Hundreds Dream Big for Jewish Education at the 2nd Jewish Futures Conference

Over 400 people attended this year’s Jewish Futures Conference live at the JFNA General Assembly in Denver on Monday, in addition to a few hundred people who logged on to watch the live stream, and countless more who followed and participated in the #JewishFutures  twitter stream.   In partnership with JESNA’s Lippman Kanfer Institute, in 2 years we have successfully cemented Jewish Education at the forefront of the GA, the largest cross community Jewish gathering in the country.  After hearing several knockout speakers and the winners of this year’s Jewish Futures video contest, participants left knowing that we are not passive recipients of our tradition because we are active participants in creating our own Jewish tradition.  While the conference achieved many of its goals, David Bryfman and Jon Woocher have opened up a conversation on our website as to how they would like to improve the conference for the future, including for the first ever NY based Jewish Futures Conference to take place this June. 

Memorable Sound Bites included:

• Ben Wiener on Jewish Young Leadership – “We don’t meet, we tweet”.
• Mimi Levine, 17 years old – “I come from a warm Jewish family but I still need to experience Judaism in a way that is meaningful to me personally."
• Rabbi Shai Held - "We need an end to vicarious Judaism, where people watch other Jews be Jewish for them"
• Chris Lehmann on teaching children - “Do you teach physics or do you teach kids physics? We need to teach children not subjects.”

o Follow the (ongoing) twitter stream here.
o Read David and Jon’s thoughts on the 2011 conference here.
o Learn about Ben Wiener, Jewish Futures contest winner, and his vision for the Jewish Future here.