This week Rabbi Brad Hirschfield was the keynote speaker at Lomed, an annual conference sponsored by the Board of Jewish Education and UJA Federation of New York for 37 congregations including rabbis, educators, and lay leaders from the New York area. The conference brought together 200 participants for this interdenominational initiative.

In his presentation, Rabbi Hirschfield spoke about the challenge and opportunity for Jewish education, given the current American spiritual landscape. He pointed out that while people remain intensely interested in spiritual connection and religious thought and practice, they do so in the context of understanding life as ongoing journeys.

Challenging the group to think in new ways, he talked about whether or not Jewish learning is understood as oxygen or formaldehyde. “Is its purpose to create and sustain life, including ways that are surprising and sometimes unconformable, or to preserve a particular understanding of Jewish thought and practice?” Concluding, he asked the participants to think about the “utility” Judaism serves in people’s lives, and what kind of “tool box” they can help provide.

By Judy Epstein from Clal