Our 2017-18 CONNECT Cohort on Anti-Semitism, Israel, and Navigating the Social Justice Arena
This CONNECT cohort, which included Jews, non-Jews, people of color, and Jews of color, explored the roots of anti-Semitism, the history of Jewish social activism in the U.S., the ambivalence social justice oriented Jews and non-Jews feel about Israel, and how this is all playing out in the social justice arena today. We explored the history of blacks and Jews in America, the perceptions of Jews by black leaders like James Baldwin, and the role that Israel played in the evolution of that relationship.
Connect: An Interracial Discussion on Race in America
Our 2016-17 founding CONNECT cohort
Housed as a collective at Sixth & I, our community of young professionals from different racial, ethnic, and religious backgrounds met monthly for two hours from January to June. Each month we read and discussed a chapter from White Rage by Carol Anderson.
We learned facts from our nation's history to help put our current racial issues in context, explored the roots of racialized violence and inequality in America, shared personal experiences that related to what we were reading, and connected our discussions to current racial tensions. CONNECT served as a vehicle to bring together thoughtful, analytical peers to build bridges of understanding in an interracial setting.
We learned facts from our nation's history to help put our current racial issues in context, explored the roots of racialized violence and inequality in America, shared personal experiences that related to what we were reading, and connected our discussions to current racial tensions. CONNECT served as a vehicle to bring together thoughtful, analytical peers to build bridges of understanding in an interracial setting.
Our 2014-15 Cohort on Jewish Identity
When we formed a new cohort in 2014, we chose as a group to focus on Jewish identity. We explored the Pew study on Jewish Americans from 2013 and explored complementary scholarly views on Jewish identity such as Bethamie Horowitz's qualitative, in-depth studies of identity. Some of us chose to publish our pieces in this collection below. In addition to our published reflections, we had our first public share-out and also a cohort retreat.
| minyanofthinkers_reflections2015.pdf |
Our 2012-13 Cohort on Intermarriage and Conversion
The Minyan of Thinkers started out as an intra-Jewish dialogue group, and we dug into some contentious issues facing the Jewish community. When we first formed, in 2012, we brought together a cohort focused on the topic of intermarriage and conversion. We explored data from the National Jewish Population Survey and two scholarly pieces exploring intermarriage and Jewish engagement. We had single people, Jewish couples, interfaith couples, couples with someone who had converted, religious Jews, and secular cultural Jews.
