What will the New Year bring? In our approach to the High Holidays, The Chronicle asked several community members for their predictions for 5770. They were told that they could focus on a wide range of issues, from domestic social issues to spirituality to Mideast politics.
As you will read, our contributors did not follow our directions; rather than predicting, they filled their essays with hopes, prayers and opinions. With some minimal finger wagging in their direction, we share their thoughts with you.
We want to add your voice. If you have a prediction or hope for the New Year, submit it for our October issue. Send 200-300 words to chronicle@milwaukeejewish.org, with the subject line “5770 predictions.”
President of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, co-owner of A.B. Data Group
Grant us eight wishes
Rosh Hashanah approaches and our tradition teaches that G-d will listen. So my predictions are a request, a prayer and a heartfelt plea.
G-d of our fathers and mothers: times have been trying in our corner of the Diaspora. We live in days of ambiguity and uncertainty. Friends have lost jobs. Savings have been eroded.
In Milwaukee, there are families who can no longer afford to give children a quality Jewish education; lines at our food pantry are longer; programs for our elders have been cut. Overseas programs have been downsized.
So we ask You to grant a small wish list of eight items:
First, that our community will continue to meet needs in Milwaukee, Israel and around the world as we do today.
Second, help our donors find the spirit to give again and even give more. With Your help we can stand up to the most difficult challenges.
Third, help us keep our school enrollments strong, so every family who wishes to give their children a Jewish education can do so.
Fourth, help us find a way to provide the help that so many need through Jewish Family Services.
Fifth, bless our JCC with the capacity to continue to bring our people together.
Sixth, fill our Hillel student programs in Milwaukee and Madison with students and professors, the best programs, and joyful communal meals.
Seventh, help our new shlicha (Israel emissary) to find ways to keep us close to our people in Israel.
Eighth, grant strength to our Jewish professionals, who work longer hours, with less remuneration to keep our community healthy and strong.
You have many worthy requests at this time of the year, but we really need You to turn this prayer into a prediction for a healthy and happy community.
Wisconsin representative of the 22nd Assembly District.
Develop our moral imaginations
As we approach the New Year, I continue to hope for, and optimistically predict, a repairing of the world that acknowledges poverty, that acknowledges the millions of people without access to healthcare, and that recognizes the many families and individuals experiencing homelessness. And I optimistically predict a willingness to act on these issues.
Before becoming an elected official, I studied bioethics at the Medical College of Wisconsin, and I was intrigued by the concept and discussions of moral imagination.
Moral imagination facilitates the resolution of ethical issues by sympathetically looking at others’ experiences and perspectives and imagining the consequences of various actions on those individuals.
I have been thinking about this concept a great deal since becoming a state representative, especially in relation to poverty, chronic illness, and homelessness.
To use one’s moral imagination, one must first be open to hearing others’ stories, that is, their experiences from their own point of view.
As a nurse, advocate, and legislator, I have listened to many stories of poverty and homelessness and of people ignored and neglected. I have heard stories of individuals who suffered illnesses and health-related problems that are more often associated with third-world countries.
My optimistic prediction for 5770 is a greater development of our moral imaginations and understandings of what life might be like for others.
If we are comfortable, does that mean all are? Because we were able to improve our lot in life, does that mean anyone can? And do we have a responsibility to look beyond our own comfort to facilitate the comfort of others?
My hope, for the upcoming year, is that more of us — as citizens and neighbors — develop a moral imagination, hear each others’ stories, and move forward to make situations better for all.
President of the Wisconsin Council of Rabbis and Jewish Family Specialist at the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center
Fund creative Jewish programs
My first prediction (or should I say hope?) is that another tremendous philanthropist is going to step up and offer an endowment for a two- or three-year period of time to fill in the gap in grants and funding that is emerging in the Milwaukee Jewish community.
Due to the economy, the strain on the Jewish Community Foundation and the Helen Bader Foundation closing their Jewish Life and Learning program area, the need has never been greater. This donor’s work will foster creativity in programs and innovations to engage the Jewish population.
At the same time that this is happening locally, I predict that a major U.S. donor is finally going to “see the light” and recognize that the best hope for the future of U.S. Judaism is in programming for children from birth-to-3-years-old and for young Jews in their 20s and 30s.
After this awakening, they will fund major innovations and create new programming across the country.
I predict there will be an increase in collaboration between Jewish agencies, organizations and synagogues in Milwaukee. They will work together because they will recognize this is the only way to survive the current economic conditions.
I predict that the Obama administration will continue to be firm on Israel, which will anger many pro-Israel supporters. However, this will eventually broker a lasting peace between Israel and her Arab neighbors.
I hope and pray for health, happiness and peace in the upcoming year for my family and for yours.
Executive Director of the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center
New era of collaboration
I believe that the Jewish community will begin to turn its focus to how all of the Jewish organizations in our community are similar rather than focusing on our differences.
In the recent past we have all struggled to find our “niche” market within the Jewish community but I think we are ready to realize that our market is the Jewish Community, which can best be served through collaboration.
I believe that we still have many tough decisions ahead of us and are going to have to continue to prioritize how the Jewish community is served. Without an increase in financial and volunteer support we are going to see additional loses in services.
Rabbi Yisroel Shmotkin
Executive Director of Lubavitch of Wisconsin
Make Jewish education top priority
In a recent dialogue a respected local lawyer wrote to me “to make a medical diagnosis takes years of intensive training; to reject the concept of a personal G-d does not require this.”
I responded that the problem lies in the disparity between the importance of a medical decision and the seriousness of bringing G-d and Judaism into your life,” which does not take much to reject.
As we gear ourselves towards the new schoolyear, a time when parents focus on their children’s future, their Jewish future as well as their secular education, serious thought has to be given to provide them with a means to be proud and conscientious Jews in a secular world.
Children are extremely perceptive and impressionable. They know how serious their parents are about their development. They want them to attend the best schools and move on to no less than Ivy League universities. On the other hand, they get the clear message that after taking care of “real life” it is “very important to be Jewish.”
The only way our children will grow to be committed to their Jewishness and the Jewish community is by us taking Judaism seriously and by the furtherance of their Jewish education.
Children must know Jewish history beyond the fact that our first ancestors were Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca, Leah and Rachel. They should know the Torah’s dos and don’ts. Yes, I’m suggested that our children must engage with the Torah — the only thing that makes us different, special and Jewish — and its daily practice (beyond joining in occasionally on the holidays). They should learn the significance of being Jewish and the meaning of the mitzvot/Jewish practice.
As they grow up many teenagers find themselves passionate about tikkun olam (healing and repairing the world) to contribute something to improve society. Their parents wish that they do it within a Jewish context. Indeed, doing kindness is essential to Judaism, but without a personal Judaism in one’s own life it is like a body without a soul.
The year 5769 brought all accepted norms into question. As we, individuals and the community in general, reevaluates our priorities, I hope in 5770 we put Jewish education at the very top of that list.
Loading ...