Rabbi Jim: Still Learning

  As a child, if I ever said I didn’t like something my mom made for dinner, she would reply, “That’s okay; you just don’t know what’s good,” and then point to the cereal cabinet. While one could argue whether the quality and taste of food could be objectively measured, her point was that I would eventually learn what was “good”- not just in food, but in other areas of life as well. (Full disclosure: the foods I hated back then, such as stuffed cabbage, are now my favorites!) I’ve been thinking a lot about this concept and how it applies to schools.  Here’s a common scenario: Teachers have just read the weekly staff memo and they are up in arms about something the administration decided on, without teacher input. They look at one another and, in unison, shout, “What were they thinking?!” or “Why did they think that was okay?!” The administrators, of course, think the teachers just don’t get it. With such a polarity of views, it’s possible that each side (perhaps using other wo...

My Daughter's Berkeley Minyan Rotation - A Different View of Millennial Engagement My daughter lives in Berkeley, California (yes, that Berkeley, the one where hippies used to, and some still do, roam). Over a couple of visits during her grad school years, I witnessed a thriving Jewish life in the neighborhoods surrounding the campus. My daughter’s little  shtetl  hosts a variety of  shuls  and  minyanim  that attract a real mix of participants, some connected to the university, most not.     To get a sense of Jewish life in her neighborhood, I’ve accompanied her to services at a few of the locations on her regular  Shabbat  rotation:  Netivot Shalom (a Conservative synagogue), Congregation Beth Israel (an Orthodox synagogue), Minyan Dafna (a traditional egalitarian independent  minyan , no Rabbi), and Urban Adamah (an educational farm and community center).     As a Jewish educator and Rabbi, I cannot attend a  shul  or  minyan  without stepping out of my role as a ...