Colloquium 2014
Evolution or Revolution? Intermarriage, Jewish Culture and the Future of Jewish Community
What will be the Jewish character of the State of Israel?
How has freedom and intermarriage changed Jewish identity?
Are Jewish denominations a thing of the past?
Will the future of Jewish community be an evolution or a revolution?
How does gender influence the meaning of intermarriage? What are the different experiences of intermarried Jewish men and women, and what needs to change? We all need to dismantle assumptions and dispel myths, and instead offer a new paradigm for understanding interfaith relationships and parenting. If we illuminate past oversights, we can discover future opportunities for engagement and equality that will strengthen intermarried families and the Jewish community.
Keren McGinity
If “Just Jewish” were its own denomination, it would be the second largest in American Jewry—and the fastest growing! Even affiliated Jews are increasingly unwilling to align with only one denomination. This reflects larger American trends such as how people “join” or “belong.” And it raises key questions for the Jewish movements, including Secular Humanistic Judaism. How is it actually a movement? What is the mission, and is that mission still relevant? Who does the mission speak to in an age that is both post-denominational and increasingly post-ethnic thanks to integration and intermarriage—and also post-organized-religion through do-it-yourself spirituality and increased secularism (which may not be the advantage Secular Humanists Jews might think). Nobody has all the answers, but we must at least identify the right questions.
Paul Golin
Video for each Colloquium presentation and the following panel discussion is now available on the IISHJ YouTube channel. Click here to see the complete playlist, or on each title for that specific video.
WEEKEND SCHEDULE
(all times Eastern US)
Friday, November 14
- 7:30pm
- Shabbat Celebration – “Why Bother Being Anything?” – Rabbi Adam Chalom
Saturday, November 15
- 9:30am
- Humanistic Torah Study – “The Life and Death of Sarah and Abraham”
- Noon
- Colloquium Book and Information Table opens
- 1:00pm
- Colloquium – Rabbi Sivan Maas on Intermarriage in Israel
- 2:30pm
- Colloquium – Keren McGinity on “The Gendered Reality of Jewish Intermarriage in America”
- 4:00pm
- Colloquium Discussion Groups
- 7:30pm
- Havdalla Celebration and Rabbinic Ordination – Edward J. Klein and Susan Averbach
Sunday, November 16
- 9:00am
- Colloquium Book and Information Table opens
- 10:00am
- Colloquium – Paul Golin on Post-Denominational Judaism
- 11:30am
- Colloquium – Rabbi Adam Chalom on “Jewish Futures”
- Noon
- Shalom!
COLLOQUIUM 2014 PRESENTERS
Paul Golin
Associate Executive Director of the Jewish Outreach Institute. Co-author of 20 Things Grandparents Can Do (and Not Do) with their Grandchildren Jewish Identity (2007) and How To Raise Jewish Children…Even If You’re Not Jewish Yourself (2010). Featured Speaker at Colloquium 2012 – watch his presentation on “An Optimistic Jewish Future” here.
Rabbi Sivan Malkin Maas
The first Israeli rabbi ordained by the International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism, she is Dean of Tmura-IISHJ in Jerusalem and director of “The Secular Library,” publishing works on Judaism as culture. She has previously run a kibbutz educational system and served as a Jewish Agency emissary to the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit. A featured speaker at past IISHJ Colloquia, watch her 2012 presentation here.
Keren McGinity
Affiliated with the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute and the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University. Director of Love and Tradition: Intermarriage Insights for a Jewish Future. Author of Still Jewish: A History of Women and Intermarriage in America (2009) and Marrying Out: Jewish Men, Intermarriage, and Fatherhood (2014). Hear an audio podcast on her latest book here.
Rabbi Adam Chalom
Dean for North America of the International Institute for Secular Humansitic Judaism and Rabbi of Kol Hadash Humanistic Congregation in north suburban Chicago. Blogs at Shalom from Rabbi Chalom, speaks on The Kol Hadash Podcast. A featured speaker at several past Colloquia, watch his concluding remarks from 2012 on “The Power of ‘Half Jewish'” here.
Response Panel of Leaders and Rabbis in Secular Humanistic Judaism
Rabbinic Ordainees
Susan Averbach
San Francisco, CA
Edward J. Klein
Queens, NY