Living in
Freedom

American Jews are fortunate to be living in what is arguably the freest society in the history of civilization. The open society has provided unprecedented opportunities for Jews to assimilate into the social, cultural, economic and political mainstream. At the same time, after several generations in America, most American Jews have become estranged from the tradition and value system that once served as the sinew of the Jewish community.

Admittedly, Jews have struggled since the onset of modernity with the competing claims of tradition and the open society. But little in Jewish communal life prepared us for the degree of freedom and choice we are offered in America. The result is one of the highest assimilation rates of any Jewish community in history. Indeed, those Jews who are most integrated into American life are most at risk of Jewish oblivion.

One defining characteristic of the open society is that all ethnic, religious and cultural groups co-exist in one another's presence. In such a society, tribalism, separatism and prejudice are atavistic traits that undermine the credibility of any particular group. This presents a challenge to the Jewish community. If we continue to base Jewish identity formation on social, cultural and religious isolationism, we will fail to inspire the bulk of American Jewry, and indeed we will alienate many of the Jews we hope to attract back to Jewish life.

The central question is: How can we equip our community to persist and indeed thrive in a culture of freedom?
 

Jewish Values
in the Open
Society

It is clear that American Jews are by and large a secularized group. Secularity, however, does not rule out religion. In order to be effective in contemporary culture, religion itself must become more subtle. It must be able to infuse the secular with holiness, so that the spiritual and the secular become one. In contemporary society, spiritual seekers are often attracted to mysticism, transformative personal experiences, and life-cycle milestones suffused with joy. The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life seeks to move Judaism and Jewish education in these directions.

Our philanthropy is built on the premise that American Jews have chosen integration into the open society and that programs that attempt to isolate them from American culture will ultimately be ineffective. The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life therefore does not invest in programs — even programs with successful track records of increased Jewish involvement — that attempt to remove Jews from the open society.

Our philanthropy also seeks to shift communal resources away from erstwhile needs of Jewish defense. We feel that persecution and anti-Semitism are an insufficient base for Jewish identity. The goal, instead, is to communicate Jewish memory and Jewish joy rather than Jewish victimization. This will help to ensure that a healthy and vigorous Jewish identity and culture will flourish in freedom.

We at The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life believe that American Jews across the cultural spectrum still share an essential set of values. Several experiences, beginning during childhood, can substantially increase the probability of a person becoming a committed Jew. In our judgment, there are several major pillars of Jewish identity formation that provide these experiences: early childhood education, day schools, Jewish camping, youth groups and college movements, Israel travel and study, intensive adult learning and retreats, and service. If maintained over the course of a lifetime, these experiences equip and motivate people to maintain Jewish values in the open society. The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life seeks to make these experiences available to the rank and file of Jewry in innovative, enduring and rigorous ways.

It is important to emphasize that in the open society, Jews will choose Jewish living and experiences not out of tradition or a simple inheritance, but out of independent and free will. For this reason, individuals will require a much higher level of education and of direct, personal experiences with Jewish culture and tradition. To repeat the now prevalent cliché: In the future, all Jews will be Jews by Choice.
 

The
Infrastructure
of Freedom

In order to ensure that Jews will choose to be Jewish while participating fully in American society, we must transform the institutional framework of American Jewry. It is time to create and sustain an Infrastructure of Freedom, whereby all Jews, regardless of their background and place of residence, have full and equal access to each of the pillars of Jewish identity formation. Building such an infrastructure will mean, for instance, working with the Foundation for Jewish Camping to create a network of camps, or working with the Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education to create a network of day schools.

By establishing sufficient partnerships, we will be able to put all elements of the Infrastructure in place to ensure the universal availability of Jewish identity-building institutions. Our goals require a vastly upgraded level of philanthropic giving focused on projects designed to educate and instill commitment among the younger generations. In addition, we need to revitalize our recruitment and retention of Jewish professionals, so that each of our programs is guided by educators as fluent in the breadth of Jewish tradition as they are in the specifics of contemporary pedagogy. Once in place, a working Infrastructure of Freedom, in which Jewish institutions are readily available throughout the country, will help the community compete for loyalty in the free marketplace of ideas.
 

Entrepreneurial Philanthropy

In designing its programs, The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life has a creative bias towards innovation, entrepreneurial philanthropy and creative philanthropic partnerships. By identifying and strengthening the infrastructure of Jewish identity formation, The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life seeks to enhance the Jewish community's capacity to reach groups that are not strongly connected to Jewish life.

In order to effect a true revitalization of Jewish life, it is vital not simply to support new programs, but to underwrite paradigm shifts that will galvanize the community in renaissance. Partnership must be our guiding principle. The ethic of collaborative work must also develop between the communities and their leadership, both lay and professional.

At The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life, we search for breakthroughs that will change the odds. Our philanthropy seeks to upgrade existing institutions and create new institutions that will contribute to a renaissance of American Jewish identity, culture and life.