Ben Romer

“its current form. Yet, all is not lost. The experience of being fully American has also motivated large segments of millennials to embrace religious practices that their recent ancestors rejected out of fear, thinking that such practices would prevent them from becoming fully American.”
― Kerry M. Olitzky, Playlist Judaism: Making Choices for a Vital Future

“community, and those who have intermarried. 3. Participants in an inclusive Jewish community lead with meaning rather than obligation. An inclusive Jewish community provides a benefit to all its participants; that is, they all feel they belong and are at home. 4. An inclusive Jewish community acknowledges that many paths lead a person into the community and that people take different paths once they enter it. 5. An inclusive Jewish community recognizes that Judaism competes with all other options for people’s time and therefore must provide high-quality, meaningful experiences that also answer the big questions they may have about their own life journeys. 6. An inclusive Jewish community identifies and then addresses the obstacles keeping more individuals from”
― Kerry M. Olitzky, Playlist Judaism: Making Choices for a Vital Future

“participation, such as insider language or the high cost of Jewish life. 7. An inclusive Jewish community takes Jewish life out to where people are, rather than waiting for them to enter Jewish communal institutions, and helps them answer for themselves, why be Jewish? 8. An inclusive Jewish community includes a coalition of organizations that offer the entire gamut of Jewish life and lets the users decide the priorities of the community, rather than each institution trying to be all things to all people. 9. Participants in an inclusive Jewish community are passionately committed to sharing it with newcomers and are willing to work to improve it and nurture its growth for the future. 10. Programs and ideas that work to grow an inclusive Jewish community are open source and shared among all individuals and organizations interested in a more vibrant Judaism and Jewish community.”
― Kerry M. Olitzky, Playlist Judaism: Making Choices for a Vital Future

“And it was not merely tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands, but hundreds of millions of people who were the obedient witnesses of this slaughter of the innocent. Nor were they merely obedient witnesses: when ordered to, they gave their support to this slaughter, voting in favour of it amid a hubbub of voices. There was something unexpected in their degree of obedience... The extreme violence of the totalitarian social systems proved able to paralyse the human spirit throughout whole continents.”
― Vasily Grossman, Life and Fate