Conversation drives community

One of my favorite Torah lectures from my time in middle school at “>last post discussed the latest “meh” Pew findings for American Jewry. But the global Jewish population of Jews is reportedly approaching pre-Holocaust levels. Certainly global Jewry has splintered in different directions since before the Shoah, but in 2015, we should think about getting back together and working together to apply that thought and debate toward new productivity and community building for global Jewry.

To an extent, that’s what my work with my non-profit employer is focusing on. The future of the Jewish people depends on our ability to unite—even when there’s not a uniform opinion on a given issue.

My organization held its annual conference last month and paired thousands of Jewish leaders with an opportunity to network, engage and learn on an international scale. As I saw firsthand, through debates and panel discussions on the current state of the Jewish people, there is no consensus among Jews politically or religiously on what the “right” way forward is for the people (i.e. two thousand Jews, three thousand opinions).

And yet I walked away from those 3,000 opinions more confident than ever that in the uncertain future for the Jewish people, our deliberations keep our communities strong.

The Talmud is not a rulebook—rather it is a compilation of the conversations that lead us to the practices we have (even if we differ in how  to interpret those practices). Let’s keep those conversations  and debates going.