Klal Yisrael: Moving Beyond Binary Descriptions

One recurring learning from our research at the Jim Joseph Foundation is that Jewish people are complex and covered by a broad spectrum of identities. In our Jewish communal outlook, we sometimes default to thinking of our people in binaries when we assess Jewish institutional and organizational affiliation. Our professional community often refers to young Jews in North America as being connected vs. disconnected, engaged vs. unengaged, involved vs. uninvolved and so on. Communal professionals and stakeholders tend to utilize these simplistic categorizations to make sense of those who are “participants” in Jewish life, and those who are not — who is in, and who is out. While this shorthand approach may serve us in some contexts, we run the risk of undermining our basic idea of Klal Yisrael (the Jewish People) by relying on hierarchical labels like these.

As the Jim Joseph Foundation team delves deeper into understanding the nuances of the broad and diverse spectrum of our people (for example, this framework for how people learn), it is clear that oversimplification is unhelpful. At best, these binaries fail to capture and honor the rich complexities of individuals’ Jewish experiences, motivations and desires. At worst, it is a damaging obstacle to understanding ourselves as a people, and our work as educators and progenitors of Jewish community.

Stacie Cherner is the Director of Research and Learning at the Jim Joseph Foundation.

Read the full piece in eJewish Philanthropy.