IJII

The Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals sponsored a conference on Jews in a Non-Jewish World: Rights and Responsibilities, on Sunday March 2, 2008, at Congregation Shearith Israel in New York City. Over 100 people attended the event.

Rabbi Marc D. Angel opened the morning session with a shiur/lecture on the universal vision of Judaism, and the struggles between this vision and the particularistic, sectarian strains within Jewish tradition. This was followed by break-out sessions, where participants studied texts with facilitators in a Bet Midrash type of format. The Bet Midrash sessions were organized by Alex Kaye, rabbinic intern of the Institute.

The group then broke for lunch, after which Janice Shorenstein delivered the keynote address on Jewish involvement in the ethnic/religious life of New York City. Janice is President of the NY Jewish Community Relations Council. We then heard from a panel of three distinguished speakers, shedding light on universal concerns of the Jewish community: Rev. Dr. Walter Smith, President and CEO of the HealthCare Chaplaincy spoke of the multifaith cooperation in the area of chaplaincy; Carla Schein, who works at the Donor Center of UJA-Federation, discussed the Jewish philanthropic involvement with programs that help needy individuals of all backgrounds; Ralph Sutton spoke of his visit to Senegal under the auspices of the American Jewish World Service, where a project was undertaken to help relieve the terrible poverty there by developing a program to train people in agricultural techniques. Alex Kaye added his own comments based on his recent trip to Ghana, together with a group of rabbinical students, sponsored by the American Jewish World Service. We had lively participation from the audience during the question and answer period, and everyone left the conference with more ideas, more information, more inspiration, and renewed ideals.

We thank all who helped make this event such a great success.

We are planning to publish proceedings of the conference in a future issue of "Conversations," the journal of the Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals. "Conversations" will be sent to all members of the Institute, as a membership benefit. If you are not yet a member, please join our expanding community of supporters by going to the home page and following instructions for becoming a member.