Spotlight on CLAL
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.
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Exploring The Future Of Social Change: CLAL Convenes
Leading Social Advocates to Examine the Impact of Key Trends on Efforts to Build a Better
Society
By Judy Epstein, Director of Public Affairs
On May 20-21, the Jewish Public Forum at CLAL will bring together a dozen leaders in
social advocacy, philanthropy and the arts for a thought-provoking forum on the Future of Social Change. The program will address some of the pivotal
changes that advocates will need to face over the next ten to fifteen years. What are the new ethical issues on the horizon? How will new communications technologies both
limit and empower groups and individuals? What
spiritual or psychological factors will affect social or civic engagement?
Among the panelists joining members of CLAL’s renowned faculty of scholars and rabbis will be: Sandi DuBowski, filmmaker/director of the groundbreaking documentary Trembling Before G-d; Jay Rosen NYU Professor and author of What Are Journalists For?; Madeline Lee, Executive Director of the New York Foundation; Ruth Messinger, President of the American Jewish World Service; and Joshua Mailman, President of the Sirius Business Corporation and a founder of Social Venture Network. The event is sponsored by the Jewish Public Forum at CLAL, which convenes interdisciplinary forums to generate new thinking about how ethnic and religious identities and communities change in the face of broad societal and technological shifts.
People working to effect long-term change in society, whether they be activists or analysts, artists or religious leaders, will face new and unexpected challenges. This will create the need for new coalitions and partnerships,” said Shari Cohen, Ph.D., Director of the Jewish Public Forum. “Jews and Jewish institutions that see their role as moral or ethical leaders will need to consider a variety of new issues and settings to do their work -- from the ethics of new technologies to the dynamics of an emerging global civil society. There is no better way to address these challenges than to convene this kind of conversation, to make opportunities to reflect on the long term.
Sessions will examine innovative mechanisms for social change, what it means to work in a changing global market and legal setting, and the costs and benefits of working from a particular religious or ethnic tradition to promote the greater good. In addition, participants will contribute essays for a CLAL publication, which will be widely disseminated to religious and community leaders, philanthropists, academics, and other opinion-makers.
Future of Social Change is part of the Jewish Public Forum’s multidimensional project called “Exploring the Jewish Futures,” which examines the challenges and choices that Jews and other ethnic and religious communities might face 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 Jewish community has always led the way in social change, civic engagement and public responsibility in America,” said Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, CLAL Vice President. “The real opportunity here is to see how our more private communal and internal spiritual language can inform that process and also grow by learning from others leading in those fields. This is the way Jewish life has always maintained its vitality and relevance, and it also represents an expansion of CLAL’s own commitment to integrating Jewish wisdom with our contribution to building a better world.”
The Future of Social Change is the last in a series of three seminars held this year. The two previous programs examined the future of family and tribe and the future of education and cultural transmission. The project is funded through the generous support of the Eleanor M. and Herbert D. Katz Family Foundation.
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