Jewish Music

I've been thinking a lot about Jewish music lately, as I've been to a number of Jewish concerts. The idea of a Jewish band is nothing new, that's for sure, but it's really interesting to see what Jewish musicians are doing now.

First, we've got Rick Recht, who came to perform for the Religious School where I teach. In case you don't know, Rick Recht is kind of like Christian rock, but for Jews. He uses some Hebrew, but also a lot of English. There's a lot of clapping, and audience participation, and his music sounds like any lite-rock band. I have to say, despite the obvious qualms I have (er... not the biggest fan of his music, plus, there's something sort of weird and crowd controlling about his music), he does some really interesting things. One of his biggest projects is a multi-faith music group that performs at a mega-church in the south. It's much needed, and really a cool way to get different people together.

I also got to see Hadag Nachash this week. I have to say, I love Hadag Nachash. They were performing at a big Israel party, and because this party was on a college campus, there were anti-Israel protesters. When Hadag Nachash came out on stage, they started their show by greeting the Palestinians, saying that they are all about peace in the middle east. Their first song was called "shalom salaam peace," and included an Arabic rap about peace in Jerusalem. It was really wonderful and amazing.

On Friday night, Golem played a show.
I had never seen Golem before, and only sort of knew their music. Basically, Golem is a Yiddish rock band. They are amazing. One of the reasons I think Golem is so wonderful is because of the way they work with tradition. They took some classic Yiddish songs and really made them their own, with their own sound and style. It's the way Judaism has to move forward-- we ought not forget about our history and traditions, but we have to make all of it our own, and make it for now.

Basically, I think that it is through such avenues as Jewish music and Jewish bands that this contemporary Jewish culture is evolving. These bands create a sort of cultural pride, and take pride in themselves. Their projects propel us further along.

It's the end of the world as I know it

That's right, friends. I just got news that the JCSC Fellowship is being discontinued. I am the last Fellow to work at my Hillel. Apparently, somebody realized that there's an even cheaper way to get the job done. Why bother paying salaries when you can get students to do it for free?

I have to say, I feel a bit relieved. I don't have to try to pretend anymore that I've enjoyed this fellowship. I don't have to lie through interviews with candidates, and tell them all they want to know about Hillel. I'm glad that no poor soul will have to experience this job here again. I think that, although it's not like this everywhere, my Hillel has abused the fellowship. My supervisor said it himself, he treats Fellows more like full time program staff who are just less well paid. Fellows are expected to shlep, plan programs, and do the general bidding of the Hillel at large, all while working wayyy over 40 hours a week, receiving a $22,000 a year living stipend (NOT INCLUDING TAXES), and being treated not like real professionals.

[caveat: Don't get me wrong, this has been a very valuable experience. I have sooo much more of a clue as to what I want to do with myself. I now know that the Jewish communal world has some major issues to be worked out, and that I can be a part of that solution. That I can find positions higher up and make structural and organizational changes. It's really a shame that I had to find this out through such poor mistreatment. And I have to say, I really think that I've been mistreated here]

I feel like laughing, just to spite my supervisor. This is what you get!

That being said, there are some HUGE problems that arise out of this change. The first is that 70 campuses and people are shit out of luck. Hillel had been accepting applications for the position for next year, and even encouraging us to recruit for more applicants (um, and outright lying to us at Professional Staff Conference... but that's something else altogether). All those people who were counting on the job for next year now have nothing. And all those Hillels who had fellows now have to totally rearrange their budgets to figure out if they can afford to hire somebody else. It's a messy situation.

and that's a wrap for today's rant, boys and girls.

In which I ramble about Jewish identity. or: an excerpt from my graduate school application statement of purpose

The concept of Jewish identity is changing. The award-winning documentary, “The Tribe,” puts forth the idea that every group has a number of sub-groups contained within itself. The Tribe refers specifically to the overarching group of The Jews, and contained within this group are all the different kinds of people who are identified as Jewish: Reform Jews, Orthodox Jews, Cultural Jews, Atheist Jews, Bacon-eating Jews, Blond-haired-blue-eyed Jews, Feminist Jews, etc. Although an individual may only choose to self-identify with one of these sub-groups, the message espoused by “The Tribe” is that any kind of self-identification whatsoever is a connecting factor to the group at large, and is seen as a tie to the polymorphous global Jewish community (and beyond that to the Human community).
The sentiment expressed by this important documentary is quite lovely. However, there are several rather practical implications that arise from this very real model of self-identity: the Jewish community is fragmented by all these divisions; people may describe themselves in a multitude of ways, but in actuality have no corresponding, physical sub-community with which to participate; individuals who relate to less orthodox modes of identity feel alienated by larger community groups; people who are seeking content are often met with fluff (a good example of this is Heeb magazine, which is supposed to be a publication offering alternatives to the “traditional” views of Judaism, but instead prints articles about bagels and lox, leaving a rather hollow impression of Judaism) and feel dissatisfied and further distanced.
A number of social factors have contributed to changing avenues of identity and the correlating issues associated with community. Because of integration into a general American society, second and third generation Jewish-Americans offer their children little in the way of Jewish education, or are themselves estranged from Jewish communal organizations. The direction of the general American society which these Jews are so closely tied is also clearly impactful, in terms of identity: American culture teaches a very specific mixture of suspicion, pride, and aloofness, which is often prohibitive of real community building, content, and connection.
I do not believe that there is any one real solution to these types of issues, except to expect that Jewish organizations must realize these trends in the wider population and begin to respond. It is clear to me that many Jewish communal organizations cling to one historical framework, which often does not allow room for flexibility. Part of the solution must include changes in the educational systems of such organization—if children have positive experiences, hopefully they will not migrate to the periphery of the community. As well, Jewish organizations must adapt and embrace a new understanding of what this shift in identity really means. Certainly, Jewish community cannot continue to operate in the same traditional manner without risking complete societal irrelevance and antiquation.

what time is it?

It's time to move on.

I feel like I already have a foot out the door. I have worked and worked and worked-- my last post was about a meaningful experience, but let me tell you there have been many many negative experiences. I've learned a lot about what I'm looking for in a job, let's just say that...

I've applied to graduate school. Yay me! I applied to three schools (one is a joint program), to programs in Jewish communal service. I think one of the things that I've learned is that I'm really interested in management and policy: how these Jewish organizations work, how they treat their employees, and how they function in the community at large. I really do not want to be a gopher anymore; all I do is schlepp and shop and carry and cater. The structure of Hillel, and of many other Jewish organizations, is such that there is an incredibly high turn over rate. Young, idealistic college graduates, like me, are brought into these organizations, and then paid $22,000 a year to work 50 hours a week (plus) doing highly stressful and emotional work. They burn out after one or two years. I'm burned out now-- I would NEVER do this job for another year, not for all the MJEs in the world. Maybe it's time to reconsider the value of operating an organization in this manner.

I really hope I get into graduate school. I also really hope I get some money to go... Let's just say that $22,000 a year wasn't a hypothetical salary.

MJE

A lot of jargon gets tossed around in the Hillel world. As a JCSC Fellow, I constantly hear one term in particular: MJE. What is an MJE, you ask? It stands for "meaningful Jewish experience." Psshht, that sounds like a bunch of bologna if I ever heard.. a bunch of bologna. Meaningful Jewish experience. That seriously could be anything. Basically, the idea is that through my efforts, I will help the students I work with connect to Judaism on some level, any level they're comfortable with, and they will then have some kind of MJE; also, the experience of simply helping students arrive at their own MJEs will be an MJE for me. That's the idea.

I have to say, every once in a while an MJE sneaks up on me. Here I am, minding my own business and trying to just get everything done on time and done well, and something small will happen (students will have a good time at a program, a good conversation happens, students confide in me, etc) and I'll think, "holy cannoli, batman." It's like all my grief and stress, and pinching headaches, and driving around this city like a madwoman, eventually add up to these random experiences, these feelings of happiness and meaning and connection. Even though I'm often upset and terribly stressed, I sometimes realize why it is that I put up with all this other stuff: simply put, it can be meaningful and is significant to me and the people with whom I work. It matters. And when it hits you, even if it's just one moment, it is shocking and powerful.

I've been having stress headaches again this semester, and I was feeling particularly agitated this afternoon because my new co-worker doesn't have her business credit card yet, and we had two separate Shabbat dinners planned for tonight, so I was the only one to drive around and pick up all the food (chicken (ya, I had to get the meat!), kugel, potatoes, salad and veggies, wine, soda, paper goods, brownies, challah, the prayer books, calendars, name cards, etc) all by myself. I had to go get everything before the kosher stores close (on Friday afternoon, that's about 2 or 3), bring it back to Hillel and unpack everything, and then later come back and reheat everything, pack it up again, and bring it to where it needed to go. And I was pissed. Oh yes I was.

I was in charge of a Shabbat dinner on one of the campuses nearby. I set everything up, and then I noticed that instead of the 20-ish people I was expecting, we had almost twice that amount. We all sat together for a brief Kabbalat Shabbat service, and I heard all these voices singing, laughing, and explaining. I saw people helping their friends to follow along with the right passage. I saw new faces, people I had not yet met. And I couldn't help that MJE feeling, despite that I had felt a lot of stress (and anger!) earlier in the day thinking about the nitty-gritties. This is meaningful for the students who came, and it was most certainly meaningful for me. And even though this moment will pass and tomorrow I'll be cursing about my job again, right now I feel content. It's for the moments like these that I put up with the stress.

Not to say that my job should be this ridiculously stressful. Because it REALLY shouldn't be. Goodness.

the board meeting of death

Let me first say that I am not a master of my facial reactions-- when I'm shocked, appalled, and utterly confounded, you can usually tell. That being said, you can understand that it took more than a little will power to tone down my reactions to the ridiculous 2 hour board of directors meeting that occurred yesterday. I'm not sure if was a full moon or what, but all these people were seriously out for blood. I know that people generally do like to hear themselves talk, but this was a whole other thing; these people actually refused to listen to anything anybody else had to say. Here's a sample of the debate:

President of the Board: you have all been doing a bad job!
lay leader x: how can you say that? I've always done it this way and I raised this much money and I don't want to do more work.
President of the Board: no, you're supposed to raise money and it's all your fault.
lay leader x: how can you say that? I've always done it this way and I raised this much money and I don't want to do more work.
President of the Board: no, you're supposed to raise money and it's all your fault.

ad infinitum. Seriously.

Besides the annoyingness, I have a few other thoughts:

1. Money really sucks. When people start thinking in terms of numbers, they think, "we spend this much money, this many students come to programs." The only things considered at all are expense. Nobody thinks about the vision of the organization or the quality of experience we offer to students. I understand that a non-profit still has to be run like a business, it obviously can't spend money it doesn't have, BUT the driving purpose of this organization is NOT money. It plays a part, but it cannot be the central focus. At the board meeting, not one single person was interested in the mission of this organization or how it can better reach and serve its student populations. Somebody dared to ask, "if only 5 students show up to a program, is it worth it?" YES! Undeniably yes it is worth it. If I, as an engagement professional, can successfully engage just one student, than yes, the whole damn thing is worth it! How else is the Jewish community ever going to survive? There is a veritable sea of Jews out there who don't self-identify as Jewish and who aren't at all connected, culturally or otherwise. And if one, five, or ten people are able to create connections because of the job that we do, then the expense of it all is absolutely worth it.

2. You MUST invest in the future. If we want to be relevant and pertinent to this generation, then we have to develop programs and strategies to reach them. And that costs money. That's the fact of it. You can't go about charging people for a religious connection-- they'll never ever step foot in the door if that's the case. And frankly, it's completely ridiculous to suggest that. I was talking to JewishGal about this yesterday and she made an excellent argument: at NO point in history has the younger generation been responsible for finding their own religious education or connection. It is the task of the older generations to provide this connection. And for some reason, now, we've sort of just been dumped by the older generations to fend for ourselves. So, seriously, raise some money and support the organizations that will create and foster community. And if you don't, then shut up and deal with the consequences (assimilation, etc).

I'm sure there's more. I'm pretty tired, though. So that's it.

are teachers actually dumb, or is it just a religious school thing?

I just finished 3 hours of mandatory Religious School bologna. The theme of this teacher inservice was, "how to integrate the arts into your classroom." Not only was it a total snoozefest (OH MY GOODNESS, who the hell thinks up this stuff?), but it was also mostly a waste of time. It makes me really frightened about the kind of education we as a community are offering. I was pretty sure, sitting there listening to the head of the religious school drone on and on about the importance of engagement and puppets, that my brain was literally minutes away from completely atrophying. Everything said during the whole program was, I should HOPE, completely self-evident. Really, I have to explain the project to the class? I thought I could just throw some felt and googly eyes at them and see what happens.

The other thing that really grinds my gears is that, while it all seemed totally obvious to me, every second somebody was arguing: "no, I think if you tell them what to do then they won't be creative and just copy you," blah blah blah. I'm not sure if people just like listening to themselves, or if they really just like arguing, or what-- but seriously? Seriously! Is all of this so crazy that we have to argue over it? Also, people don't know the material! We were talking about this wire-project to create sculptures of Hebrew letters, and like half the people in the room couldn't read Hebrew, like, at all. We had to enact certain Bible stories, and they got those wrong, too. And these are the flipping TEACHERS!!!?

People like this make religious school a total waste of time for the kids they're "teaching."