You are invited to the first Jewish Community Summit in the history of our community on Sunday, June 26 and Monday, June 27, 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. at the Milwaukee Public Museum.
Are you Jewish? Not Jewish as defined by religious authorities. Rather, do you personally see yourself as a Jew?
Are you a member of the Milwaukee Jewish Community? No criterion here. You may not be a donor. A member of a synagogue. Attend a Seder. Or taste nostalgia when you eat a piece of challah. Yet, do you feel you are a member of the Jewish community?
Do you care about the future of our Jewish community? Again, there are no qualifications to this question.
This is not focused on the future of Jewish religious practice; the future of Jewish schools; or whether or not Jews will share social and cultural activities. I ask if you care about what happens down the road to the Jewish people in Milwaukee, Israel, or wherever we may live.
If you answered yes to my three questions, please keep reading. We have an offer that we hope you won’t refuse!
Many feel left out of critical decisions about our collective prospects. Some believe their opinions are not valued because they are not part of an imagined Jewish oligarchy; or that their Jewish status is not recognized by members of the rabbinical community. Some believe that because they are not activists they do not have a voice that is heard.
Many of you are stalwarts of our synagogues, community agencies, Jewish organizations, or the Milwaukee Jewish Federation. You have contributed your talent to building our public Jewish community.
You are our teachers, and professionals. You are the families who celebrate the events on the Jewish calendar. You take pride in the many gifts our people have given to the world.
You are not indifferent regarding the State of Israel — some of you rejoice and feel pride, while others take strong exception with governmental policy; you feel because you care. Yet, you too may not believe that your voice is heard.
You are needed
Remember the three questions? If you answered yes, we are asking you to attend our Jewish Community Summit, organized by the Milwaukee Jewish Federation.
The Summit will bring our community together to share our dreams about the future we aspire to and shape initiatives that will help us get there. Every voice is important. Every voice!
The Holocaust and the birth of the State of Israel profoundly motivated earlier generations to gather and build a vibrant Jewish community. They witnessed profound events in 20th century Jewish history, and together they founded Jewish schools, built synagogues, and created a home for our elders where they could find the dignity and respect they deserved.
Succeeding generations joined them in supporting Israel in its blackest moments and helped support a massive exodus of Jews from the former Soviet Union and, later, from Ethiopia.
Even though many younger members of our community have loving respect for the work of their parents and grandparents there is a changing understanding of what it means to be a Jew in the 21st century. It’s our hope that this summit will give voice to these dreams.
The Milwaukee Jewish Federation’s mission, for more than 100 years, is to call the community together and help realize our collective dreams.
The Milwaukee Jewish Federation works to insure Jewish continuity, to help people in need of supportive services, and to work together on behalf of Jews in Milwaukee, in Israel and other lands.
Initiatives that come out of our summit will allow the Federation to make fundamental changes that support emerging and deeply felt needs in our community.
There are some who believe transformational change is not possible. Can an organization so steeped in its own traditions reboot to find common ground for our community in the 21st century?
I understand why you may have doubts, yet I know one thing for certain — if we don’t try, if we don’t reach for our collective dreams, we will never know.
Please participate. We need you. We need your voice. Your opinions. Your hopes. It is essential that you be part of this process. Transformational change is only possible if we are all at the table.
I return to my three questions. You are still reading because you answered yes.
Now I ask you to say yes to a fourth question: Will you invest your time to participate in this historic summit?
Please say yes to my fourth question and join us on Sunday June 26 and Monday June 27, 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. at the Milwaukee Public Museum, the first summit in the history of our community. Learn more at theJewishsummit.org.
Jerry Benjamin is president of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation.
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