A framework for the 21st-century federation

During the month of Elul, the traditional period of self-reflection and introspection, many of us find ourselves standing at a kind of crossroads, reflecting on what was and considering what might be.

For me, this year's crossroads is especially poignant. About six months ago, I was offered the extraordinary opportunity to become the CEO of the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties. Since then, I have spent a lot of time thinking about what such a change would mean for me and for my family.

I've spent much of the past decade working to build meaningful and engaging pathways of connection to Jewish life — organizations and projects that reflect and project core Jewish values. Now, here in the Bay Area, I am excited to join you in working to create a relevant, vibrant and thriving Jewish community — a community that will engage generations of young people in this new century.

And while I am still a relative newcomer to the Bay Area, I've spent the past two months listening to members of our community during breakfasts, lunches, dinners, the Mission to Israel and everything in between. I've learned a lot, and while there is still much more that I want to know, I'd like to take this opportunity to share with you a work in progress: a framework for understanding the Jewish community we are building together.

Until the mid-19th century, Jewish community was referred to as kehillah kedosha, a holy community. Our challenge is to figure out how to render that designation meaningful in the 21st century. How can a Jewish federation, as a relevant community institution, embody a present-day notion of kehillah kedosha? Obviously, we're not talking about a community based solely or even largely on religious observance. But we need to embrace the sense of mission and meaning inherent in the phrase.

So here's a frame within which we can view certain aspects of this new community:

Community of Change (Kehillah shel Shinui): We must recognize as a community the absolute imperative for change — for producing a new paradigm for Jewish communal life and leadership. And the Bay Area is a community with the intellectual and financial resources to pioneer and lead this change.

The survival of the Jews as a people is always dependent on the absence of stasis, and the existence of dynamic change. Our old models are no longer sufficient. We face new challenges and new opportunities and we must create structures through which we can successfully meet them.

Community of Obligation (Kehillah shel Hiyuv): We can be a community deeply connected to the prophetic call for justice and responsibility. Ours is a society that prioritizes personal autonomy over all else. We need to figure out how to harmonize this reality with a sense of Jewish and communal obligation.

Making service learning a normative part of the Jewish lifecycle is a step in this direction. We need to send young Jews to study, serve and work in Bayview-Hunters Point, Jerusalem, Buenos Aires, Ghana, Warsaw ...

We want the new generation of Jews to ask not what their community can do for them, but what can they do for their community.

Community of Knowledge (Kehillah shel Torah): Jewish literacy and learning are important to our daily activities and also in charting our path forward.

Sadly, Jewish communities and community institutions too often have surrendered the deeply Jewish impulse to treasure and pursue Jewish wisdom, knowledge and learning. The Bay Area is blessed with an abundance of scholars, rabbis, activists and artists whose work can and should inform our communal conversations.

Community of Worlds (Kehillah shel Olamot): This is my way of reflecting upon the reality of the multiplicity of identities that we know characterizes American Jewry today. We are Jews, Northern Californians, Americans and citizens of the world. We need to embrace this multiplicity of identities, not try to run away from it.

In so doing, we must attend to our local Jewish community. We need to foster a sense of connection and obligation to our fellow Jews throughout the world and give young Jews the tools with which to navigate a genuine and positive relationship with Israel during complicated times.

And finally, as citizens of our broader society, we must be committed to work passionately on behalf of the cities in which we live, and the broader global community.

I look forward to beginning this New Year in partnership with you, developing, refining and implementing a new paradigm for a federation that will encourage and incorporate change, enable us to act on our sense of obligation, feed our appetite for Jewish knowledge and learning, celebrate our multiple identities and find and nurture what is sacred in all of us and our community.




Daniel Sokatch is the CEO of the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties.