Spotlight on CLAL Archive
Welcome to Spotlight on CLAL. Here you will find stories about what is happening at CLAL and about the work that CLAL is doing across North America. Sometimes we will focus on a program, or a special event, or upon a CLAL faculty member's work and interests. Bookmark this page if you want to get to know us better.
To access the Spotlight on CLAL Archives, click here.
Exploring The Future Of Family And Tribe: CLAL Convenes Experts to Examine the Impact
of Key Trends
By Judy Epstein, Director of Public Affairs
What will the families of the future
look like? Will genetic engineering and
international adoption change our children’s children past recognition? How will these changes affect traditional ethnic
and religious communities? These are some of
the questions a dozen diverse experts will consider when they gather in New York City on
January 28-29 for an unusual seminar considering “The Future of Family and
Tribe.”
The
program will bring together leading thinkers on gay and gender issues, adoption,
reproductive law, bioethics, and aging. It is
sponsored by the Jewish Public Forum at CLAL, a think tank that generates fresh thinking
about how ethnic and religious identities and communities are changing in the face of
broad societal and technological shifts.
“We
know that biotechnology, globalization, the Internet, and new spiritual practices will all
reshape our communities, families and identities -- the question is how,” said Dr.
Shari Cohen, Director of the Jewish Public Forum. “In
order to build more meaningful lives and ethical communities in the future, we have to
start asking better, broader questions. New dialogues with a wide range of people,
institutions and communities can offer fresh insights about our rapidly changing
world.”
Sessions
will examine the changing relationship between work and family life, the shifts in
attitude towards marriage and child-rearing; and new meanings of family and kinship. In
addition to presenting their remarks, participants will contribute essays for a collection
to be published by CLAL. The volume will be disseminated widely to religious leaders,
philanthropists, academics, community leaders, and other opinion-makers.
The
program is part of the Jewish Public Forum’s multidimensional project called
“Playing the Jewish Futures,” which explores the challenges, choices and
possibilities that might face Jews and other ethnic and religious communities in the
decades ahead. Participants represent fields
as wide-ranging as religion, international human rights law, journalism, science,
business, anthropology, social services, and the rabbinate.
“The
future is often a source of anxiety to the Jewish community, and to other religious and
ethnic communities,” said Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, Vice President of CLAL.
“Leaders worry that their institutions are disappearing and that the erosion of old
forms of identity and social cohesion threatens the social fabric.”
He
continued, “But the future is always filled with possibility. We ought to be at least as excited by the unknown
as anxious about it. In this spirit, CLAL is
focusing on what is emerging rather than on what is disappearing, and on bringing new
voices into the debates.”
“The
Future of Family and Tribe” is the first in a series of seminars. Later in the spring, the Jewish Public Forum will
hold two more: “New Currents of Social Change” and “Education,
Communication, and Cultural Transmission in a Knowledge Economy.” The project is
funded through the generous support of the Eleanor M. and Herbert D. Katz Family
Foundation.
To access the Spotlight on CLAL Archives, click here.
To receive the Spotlight on CLAL column by email on a regular basis, complete the box
below:
