Dear Shefa Chevreh,
Wow!!! Todah to Rabbi Mark B Greenspan's incisive "Marching Orders: A Tale of Order and Anarchy!" (click the title to read the post on the shefanetwork blog).
Wow!!! Todah to Rabbi Mark B Greenspan's incisive "Marching Orders: A Tale of Order and Anarchy!" (click the title to read the post on the shefanetwork blog).
Some of us have been part of ShefaNetwork since its inception in December of 2004, we've watched the evolution of our own conversation, how it sometimes has (and sometimes hasn't) influenced the conversation happening in the Global Masorti Movement. Today, 430 Conservative/Masorti early childhood educators, hillel professionals, USY'ers, Ramahniks, KOACH'niks, USCJ staff, JTS/AJU professionals, clergy (etc!) participate in this urgent conversation. The newest ShefaJournal, including Rabbi Greenspan's Drasha and many of the comments will be released next week, joining its predecessors, all available on the ShefaNetwork blog. These topics have all been resonant in our Movement, and the responses are true snapshots of our community, sometimes seeing more clearly as a grassroots network than the Movement establishment.
This leads to tension, but if the Conservative Movement has a future, and I am dedicated to this happening, it will be because of voices like Rabbi Greenspan's, and like those who in previous journals discussed general definitions of Conservative/Masorti Judaism, arguments surrounding the use of instruments on Shabbat, questions of kashrut, FOUR volumes on USCJ (one - two - three - four), the need for a seriously funded Masorti/Conservative college movement, and a strategies for a cohesive technology for Masorti/Conservative "messaging" in a digital age.
And so, Chevreh, over the last nine years, we have watched the ebb and flow of conversation. The mission of the ShefaNetwork has never changed: To bring together dreamers from within the Conservative/Masorti Movement and to give their dreams an audible voice. May that mission ring true and loudly for us all!
Kol Tuv,
Menachem
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Rabbi Menachem Creditor
