What does Jewish life look like in 2025, 2040 or even 2050?
How can Federation build, sustain and support a community that is empowered, connected, inspired and inclusive?
What role do each of us play in making that vision a reality, and what would we need to do to make it happen?
These are challenging questions without easy answers.
- Our society – locally and globally – is rapidly changing. Jews are connecting to each other and our people in new and interesting ways; growing numbers are looking to refresh their Jewish connection.
At the same time, young U.S. Jews number a relatively large share of traditionally observant Orthodox Jews while many others don’t connect with Judaism in traditional religious ways, but are passionate about their Jewish connection and participate in culturally Jewish activities.
At the same time, we continue to see growing “Jewish Polarity,” with more than 50% of Orthodox and those more secular feeling they have little in common with each other.
How can we continue and build Jewish Peoplehood? How do we reimagine Jewish belonging? How do we rethink Jewish communal systems to sustain and support a thriving Jewish community? How do we transmit the centrality of Israel?
Again, there are so many questions.
So, It’s time to get strategic.
The Jewish Community Federation of Richmond is up to the challenge and has begun a process to understand, listen and craft a plan to address these issues.
Under the leadership of JCFR President Ellen Renee Adams and led by President Elect Amy Nisenson, Federation launched a strategic planning process to position the Federation for the next five years. We began with a survey of our key stakeholders, partners, professionals, and board.
The work will continue over the next many months. We will share our progress and there will be opportunities for your input as we progress. Please make sure to check out Reflectornews.org, our social pages and our E-news and CEO updates to stay informed and share your thoughts.
We don’t have the answers yet, but the questions we are asking are important and exciting.
Stay tuned…
Daniel