“Innovation is a sacred task and technology a sacred means enabling us to repair this world.”
RABBI IRWIN KULA, President, National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership (CLAL)
Innovation
In their 2003 book Futurizing the Jews ,Tsvi Bisk and Moshe Dror established an innovative platform for a new paradigm of Jewish life in the 21st century and beyond. Among key strategies they proposed and which Tsvi Bisk furthers in his The Optimistic Jew are:
- “A space age Jewish civilization must be based, first and foremost, on the optimal self-fulfillment and self-realization of the individual”
- “That Diaspora financial contributions to Israel characterized Israel-Diaspora relations was a necessary phase of the relationship, and that in the pre-state era and early years of statehood such contributions produced astounding results. This approach, however, has now run its course.”
- “A mature 21st century Zionism would advocate as one of its central tenets “the reconstruction of the American Diaspora” while discontinuing the use of barren slogans pertaining to the “negation of the Diaspora”.
- “As the largest, wealthiest, most powerful Diaspora Jewish community in the world, American Jewry must redefine itself and play a special role in the creation of a new Judaism and a new Zionism.
- “We should be developing a United Jewish Appeal of human resources enabling educators, scientists, engineers, artists, media personnel, and managers to contribute their skills and not only their money.”
- “What can we take from the cultural resources of the Jewish tradition that will enable us to creatively confront this reality and provide spiritual added value to the modern Jew in the 21st century? The answer to this question is the key to a flourishing and meaningful Jewish way of life.”
The innovations Bisk and Dror propose involve Jewish Identity as a set of value-add elements rather than obligations, and that we shift from a charity focus to an economic investment focus. In our cyberspace age, U.S. based Jewish professionals might contract themselves to Israel based companies, earning even as they contribute to Israel’s economy!
Project B
Chapter 7 Reinventing Israel-Diaspora Relations 89
Chapter 10 The Future of Jewish-Christian Relations
Tsvi (Howard) Bisk;Moshe Dror. Futurizing the Jews: Alternative Futures for Meaningful Jewish Existence in the 21st Century (Kindle Locations 12-13). Kindle Edition.
Project A
Futurizing:
Chapter 1 I The Future of Jewish Identity 155
Chapter 12 The Cyber World We Live In 169
Chapter 13 The Future of Jewish Spirituality 179
Chapter 14 The Future of Jewish Learning
Chapter 15 The Jewish Community in Cyberspace
Tsvi (Howard) Bisk;Moshe Dror. Futurizing the Jews: Alternative Futures for Meaningful Jewish Existence in the 21st Century (Kindle Location 17). Kindle Edition.