“Uri L'Tzedek is an Orthodox social justice organization guided by Torah values and dedicated to combating suffering and oppression. Through community based education, leadership development and action, Uri L'Tzedek creates discourse, inspires leaders, and empowers the Jewish community towards creating a more just world.” [uriltzedek.webnode.com] uri.ltzedek@gmail.com It has been observed that Orthodox Judaism is becoming more and more parochial, advocating only for causes that are close to home (Israel advocacy, fighting anti-Semitism, school vouchers, etc.). Certainly these issues are important, but for younger generations of Jews, who don’t hold the survival fears that their parents and grandparents held, there is a craving for new meaning. Serving as an Ohr L’Goyim (a light to the nations) as teachers and activists for global peace and justice is a lost discourse in contemporary American Orthodoxy. Young religious Jews want to reclaim and reinvent those models in a new globalized interconnected society. Countless students in Jewish day schools are turned off by what they perceive as the irrelevancy of their educations to what they care most about. Yes, they leave knowing berakhot (blessings), the laws of how to build a sukkah, and how the Tabernacle was built but they are clueless about what Judaism can offer on topics such as universal health care, environmentalism, domestic worker rights, immigration issues, statute of limitations, business ethics, poverty alleviation, as examples. Additionally the discourse has narrowed, making halakhah the only language and lens for asking difficult questions about society. The Torah has a very broad and universalistic message in addition to our particular legal worldview. How can we bring that inspiration and charge into classrooms, into informal education, and into the streets? How irresponsible would it be to not train a student that is under our tutelage to thrive in the world and not to ensure that they are equipped with the skills of integrating their Jewish values with contemporary issues or that they are trained in methods of creating social change to live their values in a meaningful way. In a world where 1 billion people (1/6th of the world’s population) live on $1 a day and 2 billion people (1/3rd of the world’s population) live on $2 a day, our Jewish voices are needed now more than ever to protest the injustices. Learning these values and living these values must begin in early Jewish education. Orthodox college students have been joining pluralistic organizations to engage as global citizens. These students are working on service projects in developing countries with American Jewish World Service (www.ajws.org) and on domestic year-long projects with Avodah (www.avodah.net), to give two examples. It is great to have Jews of different denominations working together on crucial issues but there should also be options grown out of the Orthodox community itself. Additionally, models for service in the community are often limited to chesed (one-time acts) at the exclusion of tzedek (strategies that are systemic, sustainable, and complex). Many young Jews have been turned off from activism and volunteerism due to its overly simplistic nature. They want more than bikkur cholim (visiting the sick), soup kitchens, and shalach manot (gifts given on Purim). Those mitzvot are vital to our education and daily lives, of course, but they do not inspire Jewish leadership or systemic change. Rav Ahron Soloveichik discussed tzedek with a language of “rights” in “Civil Rights and the Dignity of Man” as something crucial and enduring. Thinking politically, systemically, and creatively about how to respond to oppression and injustice is the main thrust of the ethos of the Torah and of Chazal. Additionally, Orthodox Judaism has been lacking serious accountability in how its enterprises are operating. The Rubashkins case and Madoff scandal have shown us that we need to be watchdogs for ourselves to ensure that the Halakhic community, and Jewish community at large, is not perpetuating injustice in the world at the least and is optimally setting a paradigmatic high moral standard. Regarding transparency, Uri L’Tzedek is launching the Tav HaYosher to certify kosher restaurants that meet legal standards. This is only one crucial step of many to be taken to ensure that we are taking responsibility for our own communal dollars and institutions. So these are the challenges we face: 1. How to create a new discourse and activism that is effective and inspiring for young Jews. 2. How to infuse the ethics of the Torah and the laws of Choshen Mishpat into great collective efforts to perpetuate justice in the world. 3. How to create more internal transparency and accountability for Orthodox leadership and businesses. 4. How can this social justice activism be unique to the needs and talents of Orthodox Judaism (resources, types of halakhic and values discourse, etc.) These trends are beginning to change. Shifra Bronznick, (http://www.jewcy.com/user/2956/bronznick), recently argued that three major factors have sparked an increased interest in young Orthodox engagement in social justice: Darfur , Rubashkins, and the plethora of non-denominational Jewish social justice organizations inclusive to Orthodox students. It seems that the first may touch upon our Jewish national collective history and conscience (the Shoah), the second is a desire for increased internal moral accountability, and the third is the demonstration of an enhanced passion for universal justice through an inclusive Jewish framework. These are great reasons to engage! Of course, not all of the movement has come from outside of the Orthodox community though. This sad, these students not privy to a strong education in civic duties and social justice can come to feel far behind. Orthodox students arrive on college campuses after a year in Israel and find that they have few tools to discuss the most fascinating issues of contemporary politics or of social change like so many non-Orthodox students have. It is the belief of Uri L’Tzedek that Torah and the guarders of its laws and teachings have a tremendous amount to offer to contemporary thought and activism. It is for this reason that Uri L’Tzedek has introduced a three-pronged approach for inspiring the Orthodox Jewish community to become activists for justice. 1. Education 2. Leadership Development 3. Actions In education, Uri L’Tzedek provides dynamic education for teens, teaches on college campuses throughout the country, offers batei midrash for young professionals, and holds yamei iyun in synagogues. A typical “beit midrash” that Uri L’Tzedek leads will have a central social justice theme (health care, domestic abuse, poverty, ethical kashrut, tenant rights, etc.) and attracts between 25-60 Modern Orthodox attendees at each beit midrash. There are 4 different components: 1. Shiur : high-level learning from Chumash, Talmud, Halakhah, and Jewish philosophy. 2. Issues scholar: Someone who works in policy, an academic, or an activist. 3. Spiritual chavruta: Personal sharing about how the learners experience this topic. 4. An Encounter with “The Other”: Someone directly affected by the issue who can share personal anecdotes and experiences. Batei Midrash always have the first three components but do not always necessarily have the fourth component (the encounter). The leaders are strict to always keep these programs to one hour and 20 minutes (no longer) to respect the time constraints upon our learners with full-time work schedules. In leadership development, Uri L’Tzedek mentors grassroots activists and empowers young leaders to act on their convictions. For example, there is a student at SAR High School that has received a grant from Uri L’Tzedek and who we mentor in his “Micro-Consulting” project in Riverdale. Similarly, we mentor many Yeshiva College and Stern College students, along with students at 15-20 other campuses around the country, who are craving outlets to create serious social change. A recent case: A YU student realized that her university was not providing a location for the cafeteria workers to eat their lunches (only the bathroom or the street) since they did not keep kosher. Under Uri L’Tzedek’s mentorship, a student began to organize her fellow students. While the problem has not been resolved, she was able to attain a temporary room where workers could eat in for that semester on certain days and at certain times. This was a big first victory for her. This is one example of many where college students are looking for training and mentorship in creating change on their campuses and beyond. Uri L’Tzedek has at least 10 college fellows coming to New York for a summer of training, learning, and organizing for change. Seeking to empower women and to empower young people is a part of the necessary decentralization of power that Orthodox Judaism needs in order to thrive, where all of its members can grow and contribute based on their unique passions and talents. In our actions focus, we believe that our learning must be transformed into action on behalf of the other. We do community organizing, political advocacy, demonstrations and rallies, fundraise, micro-lending to poor families in villages in the developing world, lead boycotts, and direct service. How can we better teach the midot of spiritual activism? How can we inspire with the spirituality of perpetuating justice into the world? How can we be more eclectic in the types of discourse that we include into our religious Jewish identities? How can we continue to support Israel and local Jews in countless ways while also going beyond our own communities to assist all types of people of need? How can day schools best integrate our curricula into their programs? Uri L’Tzedek has now existed for two years and has reached thousands of learners and activists. The organization now has full-time staff, hundreds of activist partners, thousands of supporters, nation-wide educational programming, and global projects. We would like to begin thinking about how we can best assist Jewish educators, particularly in day schools, in their work to make their teaching relevant to current issues, to inspire leadership and service, and to facilitate deeper level thinking about our distinct civic engagement as religious Jews. http://lookstein.org/lookjed/read.php?1,17785,17785#msg-17785 Sat, 25 May 2013 16:07:12 -0600 Phorum 5.2.19 http://lookstein.org/lookjed/read.php?1,17785,17872#msg-17872 http://lookstein.org/lookjed/read.php?1,17785,17872#msg-17872
I would like to thank all who thoughtfully took the time to comment on my proposal.

The Rav, famously argued in Ish Halakhah: “The actualization of the ideals of justice and righteousness is the pillar of fire which halakhic man follows, when he, as a rabbi and teacher in Israel, services his community,” (91). The Rav continues “According to the outlook of Halakhah, the service of God (with the exception of the study of the Torah) can be carried out only through the implementation, the actualization of it’s principles in the real world. The ideal of righteousness is the guiding light of this world-view. Halakhic man’s most fervent desire is the perfection of the world under the dominion of righteousness and loving-kindness - the realization of the a priori, ideal creation, whose name is Torah (or Halakhah), in the realm of concrete life. The Halakhah is not hermetically enclosed within the confines of cult sanctuaries but penetrates into every nook and cranny of life. The marketplace, the street, the factory, the house, the meeting place, the banquet hall, all constitute the backdrop for the religious life.” (94).

Uri L'Tzedek aims to serve and inspire the American Orthodox Jewish community toward the Rav’s mission: “the perfection of the world under the dominion of righteousness and loving-kindness” in and beyond our communities. It seeks to develop the growing discourse of social justice among halakhic Jewish communities using Jewish texts and the paradigms of halakha to connect God, Torah and social-political issues, ultimately translating that discourse into action. Through its work, Uri L'Tzedek aspires to create a Jewish community of learners and leaders who will seek to improve the world, while simultaneously fulfilling and enriching their religious and ethical lives.

To bring the powerful Torah of justice outside the four walls of the beit midrash, Uri L'Tzedek began developing social justice leaders in the Orthodox community. The charge of creating a just society is greater than any single individual or small group can shoulder. With a broad, diverse and committed leadership, Uri L'Tzedek reaches more people, addresses more issues and creates more opportunities for change. Uri L'Tzedek fosters a diverse cohort of leadership through one-on-one meetings, community-driven initiatives, high school and college student mentoring, and individually mentored programs.

For Orthodoxy to remain a relevant and a transformative force, it must speak to the souls of Jews. Jews, today more than ever, are seeking to make meaning of their contemporary identities and to be engaged in modern society in more complex and nuanced ways. The Torah must be an enabler, not an inhibitor, in guiding a sophisticated and moral discourse and call to action.

The Torah demands that we educate our students to live in all of our ways halakhta b’drakhav (in the ways of G-d). The primary goal for Jewish education in the Orthodox community should be to create a culture of moral development where the most challenging contemporary ethical issues are embraced within a halakhic and Jewish ethical framework. Text skills can not be compromised. They are of utmost importance but they must not become the sole end. We can not afford to place issues of moral development, identity formation, leadership training, and civic responsibility on the back burners. This would be an extraordinarily failed and flawed approach.

How can we create more partnerships between schools, shuls, and social justice organizations to have a maximal educational impact instilling the ethos of the Torah in the minds, hearts, and actions of our holy young learners to foster lives deeply committed to the fulfillment of all mitzvot in the beit midrash, at home, and in the streets?

How can we enable a more complete integration of text skills and moral development improving the Jewish family life and Am Yisrael while also fulfilling our responsibilities as global citizens?

How might others suggest that we get there? How might you suggest that we train our talmidim to become agents of change for a better world, to be people of reason and heart, and to know how to create social action around core Jewish values? What else has worked for educators out there to enable this? My proposal has been that we move from a curriculum which solely embraces Rashi “skills” and mastery of sugyot and train competence in taking the values of those texts and learning how to live them and impact the world with their wisdom and inspiration. Text and language skills are vital to the enterprise of Talmud Torah but they must not be the end. The creation of the just society and the concomitant virtuous agent of Torah u’Mitzvot must be the ultimate product of our toil.

There are so many examples of projects that young halakhic Jews are leading across the globe. For example, Uri L’Tzedek has launched the Tav HaYosher (The Ethical Seal for kosher restaurants in the US) modeled off of the Tav Chevrati (which has been supported by Rav Aharon Lichtenstein shlitta, Rav Motty Alon, Rav Druchman, and so many others). We have engaged Jewish teens in this work as we believe that securing the most vulnerable in our societies is absolutely vital.

How can responding to the cries of the gayr, yatom, and almanah be postponed for after our years reserved for the beit midrash (see Rav Amital’s vort on the Baal HaTanya learning with his grandson and the purpose of Yeshivat Har Etzion)? How can we expect our children to have the keilim to know how to create systemic and sustainable change for the most vulnerable in our societies? Billet argued that “in Orthodoxy, Torah U’Mitzvot come become social justice.” The Rav and Rav Amital argued fiercely against such a simplistic sequence. Torah U’Mitzvot are lived and are not a step removed from our missions to pursue righteousness.

Those leading schools and classrooms might choose to ask themselves: “For what courageous community involvement will my shul/class be known, in the years ahead?” What can my students do to change the world next year? What role will I have in facilitating that change?

Kol tuv,
Shmuly Yanklowitz
(Uri L'Tzedek, Founder and Co-Director)
[uriltzedek.webnode.com]]]> Shmuly Yanklowitz Lookjed List Archive Mon, 04 May 2009 00:07:19 -0600 http://lookstein.org/lookjed/read.php?1,17785,17856#msg-17856 http://lookstein.org/lookjed/read.php?1,17785,17856#msg-17856
First-of-all, I should clarify my point, since Yitzie, and perhaps Ms. Kaye, had misapprehended it (doubtless my own fault). I am not suggesting that teaching children the importance of doing things that their parents don’t do will cause cognitive dissonance and perhaps ultimately push them away from Judaism. Maybe it will, maybe it won’t, most likely it will contribute but not be decisive, but that’s not why I oppose hesed programs.

Neither am I giving special curricular status to prayer, character building and study above hesed. The first has a place in school only to the extent that its times coincide with school hours (okay, we may have to teach him how to hold a siddur right-side up, but I trust him to figure out how to walk an old lady across the street on his own); the second has no place in the curriculum; the third, properly understood, is the curriculum, but in the prevalent sense that substitutes the motivational locker-room speech for both practice and game it has no place either. hesed is on a long list of things that schools do rather than teach, and I’m against all of them impartially.

My objection to hesed programs as an instance of Youth Activism is that they encourage a vision of our community as one where children are the proper prosecutors of everything from visiting the sick to writing their congressmen about Darfur. This manages to devalue both their proper activity – learning – and Darfur, since the former isn’t important enough to take them away from the latter, and the latter isn’t important enough to take their parents away from the television.
Why, though, should I think that this inculcates the idea that hesed is kids’ stuff, whereas I’m not afraid that educating children while their parents never seem to open a book will not convince them that Education is kids’ stuff? That’s the real question, and there are a number of good answers.

For one, there’s good reason to expect education – an intensive and long-term activity – to be largely a function of youth, for the simple reason that until they’re educated they’re no good for anything else. To that extent it is and will continue to be “kids’ stuff”.

And since the kids know that Dad doesn’t have time to put on his backpack and go to school for several hours every day, they don’t see this as belittling school, and it shouldn’t predispose them to think that picking up a book of an evening is a childish activity. On-the-other-hand, Dad has plenty of time to write an occasional letter or ladle some soup; that nobody expects him to do so can only mean that these simply aren’t grown-up activities.

Also, there is such a thing as having learned enough to get by, and a child can recognize that he has yet to do it while his mother has done it already. The sick person you visited last week, though, is likely still sick this week, or will have been replaced by someone else just as sick. If Mom doesn’t visit sick people, it’s not because there’s no-longer a need.

Furthermore, I rather think we’re fighting yesterday’s wars if we’re still assuming that parents don’t read, learn, pray, keep shabbos and kashrus and otherwise live a religious lifestyle. Maybe not as well as we’d like, but enough that an onlooker needn’t associate these activities specifically with children. It’s more than likely, though, for a parent to do essentially zero organized hesed.

There are other answers, but the truest one is that the kids get the impression that hesed is somewhere between education and having fun in importance because that is in fact what we think. We pile kids into a bus to Dag Hammarskjöld plaza because we figure that grownups have better things to do with their time (even on a weekend) and kids don’t (even on a school day).

As to Ms. Kaye’s puzzlement that it “seems strange to criticize Jews who care about the suffering of others”, I have to admit that that does seem strange. It would be like incarcerating dentists (okay, maybe dentists are a bad choice – let’s say landscapers). If the landscapers in question also happened to be car thieves, though, we might get an inkling of an explanation. I didn’t criticize Shmuley Yanklowitz for caring about suffering, I criticized him for arriving in my in-box with the tidings of his moral superiority, for accusing my whole community of not caring about others, and for demanding a change to our curricula that would simultaneously steal school time, devalue hesed (see above) and possibly introduce alien priorities into our choice of hesed activities.

Similarly regarding my setting environmentalists, third-worlders and gays up as Other, even though some are Jewish. I was responding to the question of why non-Orthodox Jews seem to be overrepresented in the kinds of projects that Shmuley Yanklowitz recommends. Saying that they may feel more of an affinity for environmentalists than for Jews doesn’t tell us that a person can’t be a Jew and an environmentalist, only that someone may be drawn to that person in his role as an environmentalist while another might be drawn to him in his role as a Jew. (Tell me what’s wrong with this syllogism: “Your parole can be revoked for consorting with known felons. There are Jewish felons. Therefore, your parole can be revoked for consorting with known Jews.”) In fact, it’s a bit insulting to environmentalists et al to imply that they’re “okay” because some of them are (also) Jews.

I hope that clears things up.

Michael Berkowitz]]> Michael Berkowitz Lookjed List Archive Tue, 28 Apr 2009 00:16:24 -0600 http://lookstein.org/lookjed/read.php?1,17785,17848#msg-17848 http://lookstein.org/lookjed/read.php?1,17785,17848#msg-17848
As others have noted, it is a mistake for Shmuly to frame his program primarily in the context of a harsh criticism of contemporary Orthodox education or as a means of preventing the abdication of Orthodoxy. Such rhetoric overstates the case and naturally inspires negative reactions. The positive message of what Uri l'tzedek stands for should be a good enough rallying cry.

Furthermore, I agree with those warning of the danger that such an organization may simply adopt every current cause of the liberal world. On the other hand, a parallel danger exists of Orthodoxy rejecting causes simply because they associate those causes with secular liberalism. I believe that some oppose a focus on ecological concerns because they think it a left wing plot not worthy of serious consideration. Automatically endorsing the values of another group and automatically rejecting them are equally a loss of autonomous thinking.

In agreement with Lynn Kaye, I have to question one of Mike Berkowitz's critiques. He points out the problem of adults telling the kids to do chessed when the adults do not do it. Mike envisions the kids getting the message that chessed is only for children but not for serious people. Taken a bit further, the same argument means that schools can not encourage kids to love Torah study if the adults do not attend shiurim. Educational institutions can not encourage reading of serious books if the parents just watch TV. To treat them just like the adults, perhaps our education should consist of daily daf yomi shiurim in which we downplay learning skills or retention of material.

One response might argue that the kids understand how the difference in available time for children and adults creates divergent educational goals. The same response justifies more chessed programming in schools.

Yitzchak Blau]]> Yitzchak Blau Lookjed List Archive Sun, 26 Apr 2009 05:20:07 -0600 http://lookstein.org/lookjed/read.php?1,17785,17846#msg-17846 http://lookstein.org/lookjed/read.php?1,17785,17846#msg-17846
I have been following the very interesting thread on Uri L'tzedek and educating towards social awareness. Without going into the points raised in this important thread, I want to inform all educators about a fabulous educational initiative dealing with social action that can be used in your educational institutions.

I have just been involved in a Youth Social Action Film Festival here in Israel where all the films are made by teenagers from all over Israel, religious and secular. Teenagers, who either study film as part of their studies (an educational track in many Israeli High Schools, religious and secular) or whom are total ametuers yet make a film for the festival, submit films that they make on their own that deal with social issues that are important to them.

Click here to see an article about the most recent film festival that took place a few weeks ago on Rosh Chodesh Nisan:
[www.scribd.com]

We are now putting together a package of movies from the festival together with educational materials that we will provide to educational organizations worldwide who are interested in social awareness programs for their students, using these fabulous films. I don't have to tell you how impactful an issue becomes when it is seen in a film as opposed to reading about it in a textbook, especially when these films are made by teenagers themselves, allowing all of us to see how teens internalize and process some of the most pressing social issues that bother them.

To better understand what I'm referring to, here are 2 examples of films that won awards at last year's film festival:
1. Shomaya Tefila - Access to the disabled in society in general, and religious society specifically
[12tribefilms.org]

2. Adon Shoko - Being Different
[12tribefilms.org]

Anyone interested in this social action educational youth film package can contact me - avi@12tribefilms.org

The package will be ready for use by camps, this summer, and for the upcoming school year.

Anyone interested in having their students submit films for next years film festival can contact me as well. It would be wonderful if this Youth Social Action Film Festival has submissions from Jewish students worldwide as well.

Kol Tuv,
Avi Abelow
Revolutionizing Jewish Cinema One Community at a Time
www.12tribefilms.org
Follow on Twitter: @avirach
Join our Facebook Page: 12Tribe Films Foundation]]> Avi Abelow Lookjed List Archive Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:48:03 -0600 http://lookstein.org/lookjed/read.php?1,17785,17835#msg-17835 http://lookstein.org/lookjed/read.php?1,17785,17835#msg-17835 We teach lots of Jewish values and mitzvot in Jewish day schools and in Jewish Hebrew schools which may or may not be emulated in the children's home lives, like Talmud Torah, Tefilla, refraining from Lashon Hara and so on. We teach them because it is our job as educators, and a responsibility given to us by the parents themselves. Why distinguish mitzvot like bikur holim, ahavat hager, or nihum avelim for special exclusion from curricula because they can be called "hesed?" Isn't that an artificial distinction between mitzvot, and more importantly, an implied hierarchy of values which the Torah itself does not make? Of course family education, and family involvement in all aspects of Jewish life and mitzvot is to be encouraged with great energy by community leaders and educators, but the Jewish schools also have a role to play in educating Jewish children in all aspects of Jewish tradition.

Second, it seems strange to criticize Jews who care about the suffering of others, and to condemn them and their motivations. Affiliating and identifying with those who are different from ourselves, or those in worse situations is the grounding of many mitzvot in the Torah. Remembering that we were slaves in Egypt makes the experience of hardship formative of our relation to the Other. We are enjoined by God to use that experience to reach out both to Jews who suffer or are vulnerable and also to non-Jews. It seems to me that a Jew who succeeds at seeing the image of God in every person's face has achieved a high level of Ahavat Hashem. This is something we should all strive for, not deride each other for.

I was especially concerned to read that 'environmentalists' 'third-worlders' and 'gays' were cast as the Other here, since of course there are Jewish gay people and Jewish environmentalists who make up our nation. We also have Jewish communities in parts of the developing world as well. Would being concerned about women's welfare in countries like Afganistan mean we should be condemned for affiliating more with "women" than other Jews? I think it is clear these are false dichotomies.

Thank you for this thought-provoking thread.

Lynn Kaye
Asst. Congregational Leader
Congregation Shearith Israel, New York]]> Lynn Kaye Lookjed List Archive Tue, 21 Apr 2009 13:15:27 -0600 http://lookstein.org/lookjed/read.php?1,17785,17824#msg-17824 http://lookstein.org/lookjed/read.php?1,17785,17824#msg-17824
The Uri L’Tzedek discussion reminded me of the following paragraph I read in an article written by Rabbi Harold Kushner:
“A colleague recently lamented to me, “If you ask an Orthodox rabbi what Orthodoxy stands for, he will answer in two words: Torah u’mitzvot. Ask a Reform rabbi what Reform stands for and he or she will answer in two words: social justice. Ask a Conservative rabbi what Conservative Judaism stands for, and he or she will hand you a 48-page brochure.” I would venture to suggest a theological behavioral foundation for Conservative Judaism that can be expressed in just three words and will do for Jews in the 21st century what the halakhic system did so effectively for our ancestors: asher kid’shanu bmitzvotav, life as a quest for holiness and the Torah as our guide to bringing holiness into our lives. The mitzvot would be seen as holy, as commanding and deserving our loyalty, not only because of where they stem from but because of what they lead to.”
- Harold S. Kushner, “Conservative Judaism in an Age of Democracy” in Conservative Judaism Summer 2007

Rabbi Kushner, of course, is a Conservative rabbi, which gives him the leeway of putting Conservative Judaism in the light he does. The article is a treatise of his vision of Conservative Judaism, so it makes sense that he questions where Conservative Judaism stands and aims to define it.

I present it not so much because I am looking to defend what some call the parochial nature of Orthodoxy, and not because Reform has classically defined itself (at least in the words of Rabbi Kushner’s colleague) as standing for “social justice.”

Uri L’Tzedek’s mission is no doubt an outgrowth of the wonderful teachings their founders were exposed to in their rabbinic education.

While this is good and nice, I couldn’t say better than Michael Berkowitz has that the overall tone of the mission seems to suggest they (the Uri L’Tzedek team) are the only ones who “get it.”

Shmuly Yanklowitz wrote “Countless students in Jewish day schools are turned off by what they perceive as the irrelevancy of their educations to what they care most about.”

And then he goes on to list their technical fluency in some halakhic areas (which I question, by the way), and goes on to suggest that ‘what they care most about’ is “what Judaism can offer on topics such as universal health care, environmentalism, domestic worker rights, immigration issues, statute of limitations, business ethics, poverty alleviation, as examples.”


Most American kids I know don’t give a dime about any of these. They care about their ipods, laptops, myspace, facebook, the internet in general, hanging out, their friends, popular culture (singers, movie stars and professional sports and athletes), and whether their school will win the latest sports tournament [perhaps the non-athletic students care about the college bowl or mock-trial or debate team]. Every now and then Israel comes up, but more because it is indoctrinated than because they really feel it.

The issues he has raised are not, in their core, Jewish issues. They are political issues and humanitarian issues. We can debate how much Judaism really asks us to reach out humanitarian-wise to the other side of the globe when we have our own problems to contend with (such as how a family earning six figures a year will not have more than two or three children simply because they can’t afford tuition).

Of course we are required and endowed by our Creator (to borrow a phrase) to be aware and sensitive, and to stand up for injustice when we can.

But there are much bigger issues we need to deal with in terms of what our kids are taking from their education system, and social justice will not provide the answer to philosophical and theological questions.

He writes “Orthodox Judaism has been lacking serious accountability in how its enterprises are operating.” And he names the Rubashkins and Madoff as classic examples. To be sure, both are “chillul hashem”s. But Madoff was not an Orthodox enterprise. And while Rubashkin is a kosher meat company, I wouldn’t call it an “Orthodox Judaism enterprise” in the same way I would call, say, the Orthodox Union an “Orthodox Jewish enterprise.”

That “Orthodox students arrive on college campuses [with] few tools to discuss the most fascinating issues of contemporary politics…” just goes to show this is not about Orthodox Jewish education or upbringing. It is a question of what my 4th grade social studies teacher would call “current events.”

David Wolkenfeld’s comment - “There is a danger that a group such as Uri L’Tzedek will either become a narrow propaganda mouthpiece for a “religious left” or be so inclusive in its message of a broad swath of the political spectrum that its message becomes banal and irrelevant” - encouraged me to look at Uri L’Tzedek’s website - [uriltzedek.webnode.com] to find out more “about” the program. Check it out and be enlightened.

Shmuly Yanklowitz’s second posting includes - dare I say it - a swipe at Yeshiva University [“they don’t need more journals bridging Torah U’Maddah in order to resolve their tensions. This has not worked and it will continue to be a terrible mistake if Orthodox educators who throw the cognitive in the face of affective problems”] even as he says the following:

“As I travel around the U.S… I have noticed that Orthodox college students are often departing from halakhic living… One… reason is… a rapid disconnect between their yeshiva and day school educations and the demands of their adult lives. They need keilim to bridge the values of Torah to the pressing issues they are confronted with… So many of our young leaders are seeking to become *agents of change* and not merely to be serving as bastions of modern orthodox scholarship.

“The time is now to transform our day school curriculum to include the most challenging questions of our age while strengthening our commitments to be marbitz Torah and to train some of the greatest future talmidei chuchamim that their service to G-d must not end in the beit midrash and beit kenesset.”

BRAVO. And Oy Vey. We are now invoking Obama’s rhetoric to define Jewish day school education. Since when is “service to God” defined by the work of "change" of Uri L’Tzedek? Most people I know who are learned non-clergy are people who go to minyan, go to work, are kovea itim l’Torah, and they devote their spare time to enhancing their relationships with family (primarily spouse and children) and friends. Every now and then they take a vacation. In this, the way they live their lives, they serve God.
Other non-clergy do the same except they have a tremendous challenge in that they don’t have time or, in some cases, the inclination to be “kovea itim l’Torah.”

On the other hand, I will argue that a sizable percentage of adults who had “negative” yeshiva and day school education experiences found ways, in their adult lives, to reconcile their lack of social justice education on their own!, and – shock of shocks! – were surprised at how fascinating the Torah they despised in their youth could relate to their lives in adulthood.
I would venture to propose it is because they are no longer required to study because they “have to” but because they “want to,” they no longer have tests, and they don’t have to answer to their parents or teachers saying “you could be doing better.” And of course, maturity has a lot to do with it. And maybe the issues they see as relevant to themselves as adults never really entered their radar screens as kids. Or maybe they had bad or uninspiring teachers in their youth.
Let us just say, as Michael Berkowitz so eloquently put it, that kids should be kids and let the adults shoulder the adult responsibilities.

I’ll agree with Uri L’Tzedek that our eyes will benefit from being more open.
But the answer to the frailties of Jewish education is more open-minded Torah study. More critical thinking and more discussions. More questions and more depth in seeking truths.

When people are well versed in why they are observant, their pursuit of social justice will naturally follow. For now I sometimes wonder why some of the “Orthodox Jews” I encounter consider themselves “Orthodox.” They may be very socially aware, but they don’t care (in many cases) or know (in some cases) about what the Torah and halakha demands of them. Because things weren’t modeled well enough for them as kids, and they certainly don’t model it well enough for their kids.

So we have a disagreement about priorities. It’s a free country, with plenty of room for all kinds of organizations. But dogmatizing a political agenda under the guise of Orthodox priorities is misplaced focus.

Rabbi Kushner may have quoted his friend with a lamenting jest, but I think he’s right that in Orthodoy Torah U’Mitzvot comes before social justice. I am not knocking the need for social justice. I just think we need to become experts in Torah U’Mitzvot first.

Avi Billet

Ps. I recently attended a lecture delivered by journalist Caroline Glick. In the Q&A which followed her talk, someone asked her why there weren’t more younger people present to hear her talk about “A Perspective in the Arab-Israel Conflict.” Politics aside, her response was that the Judaism that is presented to young people in the Conservative neighborhood in which she grew up is “Be pro-abortion. Support stem-cell research. Eat bagels and lox. And the Holocaust is the most important thing that ever happened to the Jews.” If this is how Judaism is portrayed, no wonder young people want no part of it. [Lookjed-ers will agree this is not the Judaism painted in most day schools – Orthodox or not.] She encouraged the crowd to help young Jews learn what Judaism is all about – what it means to be a Jew. Learn about Jewish values and ethics and learn Jewish history. Not about stereotypical nonsense and political agendas.

I’ll add, that Jewish values and ethics stem from Torah teachings. Enough said. – ab]]> Avi Billet Lookjed List Archive Sun, 19 Apr 2009 13:36:01 -0600 http://lookstein.org/lookjed/read.php?1,17785,17820#msg-17820 http://lookstein.org/lookjed/read.php?1,17785,17820#msg-17820
First, it doesn't overreach. There's none of the stridency, none of this "your house is burning and you need us to put the fire out." It questions, it poses competing desiderata -- in short, it's thoughtful and humble.

Second, it recognizes -- albeit gently and implicity -- the likely subsidiary agendas and prejudices of those in the "tikkun olam" camp. We see this in his caveats about choosing specific causes to support and the proper shape such support should take.

If someone were to take up the project of nurturing universal justice within our community (not our schools, mind you), but with the attitude that Aryeh exhibits, I'd be foursquare behind it. I therefore recommend to Shmuley Yanklowitz (who according to R. Chanoch Waxman is just the sweetest guy) that he pursue his work as a furtherance of our community ideals, rather than their repudiation. (I also strongly encourage him to leave the kids alone and aim at the adults, but that's another matter.)]]> Michael Berkowitz Lookjed List Archive Sun, 19 Apr 2009 02:27:27 -0600 http://lookstein.org/lookjed/read.php?1,17785,17819#msg-17819 http://lookstein.org/lookjed/read.php?1,17785,17819#msg-17819
Moadim lesimkahh! I thank Shmuly Yanklowitz for inviting me to respond to his article about the vision and work of Uri l’Tzedek, and express at the outset my deep appreciation for Uri l’Tzedek’s work. The language and content of universal justice certainly have a necessary place in Orthodoxy, and I think an honest appraisal of our community requires the acknowledgement that they have been insufficiently expressed.

I want to focus on two claims made in the article.

1) There is a new desire among Orthodox students for Torah education that stresses themes of universal justice, and including it will go a long way toward resolving the “crisis of meaning” that many feel affects Orthodox education.

My take is that the interest in universal justice is not so new. Regrettably, what is also not new is the failure of our Torah leadership to nurture, valorize, support, and share that interest. For that reason, I don’t believe that, if all else remains the same, increasing the social justice components of day school education is likely to decrease alienation – it may even have the reverse effect by revealing, especially to idealistic students, the gap between their values and those of their limmudei kodesh teachers. Rachmana litzlan!

Some personal reflection is appropriate here. When Rav Aharon Soloveitchik z”l; returned to YU in the late 80s, I made sure to be in his shiur, not for intellectual reasons, but because I wanted to be a talmid of the only prominent Orthodox religious authority I knew of who in the 60s had seen support for the Civil Rights movement as a religious imperative. (I have since read, as the result of research done by Lora Dagi for her Harvard senior thesis, a magnificent speech given by Rav Pinchas Teitz z”l at the Polo Grounds endorsing the March on Washington in 1963, and been inspired by the later writings of Rav Amital shlita and the personal example of Rabbi Saul Berman.) And I was inspired by the story of Rav Aharon Lichtenstein Shlita bringing his shiur to a rally about the Biafran famine in the 70s, and brought my own Summer Beit Midrash students to an early Darfur rally in emulation. But it took research and effort to find even these few role models, and this posed a serious challenge to my religious commitment.

In other words – what Uri l’Tzedek is asking for should not be done only for the sake of reaching more students, and if implemented on that pragmatic basis, will likely backfire. It is an ideological and not merely a pedagogic challenge.

I believe that we should meet that ideological challenge for its own sake. This does not mean that day schools should encourage their students to adopt every liberal cause as their own – they may reasonably conclude that the atrocities in Darfur result from a civil war that no outside intervention can positively affect, that affirmative action is a pragmatic failure and moral morass, and/or that raising the minimum wage harms the poorest among us. But day schools should see it as central to their mission that their graduates care deeply and religiously about preventing genocide, and about enabling fair opportunity and economic justice for all human beings.

I do not believe that this will inevitably lead to a weakening of commitment to the Jewish community and Jewish causes. From a psychological perspective, students who are activists will be activists for multiple causes, and from a pragmatic perspective, our community will benefit from having experienced activists and from the alliances and relationships they will have formed with other communities. The public career of Rabbi Avi Weiss seems to me a shining counterexample to any fears of this sort. (Deborah Klapper adds that Kiddush Shem Shomayim is a Jewish cause).

Rabbi David Wolkenfeld’s thoughtful response challenges us to consider how students deeply committed to universal social justice will view the Middle East. His direct challenge is to Uri l’Tzedek, but really all of us need to make sure that our Zionist narrative can be defended without devaluing Palestinian life. There is a need for a specifically Orthodox organization that defends the rights of Israeli Arabs and Palestinians, but that organization need not accept the testimony of alleged Palestinian eyewitnesses in the absence of corroborating evidence, treat BBC News as a reliable source of information, or accept that Jews have no right to live in Judea and Samaria.

2) There is a difference between giving students personal chesed experiences on the one hand, and training and inspiring them to see themselves as social change agents – agents of tzedek - on the other. Day schools sometimes do the first but almost never the second.

I prefer not to engage the semantic issue here, and use the terms as given. The substantive issue here is whether Torah should be taught as a revolutionary document, as a sharp critique of the existing social and economic orders, or rather as fundamentally in favor of maintaining the status quo.
It seems to me clear that in the US we do the latter, and that this is likely a result of our community’s wealth. We need to acknowledge that students with revolutionary sensibilities will question whether our community is too wealthy, and there is therefore a very serious risk in teaching Torah that way=2 0– what one might describe as al derekh hanevi’im - but also that the question is legitimate and requires a very serious answer. My sense is that a Torah education which creates no dissatisfaction at all with Orthodox and/or general society in any area – whether it be tzniut, avodah, shmirat halashon, chesed or tzedek - has failed.

Meeting these challenges requires the development of an authentically Jewish conception of universalism, a serious and rigorous way of balancing intra with intercommunal responsibilities, and mush reflection about the ends and means of chinukh. The day is short and the work extensive, so let’s get to work.

Sincerely,

Aryeh Klapper]]> Aryeh Klapper Lookjed List Archive Fri, 17 Apr 2009 07:30:50 -0600 http://lookstein.org/lookjed/read.php?1,17785,17818#msg-17818 http://lookstein.org/lookjed/read.php?1,17785,17818#msg-17818
I would like to respond to the statement that we “desperately” need to teach social activism in our schools because it’s a “foundation[] of Jewish living and learning” by listing all sorts of things that would fit that definition but are laughably inappropriate for the curriculum. I’d like to, but the contributions of list members over the years have completely eclipsed any attempt at parody. For the record, though, I oppose not only a tikkun olam curriculum but chesed programs as well. Mr. Yanklowitz says that if these values “are not embraced during a child's most formative developmental years, it is likely that they will never be viewed as central to Jewish thought and living.” I say if we’re going to trade in unsubstantiated educational theories then I’ve got my own: The kids see that kids are the only ones involved in these activities (the schools, after all, have no mandate to tell the parents what to do with their time) and learn that these are activities for kids. When they grow up, they “put childish things behind them”. A better system (in the sense that a cool breeze is better than a paper cut) is one where adults are expected by the community to devote time (not just money) to charitable causes; where they involve their children in helping out to some extent but make it clear that for now the kids get a pass so as not to interfere with their studies, but will be expected to shoulder the burdens with the rest once they’re out of school.

Moving on, we find that we “seem to be able to construct an infinite number of internal needs and potential threats to our survival to avoid our engagement in addressing HIV, global poverty, domestic abuse, etc.” That might come as a surprise to many involved in Jewish causes, but on a case-by-case basis I might actually agree (on the synthetic nature of the cause, not the motivation). Still, it’s not clear to me why HIV research is more important for us than visiting the sick, or global poverty than a community soup kitchen. Is it the scale? If so, then we need to factor in not only the weight of our contributions to the soup-kitchen effort as opposed to the global-poverty effort, but the weight of the other resources being brought to bear on the latter as opposed to the former. This, and other things written here and in the original posting, lead me to the uncharitable feeling that the main difference is one of self image and group identification. We don’t actually do more good by working on HIV, but it’s useful window-dressing to ingratiate ourselves with certain groups and allows us to think of ourselves a certain way.

Which leads us to “Why must only non-Orthodox Jews lead these wars?” Among the obvious answers are, then, that they prefer the company of a certain class of gentile to that of the average Jew; that it’s important to them to be seen by gentiles, other non-Orthodox Jews and themselves as “cosmopolitan” – or at least not parochial; that they’re uncomfortable with the idea of “chosenness”; that they identify more with gays, third-worlders or environmentalists than they do with Jews.

In fact, we shouldn’t discount the desire to say to more traditional Jews: “I’m more moral than you” (and the closely related “you follow all these ritual laws, but who’s really the better Jew?”). One of the most underrated human motivations – right up there with the desire to convince the people who refused to date you in high-school that they made a terrible mistake – is the desire to feel superior. How many times have people written to this list with the not-so-subliminal message: “Boy, are you naïve!” You know, “I bet you thought that drugs/alcohol/gambling/promiscuity/sexual-ignorance/spouse-abuse/etc./etc. aren’t problems in our community. Well let me tell you…” It’s not enough to point up a problem (which, let’s face it, usually doesn’t live up to the hype – but that’s another matter); it’s important that I know something that you don’t – Even better: I recognize something that you refuse to recognize! Not only do I care about agunot, you don’t. Not only am I worldly, you’re not.

It’s hard to pick a representative quote or two out of the welter of statements about college students, but it’s easy enough to point out that

a. The students who gave up kashrus on their African junkets are all students who chose to go on African junkets. A more self-selected group would be hard to find.

b. “They chose activism over Orthodoxy because they weren't taught they could have both.” So we’re talking about people who, given a choice between Orthodoxy and activism, prefer activism. Whose point is Mr. Yanklowitz trying to make?

Michael Berkowitz]]> Michael Berkowitz Lookjed List Archive Fri, 17 Apr 2009 07:27:50 -0600 http://lookstein.org/lookjed/read.php?1,17785,17803#msg-17803 http://lookstein.org/lookjed/read.php?1,17785,17803#msg-17803 a student initiative. We also have had students sell bracelets to raise money
for Darfur, we raise money for breast cancer research, as well as Yad Eliezer,
Chai lifeline and “Jewish” causes. Three of our alumni were on AJWS programs
this past summer. Their presence as orthodox Jews on these programs had a very
positive impact on the Jewish identity of their groups. They were not only "ohr la'goyim", but also "ohr la'yehudim".

Hence, I think there is a message being taught to our students regarding social action
and this is reflected in the behavior described - but it can be improved
and more methodological. I think the main issue returns to the questions of
teaching literacy. Teaching Jewish literacy is not just a matter of teaching
reading Hebrew texts, but teaching the skills to make the texts meaningful and
relevant to the students' lives. Students should be exposed to Jewish texts
which help inform their discussions of contemporary politics and social change.
Kindess and concern for the ger, being careful in baal-tashchit, lo taamod
al dam reacha are all intrinsic religious values. In other words, a ben or bat Torah cares about the world (and its people) which Hashem has created and entrusted to us.

Once upon a time the Orthodox Caucus had on-line lesson plan resources and mekorot on several contemporary issues. In most schools teachers feel quite overloaded by their curriculum demands. I'm not sure you can add something extra to this load. But, Uri LeTzedek can provide leadership in programs. Some possibilities:

Work
with schools to offer yemei iyun or shabatonim on specific contemporary issues.
Work
with student councils in offering specific suggestions for them in be
involved in issues like recycling, rights of workers and the handicapped.
Schools
should offer electives in areas like Judaism and Ecology, or Judaism and
contemporary issues
Offer
professional development programs for teachers. All schools have PD
programs. Issues of social justice are prominent in Neviim and in many
parshiot in Torah. Help create resources to enhance the teachable moment
in the classroom
Work
with summer camps

I agree with Rabbi Kapustin's concern, - if, however,
social action becomes an end in itself, divorced from its
ideological roots in the halakha, if the focus is on the act and
not on its justification and if the purpose of our education becomes almost
exclusively bein adam lahavero, without proper focus on bein adam lamakom,
all our social action will become indistinguishable from that of the
non-Jewish world. What we are teaching is that our social action imperative
is grounded in our obligation to Hashem and Da Lifnei mi ata omeid. There are
various "flavours of the month" and it is important to remain authentic. It is
important to educate students about different opportunities for tikkun olam -
both in the Jewish world and outside of it. Different options will attract
different students. Some students prefer studying Tanach to Talmud. Some
students might find the suffering in Darfur more compelling than helping out in
a Jewish Old Age Home –others will be the opposite. The key is that they are
making sound decisions based on Jewish knowledge and not just following George
Clooney.

Barbara Freedman
Hebrew Academy, Montreal]]> Barbara Freedman Lookjed List Archive Sun, 05 Apr 2009 01:33:47 -0600 http://lookstein.org/lookjed/read.php?1,17785,17794#msg-17794 http://lookstein.org/lookjed/read.php?1,17785,17794#msg-17794
From the start, I should say that I did not mean to imply that we believe that every Orthodox day school has failed in inspiring leadership and activism. We appreciate the immensity of the tasks that day schools have upon themselves and the various challenges to the staff to perpetuate and fulfill goals beyond Jewish text skills and a basic secular education. As YU President Richard Joel said to me a number of times in 2000, “Keep your eye on the prize.” There have to be clear priorities in education.

It is, however, Uri L’Tzedek’s belief that a more serious leadership training, social justice awareness and engagement, and moral development among Orthodox students is desperately in need. We have surveyed the Orthodox day schools and have not found one that has a comprehensive social justice curriculum making tzedek (systemic and sustainable social change) one of the highest priorities within their educational curricula. Many schools, however, should be commended for including chesed projects as extra-curricular activities. Students need to be kovei itim for chesed and tzedek. It is our belief; however, that chesed and tzedek are not extra-curricular activities but are the foundation of Jewish living and learning. What does it mean to be a mentsch? How can/should frum Yidden be interacting with the most crucial moral issues of contemporary times? How do Jewish ethics help to inform our daily living beyond our halakhic requirements? How do I take an idea and turn it into a sustainable project that can assist the most vulnerable in our society? What emotional intelligence is need for the zerizut required in activism? These are not questions to be postponed for college. If they are not embraced during a child’s most formative developmental years, it is likely that they will never be viewed as central to Jewish thought and living.

I appreciated hearing Lubetski’s commitment and passion for tikkun olam along with the concomitant budgetary concerns. However I am not as confident that the transformative moments should be reserved for college. He wrote: “if our students were to find more meaning in their ‘traditional’ service projects it will engender a sense of obligation which will translate in their college years and beyond into more activism on global peace and justice.” What I believe is being witnessed today is that when core education isn’t implemented in the most formative years, it is much less likely to be later embraced. When social action is treated lightly in the day school (ex. 10-20 chesed hours as extra-curricular activity if the budget can allow it), it is most likely treated lightly as adults (often restricted to charity and hosting guests if there is time and extra money).

Kohl also pointed to community service hours that students are partaking in at her program (and others she has been involved with). While “chesed hours” should certainly be commended, they are only a preliminary step toward succeeding in moral education. Her critique however should be heard. She wrote: “Does Mr. Yanklowitz want to draw Jewish students away from fundamental responsibility to community?” If “fundamental” means “exclusively” then Yes, I suppose that is our goal. The Modern Orthodox mantra that chesed begins in the home and in the Jewish community all too often means that it ends there too. We seem to be able to construct an infinite number of internal needs and potential threats to our survival to avoid our engagement in addressing HIV, global poverty, domestic abuse, etc. Why must only non-Orthodox Jews lead these wars?

Kapustin suggested: “The question, therefore, is not whether social action/tikkun olam
has a place, but what that place should be within the broad Jewish educational goals of the school.” Uri L’Tzedek’s answer is that it should be central and that we must be “Lomed al menat laasot” (learning in order to do) and thus we must learn collectively what to do and how to do it well: how to engage in Tikkun Atzmi (repairing of the self), Tikkun Kehila (repairing of our communities) and Tikkun olam (repairing of the world).

Kapustin wrote correctly: “professional educators may not have the same luxury as Uri L'Tzedek to issue broad manifestos. We are responsible for what happens each minute in each of our classrooms, and we must weigh how those minutes are utilized.” I think this is exactly our point. A special curriculum is needed and day school educators are already immersed in their day-to-day work. This is precisely the curriculum development service that Uri L’Tzedek hopes to assist in. Looking at the broader goals for social justice curriculum and leadership development is perhaps better achieved by consultants than by each individual teacher.

As I travel around the U.S. speaking at campuses and shuls, I have noticed that Orthodox college students are often departing from halakhic living for these very reasons. One of the main reasons is they feel such a rapid disconnect between their yeshiva and day school educations and the demands of their adult lives. They need keilim to bridge the values of Torah to the pressing issues they are confronted with and to be osek b’tzorchei rabiim and oseh mishpat laashukim (engaging in communal matters and fighting for justice for the oppressed). However they don’t need more journals bridging Torah U’Maddah in order to resolve their tensions. This has not worked and it will continue to be a terrible mistake if Orthodox educators who throw the cognitive in the face of affective problems. I myself have this tyva (desire to just write an article about our issues…..like this one I suppose). The students are craving the ethos of empowerment, the pathos of leadership, and the fulfillment of transforming society to represent their moral ideals. So many of our young leaders are seeking to become agents of change and not merely to be serving as bastions of modern orthodox scholarship.

As Meesh highlighted here: “I was stunned to find that while for non-Orthodox Jews it is a truism that the core purpose of Judaism is tikkun olam, Orthodox students seemed to have little sense that social justice is a deep value beyond what they experience as the isolated concepts of tzedakah and hessed.” I have witnessed the same problem and I believe it is an absolute crisis for our community. In my experiences as a leader in numerous Jewish social justice organizations (Panim - Director of summer social justice program, AJWS - Led missions for Jews around the world to developing villages, Jewish Funds for Justice - led in New Orleans, and now Uri L’Tzedek), I have seen that most Orthodox Jews who have entered the social justice movement did so only after feeling alienated from their Orthodox education. The opportunity for integration had passed. I eat only bananas and OU crackers in Africa. Many of my previously Orthodox students choose the local meat. Kashrut had lost it’s meaning years earlier. They chose activism over Orthodoxy because they weren’t taught they could have both. The mess was too dirty to clean up. Meesh continues with some very challenging questions that I believe all Orthodox educators and leaders need to wrestle with: “I wonder if the Orthodox community is doing enough to respond to the moral blemish left on us by these scandals? Can we expect anyone to want to be Orthodox, if this is what we produce? Are we so afraid of looking like the liberal movements that we are willing to abandon the flag of social justice to them, despite the impact their work and its power to inspire Jewish identity?”

The time is now to transform our day school curriculum to include the most challenging questions of our age while strengthening our commitments to be marbitz Torah and to train some of the greatest future talmidei chuchamim that their service to G-d must not end in the beit midrash and beit kenesset.

We continue to welcome avenues for partnership around building educational opportunities at schools, campuses, shuls, camps, and organizations to inspire the halakhic community to greater moral discourse and action to make the world more just.

Shmuly Yanklowitz
Uri L'Tzedek
Founder, Co-Director
"Uri L'Tzedek is an Orthodox social justice organization guided by Torah values and dedicated to combating suffering and oppression. Through community based education, leadership development and action, Uri L'Tzedek creates discourse, inspires leaders, and empowers the Jewish community towards creating a more just world. "]]> Shmuly Yanklowitz Lookjed List Archive Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:17:09 -0600 http://lookstein.org/lookjed/read.php?1,17785,17793#msg-17793 http://lookstein.org/lookjed/read.php?1,17785,17793#msg-17793 To me, the mission statement of an organization “dedicated to combating suffering and oppression. Through community based education, leadership development and action, Uri L'Tzedek creates discourse, inspires leaders, and empowers the Jewish community towards creating a more just world”-- is important, but also, as the article develops, it sorts of implies that our traditional models of being Or Lagoyim have failed quite miserably, or that they are too simplistic and naïve, and do not provide the “right” approach to correction of world suffering. Altogether I felt, there was an attempt here to imitate conservative, liberal, and reform models of Tikkun Olam, showing that we, orthodox people too, are finally willing to look within and without to correct injustice, and that we have not been doing so historically. The need to correct inequities such as the Rubashkin story (I was not sure how the Madoff story fit into this endeavor) is good and necessary, but I am not sure that pointing out simple-mindedness or lack of a more sophisticated approach speak to me as a way of sweeping even modern orthodox Jews off their feet and towards ethical improvement.

For example, I had a problem with a statement such as : “How irresponsible would it be to not train a student that is under our tutelage to thrive in the world and not to ensure that they are equipped with the skills of integrating their Jewish values with contemporary issues or that they are trained in methods of creating social change to live their values in a meaningful way.”-- I think that so much of our endeavors within our educational system, varied as it is, are geared towards just such ideas, and so to dab it ‘irresponsible’ is taking it a bit too far, and thus takes away from the credibility of the project.

This feeling that we should look to follow and join non Jewish initiatives was also somewhat uncomfortable to me: “Orthodox college students have been joining pluralistic organizations to engage as global citizens. These students are working on service projects in developing countries with American Jewish World Service (www.ajws.org) and on domestic year-long projects with Avodah (www.avodah.net), to give two examples. It is great to have Jews of different denominations working together on crucial issues but there should also be options grown out of the Orthodox community itself.” -- It seems that the author’s ideal intent is for us, orthodox Jews, to get out of our enclosures and join the world in its projects for improvement. I wondered as I read: Aren’t there exclusive orthodox initiatives that are formed to this end, or do we always have to be a minority joining a larger earlier non orthodox initiative? Surely there are so many similar initiatives happening and going on in Israel which work towards these very ends. Why look to join non Jewish models, rather that enlarging and universalizing the unbelievable initiatives that are happening in the place which we look to as the center of our Jewish existence- Israel.

I felt a bit resentful about the distinction between Chesed and Tzedek to the detriment of the former. The author writes: “Additionally, models for service in the community are often limited to chesed (one-time acts) at the exclusion of tzedek (strategies that are systemic, sustainable, and complex).” --Why is chesed a one time act? Why is tzedek defined here as a higher level activity?

Similarly he writes: “Many young Jews have been turned off from activism and volunteerism due to its overly simplistic nature. They want more than bikkur cholim (visiting the sick), soup kitchens, and shalach manot (gifts given on Purim). Those mitzvot are vital to our education and daily lives, of course, but they do not inspire Jewish leadership or systemic change.”- I think there is a great deal of uninformed judgment here. And, does this mean that a simple model of chesed defies, or at least under-fulfills chazal’s model of ethos? (I could not figure out the reference to Rav Ahron Soloveichik’s idea of tzedek with a language of “rights” in “Civil Rights and the Dignity of Man”. Again, it was vague, general, and unsupported by a quote.) In the same vein, the example which was applauded and put on a pedestal about making room for non Jewish/kosher workers to have lunch in a kosher cafeteria is not exactly the world’s most complex, advanced, and un-simplistic initiative, and I could not see how it differs from simple chesed traditional projects popular within our schools and communities. Altogether, some of the statements made were sweeping generalities that were difficult to substantiate in my own mind with real projects and processes that are happening.

Some of the concerns of the author such as “Orthodox students arrive on college campuses after a year in Israel and find that they have few tools to discuss the most fascinating issues of contemporary politics or of social change like so many non-Orthodox students have.” – are paled by far by a more common concern that the same students come to college campuses unprepared to answer anti Israel sentiments regarding the Arab-Israeli conflict. That needs to be a focus of any concerted effort by the same initiative, since this issue is at the heart of ethical humanistic patterns of behavior, human rights, tzedek-oriented world. And this single conflict which is at the heart of combating suffering and oppression and working towards a just society is never even mentioned in the entire article. That bothers me more than anything else, since it indicates that the authors’ eyes are on our non Jewish friends rather that looking at our own issues in their national entirety. True, Jewish tzedek/chesed or however you define these initiatives are parochial but it does not mean that they are not immersed in education, leadership development and action.

Chag K & S, Tamar]]> Tamar Friedman Lookjed List Archive Mon, 30 Mar 2009 15:19:28 -0600 http://lookstein.org/lookjed/read.php?1,17785,17792#msg-17792 http://lookstein.org/lookjed/read.php?1,17785,17792#msg-17792
Which is why there will always be a place for those of us with no social capital to lose.

The idea that we should be involved in making the world a better place is, in fact, not one with which I’m inclined to disagree, but the tendentious description of Orthodox institutions, community and education makes me suspicious that there’s more going on here. My concern is probably best expressed by a short passage from “The Screwtape Letters”:

My Dear Wormwood,
The real trouble about the set your patient is living in is that it is merely Christian. They all have individual interests, of course, but the bond remains mere Christianity. What we want, if men become Christians at all, is to keep them in the state of mind I call "Christianity And." You know - Christianity and the Crisis, Christianity and the New Psychology, Christianity and the New Order, Christianity and Faith Healing, Christianity and Psychical Research, Christianity and Vegetarianism, Christianity and Spelling Reform. If they must be Christians, let them at least be Christians with a difference. Substitute for the faith itself some Fashion with a Christian colouring. Work on their horror of the Same Old Thing.

Put another way, how much of this desire to do good is an outgrowth of our Judaism and how much comes from a desire to find favor with a coterie of Yankee intellectuals? Even some of the responses bend under this baggage: Gee, is it possible to talk about social justice to the right-of-wing? What can one do with people who won’t accept Israel’s culpability in the Gaza war? “Tikkun Olam” is universal, but “Charity” and “Kindness” are insular (and somehow conflated with “shuls and schools”, which are somehow conflated with “ritual slaughter”; go figure).
This, by the way, is a big part of why I love Har Etzion, where R. Lichtenstein can exhort the students on behalf of the Vietnamese “Boat People” without moving an inch from his concentration on the “parochial”; where in the same breath he can lament haredi obtuseness to natural morality and modern-orthodox obliviousness to halacha; where R. Amital can support both the Rabin government and a disciple’s hunger strike against the Oslo accords; where R. Meidan can make common cause with left-wing Israelis but lambaste them over their inhumane abandonment of the Gush Katif evacuees. It’s breathtaking to watch people dedicated to pursuing what’s right, to “the faith itself”, even if I don’t always agree, rather than to preserving their bona fides with one group or another.

Still, moving beyond the scent of Michael Lerner’s aftershave wafting from the manifesto, some interesting points have been raised. Among them:
1. What weight do we give to purely Jewish causes (and within those, to Jews in need, Israel, education, ritual services, etc.), “universal” causes (say, health coverage or environmentalism) and exclusively non-Jewish causes (Darfur, say). I wholeheartedly accept that we have an obligation to each, but it’s not clear to me how best to discharge those obligations.
2. Yanklowitz makes an excellent distinction between acts of kindness and working for systemic change. This too calls for an informed discussion of each one’s claim on our time and attention.
3. David Wolkenfeld correctly points out that the connection to education is tangential at best. It has long been the policy of the Jewish community to use its children as cannon fodder in every cause du jour. When I was in high school it was mostly Soviet Jewry; when I was in college it was “kiruv”. Now that I’m grown up, of course, nobody wants anything from me but money. I have always said we should leave the kids to their studies and let the grownups do the heavy lifting.

The last point is the one that should, perhaps, be taken up by the list, since it bears on whether the others are its proper subject matter.

Michael Berkowitz]]> Michael Berkowitz Lookjed List Archive Mon, 30 Mar 2009 15:18:34 -0600 http://lookstein.org/lookjed/read.php?1,17785,17791#msg-17791 http://lookstein.org/lookjed/read.php?1,17785,17791#msg-17791
I have long been puzzled and troubled by the insular approach of the Orthodox community toward these issues. In the Social Justice track that I directed at Machon Pardes this year, I was stunned to find that while for non-Orthodox Jews it is a truism that the core purpose of Judaism is tikkun olam, Orthodox students seemed to have little sense that social justice is a deep value beyond what they experience as the isolated concepts of tzedakah and hessed.

In my mind, especially for those of us living in Israel, one of the major contributions of the Modern Orthodox worldview over that of the Ultra-Orthodox is that we as a community have a stake in -- and something to say about -- what goes on beyond the isolated borders of our shuls and schools. Judaism has something to say about every aspect of human existence, not just kosher slaughter and religious education.

Uri LeTzedek and the Pardes Social Justice Track are just two of a number of such initiatives of recent years, including the BeMaaglei Tzedek's Tav Hevrati, Rabbanei Tzohar, and Bet Morashah's Bet Midrash LeTzedek Hevrati. There is grave doubt, however, whether or not these projects can begin to compensate for the damage done to the image of Orthodox Judaism by the Agriprocessors and Madoff scandals.

I wonder if the Orthodox community is doing enough to respond to the moral blemish left on us by these scandals? Can we expect anyone to want to be Orthodox, if this is what we produce? Are we so afraid of looking like the liberal movements that we are willing to abandon the flag of social justice to them, despite the impact their work and its power to inspire Jewish identity?

Meesh Hammer-Kossoy, Ph.D.
Director of Social Justice Track
Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies
www.pardes.org.il]]> Meesh Hammer-Kossoy Lookjed List Archive Fri, 27 Mar 2009 09:42:15 -0600 http://lookstein.org/lookjed/read.php?1,17785,17790#msg-17790 http://lookstein.org/lookjed/read.php?1,17785,17790#msg-17790
Thank you for inviting me to comment on your excellent essay. I have three quick points:

If you are correct and the values and social justice work that Uri L’Tzedek advocates is an integral component of Judaism and a demand of the Torah, then its educational benefits are somewhat beside the point. We have a responsibility as a community to enact the social initiatives of the Torah and embody in our communal life the ethical priorities of the Torah. The educational effects of that work is secondary.

Princeton is a more conservative campus politically than most other Ivy League universities and a substantial percentage of our Orthodox students here are politically right-wing. I have been sensitive to that fact when I teach and I was anxious that the presentation that Uri L’Tzedek’s R. Ari Weiss gave on campus, when he was our guest for Shabbat, would be broad enough to encompass students with diverse political opinions. R. Weiss did a wonderful job of putting together a presentation that was extremely focused, containing a great deal of moral clarity, and yet broad enough to include students with different political opinions. There is a danger that a group such as Uri L’Tzedek will either become a narrow propaganda mouthpiece for a “religious left” or be so inclusive in its message of a broad swath of the political spectrum that its message becomes banal and irrelevant. If we believe that Jewish tradition contains a unique approach to contemporary social justice questions, it should be possible to express that approach in language that is sharp and focused, but also politically neutral. The Torah may have a vision for just human interactions in a just society, people will differ in the political approach to achieve those ends.

Finally, Uri L’Tzedek has modeled its focus on the wonderful Israeli organization B’Ma’aglei Tzedek, but like its Israeli sister organization, Uri L’Tzedek has not, to my knowledge, ever attempted to wrestle with the moral and social justice implications of the Arab - Israeli conflict etc. I can easily see why each organization has chosen not to add their voice to an already crowded, loud, and strident public discourse - but the absence means that each organization has nothing to say about the most acute moral questions facing Jews today. The extant public discourse is increasingly polarized. Defenders of Israel, for example, reject out of hand the possibility that Israel or Israelis could cross moral redlines in the course of the conflict or, more disturbingly, accept the truth of war crime allegations and defend the indefensible. On the other hand, much of the liberal world can no longer conceive, under any circumstances, of an Israel existing as a Jewish and Democratic state in peace and justice. Rabbi Menachem Schrader once remarked that those who came of age in the era of the Six Day War, to this day, have a different perspective on the religious significance of Israel than those who came of age during the Yom Kippur War. The Oslo years (1993-2000) took place during my own formative teenage years and I retain a vision of Israel as a nation heroically searching for peace that is a legacy of those years. My students’ teenage years were filled with the increasingly desperate and increasingly violent years of the second intifada and its aftermath. There are many young Jews who love Israel, who have spent months or years of their lives living in Israel, and who are shaken to the core by recent allegations of misconduct during the recent Gaza War - to take only one contemporary example. It would be a project of incalculable value if religious Jewry could formulate and articulate a coherent moral response to the ethical challenges of warfare, statehood, and counter-terrorism without simplistically translating a priori political opinions into moralizing language.

David Wolkenfeld
Director of the Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus (JLIC) at Princeton University
JLIC is a partnership between the Orthodox Union and Hillel]]> David Wolkenfeld Lookjed List Archive Wed, 25 Mar 2009 01:08:14 -0600 http://lookstein.org/lookjed/read.php?1,17785,17789#msg-17789 http://lookstein.org/lookjed/read.php?1,17785,17789#msg-17789
Yanklowitz declares that: “Serving as an Ohr L’Goyim (a light to the nations) as teachers and activists for global peace and justice is a lost discourse in contemporary American Orthodoxy. Young religious Jews want to reclaim and reinvent those models in a new globalized interconnected society. Countless students in Jewish day schools are turned off by what they perceive as the irrelevancy of their educations to what they care most about.”

I speak from experience in a few Jewish day schools and from knowledge about the teaching practices of some of the teachers in each of those schools. My colleagues and I have taught students to think of themselves as Jews who are both concerned about fellow Jews and concerned about their role as exemplars to the rest of the world. The students Yanklowitz may be referring to, who grumble about the irrelevance of their education, are usually those who find Halacha irrelevant to the way of life they wish to live. These disgruntled students are not searching for a way to link fighting for workers rights with what they are learning in Talmud class.

Yankelowitz continues: “How irresponsible would it be to not train a student that is under our tutelage to thrive in the world and not to ensure that they are equipped with the skills of integrating their Jewish values with contemporary issues or that they are trained in methods of creating social change to live their values in a meaningful way.”

Mr. Yanklowitz may not have visited high schools where community service hours are required for graduation. Those service hours can be logged for Jewish and non-Jewish causes. He may not have joined a student lobbying group on Capitol Hill, made up of students attending the Panim el Panim Leadership Training Conference in Washington, DC. Jewish day school educators are already providing understanding of civic responsibility and opportunities for our students to see themselves as citizens of their country. As a Jewish educator I have arranged for a group of students to help clean up a local nature preserve; I organized/chaperoned a group of students who helped run a rally and organize a postcard writing campaign for victims in Darfur; I supervised students who served lunch at a non-denominational senior center. Schools where I have worked have raised money for a cancer society, a homeless shelter, and did a book drive for a low income day care center in a depressed neighborhood. These organizations were not run under Jewish auspices. These were in addition to events focused on doing chesed for Jewish causes.

When Mr. Yanklowitz indicates that “Orthodox college students have been joining pluralistic organizations to engage as global citizens… but there should also be options grown out of the Orthodox community itself…” I believe he is looking at a narrow group of Jewish day schools. Jewish day schools where I have worked have laid groundwork and when students get to college they are continuing to serve.

Mr. Yanklowitz enumerates what he hopes Uri L’Tzedek can do in Jewish day schools. He says: “So these are the challenges we face…” My view on the challenges is a little different.

I have reviewed countless community service hours done by students and tallied the proceeds of impassioned fundraising efforts. Truthfully, the majority was for Jewish causes. I often felt that we Jewish educators were doing a good job, teaching our students to care for fellow Jews – an outgrowth of the Torah imperative to take care of family/community first. What disappoints me is that when students leave the Jewish day school they don’t carry that imperative with them. My collection of anecdotal information indicates that there are not that many on-campus activists for Israel or leaders and volunteers at Hillel. The alumni associations at various day schools lament that they have trouble building a strong donor base from their alumni.

Does Mr. Yanklowitz want to draw Jewish students away from fundamental responsibility to community? First we need to inculcate in our students the basic idea that Jewish activism for Jewish causes is needed, Jewish causes can be glamorous, and they are a way of working towards tikun olam.

Chaye Kohl]]> Chaye Kohl Lookjed List Archive Tue, 24 Mar 2009 15:27:07 -0600 http://lookstein.org/lookjed/read.php?1,17785,17788#msg-17788 http://lookstein.org/lookjed/read.php?1,17785,17788#msg-17788
Focusing on the ‘traditional’ community service projects like soup kitchens, mishloach manot to the Jewish poor, or assisting the Jewish elderly is not as ‘glamorous’ as focusing on global peace and justice. However, if our students were to find more meaning in their ‘traditional’ service projects it will engender a sense of obligation which will translate in their college years and beyond into more activism on global peace and justice.

Rabbi Uriel Lubetski, Principal MS/HS
Yeshivat Rambam / Maimonides Academy
6300 Park Heights Avenue
Baltimore, MD 21215
lubetskiu@yrambam.org
[www.yrambam.org]]]> Uriel Lubetski Lookjed List Archive Tue, 24 Mar 2009 15:26:27 -0600 http://lookstein.org/lookjed/read.php?1,17785,17787#msg-17787 http://lookstein.org/lookjed/read.php?1,17785,17787#msg-17787
From an educational perspective, the pursuit of tikkun olam, which is basically what this is, in all Jewish educational settings is laudable and justifiable. Among the issues that it raises, as in all such proposals, are:
1) How does it relate to our general educational goals and objectives?
2) What are the motivations that underlie the proposal, and are they in consonance with those of the School?
3) Are the specific suggestions for implementation realistic and achievable?

The author makes a number of assumptions about the lack of success in Orthodoxy and especially in our high schools. Without debating these in depth, one can agree with the need to demonstrate that the halakhic system can and does provide a meaningful and spiritually inspiring system without implying that all students are "craving for new meaning" or are frustrated by "the irrelevancy of their educations." In other words, it is not necessary to engage in self-righteous hyperbole in order to question whether or not we are doing enough to illustrate the ethical significance of what we teach. Similarly, he implies that by focusing on ritual observance and text study, schools are promoting a legalistic and rigid Orthodoxy that cannot fail to push our students away from Orthodoxy, if not Judaism itself.

I do not believe that the situation is so dire or our failure so complete. It is at least possible that part of the impetus for the increased involvement of Orthodox students that we have recently witnessed is a result of the very learning and experiences that these students have had at these same schools. All this being said, there is also little doubt that Jewish educators, both Orthodox and not, are faced with the challenge of relating in a meaningful way what schools teach and do to the daily lives of their students. The question, therefore, is not whether social action/tikkun olam has a place, but what that place should be within the broad Jewish educational goals of the school.

For example, I would suggest that the social action that is being sought should be viewed only as a positive outcome of a much more significant goal. If, for example, we teach the first perek of Masechet Kiddushin, we should not be satisfied if students know "only" the intricacies of the marriage ceremony and the legal obligations of husband toward wife, but also the ethical underpinnings inherent in these legal requirements, as has recently been demonstrated by Dov Berkovits in his SheAsani Gever. In other words, the ethical dimensions of the halakha should not be viewed as a secondary adjunct to the educational halakhic enterprise, but central to it. If such issues are integrated organically into Orthodox education, if the focus remains on what the text really teaches in its entirety and if the connection between the legal and the ethical becomes as natural in the classroom as the definitions of the av melachot, "social action" will become normal and inevitable. This will be true, because we will have anchored the type of behaviour that Uri L'Tzedek seeks in our sources and traditions.

If, however, social action becomes an end in itself, divorced from its ideological roots in the halakha, if the focus is on the act and not on its justification and if the purpose of our education becomes almost exclusively bein adam lahavero, without proper focus on bein adam lamakom, all our social action will become indistinguishable from that of the non-Jewish world. It will lack a coherent foundation and a consistent rationale. As yesterday homosexuality was bad and today it is good, so Darfur is the present flavour of the month but may lose its attraction on the morrow. We need only review the evolution of "ethical" attitudes to the Arab-Israeli conflict to appreciate the relativistic capriciousness of ethical motivations in our time.

Additionally, I am somewhat troubled by the non-educational agenda that seems to permeate the proposal. I was not aware that schools' objectives include "the necessary decentralization of power that Orthodox Judaism needs in order to thrive." Let us be careful not to confuse the political with the educational. Let us indeed "empower" , but in this manner, that all young Jews be able to explore, discover and develop their religious identity, but without political or ideological preconceptions. Jewish adolescents and young adults need to be aware of the dynamic nature of the halakha and of all Jewish tradition, so that they may decide on their own how it can become manifest in our troubled world. The degree to which this must be done, the relative obligations to fellow Jews and to non-Jews and the extent to which precious school time should be devoted to these goals are just a few of the fundamental questions at which the proposal only hints. For example, professional educators may not have the same luxury as Uri L'Tzedek to issue broad manifestos. We are responsible for what happens each minute in each of our classrooms, and we must weigh how those minutes are utilized. Yet, in truth, we also do not have the luxury to ignore the challenge that this dedicated group of idealists presents to us.

Samuel Kapustin
Director of Jewish Studies
Tanenbaum Community Hebrew Academy
of Toronto]]> Samuel Kapustin Lookjed List Archive Tue, 24 Mar 2009 15:25:48 -0600 http://lookstein.org/lookjed/read.php?1,17785,17785#msg-17785 http://lookstein.org/lookjed/read.php?1,17785,17785#msg-17785
[uriltzedek.webnode.com] uri.ltzedek@gmail.com


It has been observed that Orthodox Judaism is becoming more and more parochial, advocating only for causes that are close to home (Israel advocacy, fighting anti-Semitism, school vouchers, etc.). Certainly these issues are important, but for younger generations of Jews, who don’t hold the survival fears that their parents and grandparents held, there is a craving for new meaning. Serving as an Ohr L’Goyim (a light to the nations) as teachers and activists for global peace and justice is a lost discourse in contemporary American Orthodoxy. Young religious Jews want to reclaim and reinvent those models in a new globalized interconnected society. Countless students in Jewish day schools are turned off by what they perceive as the irrelevancy of their educations to what they care most about. Yes, they leave knowing berakhot (blessings), the laws of how to build a sukkah, and how the Tabernacle was built but they are clueless about what Judaism can offer on topics such as universal health care, environmentalism, domestic worker rights, immigration issues, statute of limitations, business ethics, poverty alleviation, as examples. Additionally the discourse has narrowed, making halakhah the only language and lens for asking difficult questions about society.

The Torah has a very broad and universalistic message in addition to our particular legal worldview. How can we bring that inspiration and charge into classrooms, into informal education, and into the streets? How irresponsible would it be to not train a student that is under our tutelage to thrive in the world and not to ensure that they are equipped with the skills of integrating their Jewish values with contemporary issues or that they are trained in methods of creating social change to live their values in a meaningful way. In a world where 1 billion people (1/6th of the world’s population) live on $1 a day and 2 billion people (1/3rd of the world’s population) live on $2 a day, our Jewish voices are needed now more than ever to protest the injustices. Learning these values and living these values must begin in early Jewish education.

Orthodox college students have been joining pluralistic organizations to engage as global citizens. These students are working on service projects in developing countries with American Jewish World Service (www.ajws.org) and on domestic year-long projects with Avodah (www.avodah.net), to give two examples. It is great to have Jews of different denominations working together on crucial issues but there should also be options grown out of the Orthodox community itself.

Additionally, models for service in the community are often limited to chesed (one-time acts) at the exclusion of tzedek (strategies that are systemic, sustainable, and complex). Many young Jews have been turned off from activism and volunteerism due to its overly simplistic nature. They want more than bikkur cholim (visiting the sick), soup kitchens, and shalach manot (gifts given on Purim). Those mitzvot are vital to our education and daily lives, of course, but they do not inspire Jewish leadership or systemic change. Rav Ahron Soloveichik discussed tzedek with a language of “rights” in “Civil Rights and the Dignity of Man” as something crucial and enduring. Thinking politically, systemically, and creatively about how to respond to oppression and injustice is the main thrust of the ethos of the Torah and of Chazal.

Additionally, Orthodox Judaism has been lacking serious accountability in how its enterprises are operating. The Rubashkins case and Madoff scandal have shown us that we need to be watchdogs for ourselves to ensure that the Halakhic community, and Jewish community at large, is not perpetuating injustice in the world at the least and is optimally setting a paradigmatic high moral standard. Regarding transparency, Uri L’Tzedek is launching the Tav HaYosher to certify kosher restaurants that meet legal standards. This is only one crucial step of many to be taken to ensure that we are taking responsibility for our own communal dollars and institutions.

So these are the challenges we face:

1. How to create a new discourse and activism that is effective and inspiring for young Jews.
2. How to infuse the ethics of the Torah and the laws of Choshen Mishpat into great collective efforts to perpetuate justice in the world.
3. How to create more internal transparency and accountability for Orthodox leadership and businesses.
4. How can this social justice activism be unique to the needs and talents of Orthodox Judaism (resources, types of halakhic and values discourse, etc.)

These trends are beginning to change. Shifra Bronznick, (http://www.jewcy.com/user/2956/bronznick), recently argued that three major factors have sparked an increased interest in young Orthodox engagement in social justice: Darfur , Rubashkins, and the plethora of non-denominational Jewish social justice organizations inclusive to Orthodox students. It seems that the first may touch upon our Jewish national collective history and conscience (the Shoah), the second is a desire for increased internal moral accountability, and the third is the demonstration of an enhanced passion for universal justice through an inclusive Jewish framework. These are great reasons to engage! Of course, not all of the movement has come from outside of the Orthodox community though. This sad, these students not privy to a strong education in civic duties and social justice can come to feel far behind. Orthodox students arrive on college campuses after a year in Israel and find that they have few tools to discuss the most fascinating issues of contemporary politics or of social change like so many non-Orthodox students have.

It is the belief of Uri L’Tzedek that Torah and the guarders of its laws and teachings have a tremendous amount to offer to contemporary thought and activism. It is for this reason that Uri L’Tzedek has introduced a three-pronged approach for inspiring the Orthodox Jewish community to become activists for justice.

1. Education
2. Leadership Development
3. Actions

In education, Uri L’Tzedek provides dynamic education for teens, teaches on college campuses throughout the country, offers batei midrash for young professionals, and holds yamei iyun in synagogues.
A typical “beit midrash” that Uri L’Tzedek leads will have a central social justice theme (health care, domestic abuse, poverty, ethical kashrut, tenant rights, etc.) and attracts between 25-60 Modern Orthodox attendees at each beit midrash. There are 4 different components:

1. Shiur : high-level learning from Chumash, Talmud, Halakhah, and Jewish philosophy.

2. Issues scholar: Someone who works in policy, an academic, or an activist.

3. Spiritual chavruta: Personal sharing about how the learners experience this topic.

4. An Encounter with “The Other”: Someone directly affected by the issue who can share personal anecdotes and experiences.

Batei Midrash always have the first three components but do not always necessarily have the fourth component (the encounter). The leaders are strict to always keep these programs to one hour and 20 minutes (no longer) to respect the time constraints upon our learners with full-time work schedules.

In leadership development, Uri L’Tzedek mentors grassroots activists and empowers young leaders to act on their convictions. For example, there is a student at SAR High School that has received a grant from Uri L’Tzedek and who we mentor in his “Micro-Consulting” project in Riverdale. Similarly, we mentor many Yeshiva College and Stern College students, along with students at 15-20 other campuses around the country, who are craving outlets to create serious social change. A recent case: A YU student realized that her university was not providing a location for the cafeteria workers to eat their lunches (only the bathroom or the street) since they did not keep kosher. Under Uri L’Tzedek’s mentorship, a student began to organize her fellow students. While the problem has not been resolved, she was able to attain a temporary room where workers could eat in for that semester on certain days and at certain times. This was a big first victory for her. This is one example of many where college students are looking for training and mentorship in creating change on their campuses and beyond. Uri L’Tzedek has at least 10 college fellows coming to New York for a summer of training, learning, and organizing for change.

Seeking to empower women and to empower young people is a part of the necessary decentralization of power that Orthodox Judaism needs in order to thrive, where all of its members can grow and contribute based on their unique passions and talents.

In our actions focus, we believe that our learning must be transformed into action on behalf of the other. We do community organizing, political advocacy, demonstrations and rallies, fundraise, micro-lending to poor families in villages in the developing world, lead boycotts, and direct service.
How can we better teach the midot of spiritual activism? How can we inspire with the spirituality of perpetuating justice into the world? How can we be more eclectic in the types of discourse that we include into our religious Jewish identities? How can we continue to support Israel and local Jews in countless ways while also going beyond our own communities to assist all types of people of need? How can day schools best integrate our curricula into their programs?

Uri L’Tzedek has now existed for two years and has reached thousands of learners and activists. The organization now has full-time staff, hundreds of activist partners, thousands of supporters, nation-wide educational programming, and global projects.

We would like to begin thinking about how we can best assist Jewish educators, particularly in day schools, in their work to make their teaching relevant to current issues, to inspire leadership and service, and to facilitate deeper level thinking about our distinct civic engagement as religious Jews.]]> Shmuly Yanklowitz Lookjed List Archive Tue, 24 Mar 2009 05:19:49 -0600