A Peace Process… for Birthright and MASA
By Nathan Guttman
Peace might be just around the corner. Peace in the Jewish communal world, that is.
According to Natan Sharansky, chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, while world leaders are talking about promoting the peace process, he is in fact engaged in such a process. The peace Sharansky was speaking about, during a brunch reception hosted by the Israeli embassy in Washington, was between his own organization and the two philanthropists who founded the Taglit-Birthright Israel program.
Tensions between the Jewish Agency and Birthright are nothing new.
But on Sunday, both Michael Steinhardt and Charles Bronfman were more than happy to show their friendship with Sharansky. The event marked a new beginning for the troubled relationship between Birthright and MASA — a program sponsored by the Jewish Agency that has, at times, been seen as being in competition with Birthright.
MASA, like Birthright, brings young Jews to Israel. But instead of a 10-day visit, it focuses on year-long programs that immerse young Diaspora Jews in Israeli life.
At the meeting, organizers expressed their hope that together the two programs — Birthright and MASA — will be able to reach 100% of Jewish youths around the world.
Steinhardt Attacks Jewish Leaders
By Dan Friedman
In a surprise move, even noted by the non-Jewish business press, Michael Steinhardt attacked Jewish communal organizations and their complacent leadership. A longtime stalwart of Jewish philanthropy, he accused organizations of disliking change and being satisfied, at least in the case of campus Hillels, with “trying hard” but not being “good enough.”
Too many Jewish organizations don’t change anything, he claimed. People with social studies PhDs doing analyses and surveys achieve “gur nicht” Steinhardt noted but, talking about the new survey which suggests that the massive investment in Birthright has had some success he said that “maybe this one will change something.”
Watch his speech on The Jewish Channel below.
Hat tip to Jordana Horn.
June 22, 2007, 11:13am
Steinhardt vs. Steinsaltz: An Atheist Debates a Talmudist
By Daniel Treiman
I wish I had been there for this one: Jewish mega-philanthropist and avowed atheist Michael Steinhardt faced off in New York against renowned talmudist Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz (who happens to be heading up a new effort to revive the ancient Sanhedrin).
Michal Lando of the Jerusalem Post gives the blow-by-blow:
…[M]oderator Richard Joel, president of Yeshiva University, pressed both participants to explain why there was even a need for Jewish continuity.
Steinhardt argued that the Jewish people should continue in order to preserve “Jewish values,” which he distinguished from Judaism’s religious aspects. “The overwhelming number of Jews alive today have no serious interest in their religion,” said Steinhardt. He said that could change if Jewish values were substituted for “that which is called religion today.” He mentioned education and tzedaka (charity) as examples.
Steinsaltz tried to reframe Joel’s question. He rejected the notion that Jewish survival was important because of what Jews have to offer the world. “Do we have to continue in order to do something, or can we continue as other beings [do]?” asked Steinsaltz.
The reasons to work for the continuation of the Jewish people, he said, could be compared those given for saving the dolphins. “Everybody should see that here is a species that seems to be endangered, so you should give it a better chance to survive.”
Steinsaltz said, as he has before, that the Jews were neither a nation nor a religion - they were a family. “We want to survive, first and foremost, because our family is a family… I don’t need to give any arguments that we are a light unto nations,” he said.
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