
What have they taught me?
I’ve learned to own my Judaism. In each
Jewish community, I had to be as confident
in my own practice as I was curious about the
practices of others; I had to think, learn, and
explore.
I daven in one shul, learn Torah weekly at a
friend’s house, do activism through a third venue,
and maintain another community for my work.
I’ve learned to build my own Jewish space.
When I arrived at Brown University in 2002, I
found a robust and warm Jewish community,
but couldn’t find a group with which to pray.
None of the three existing, denominationally
affiliated minyanim felt quite right. So several
friends and I created a fourth minyan. We
wanted not only to promote spirited and
