Culture, Identity, Politics

The future of New Jew Culture

Speakers' Lab

Jewschool founder Mobius aka Dan Sieradski is part of the panel at this very interesting event at the 14th Street Y on “The Future of  Jewish Culture.”  A full press kit is here.  A quick look at the panel shows it covers not only various sectors but geographies and aims to address a significant amount of ground in an evening:

“After a decade of flourishing Jewish creativity, major Jewish cultural enterprises are being forced to scale
back operations or close entirely. Using recent funding cuts as a springboard to examine the most pressing
issues facing new Jewish arts and culture, “Now What?” addresses:

  • New perspectives on American Jewish identity
  • Waning support for quality Jewish art and culture
  • Strategies for cultivating Jewish art and culture in the future”

May 15, 2012  7pm,  14th Street Y, 344 East 14th Street (between 1st and 2nd Ave.), New York, NY 10003
If you’re in the area and are interested, sign up here.  Naturally, this is a subject that deserves and requires significantly more time than a single evening. The need to advocate for, plan and implement a national Jewish Cultural Policy could be the  focus of a week long conference with representatives from major communal institutions and umbrella organizations, local presenting arms and various elements from artists and performers to independent organizations.   It could also be a great panel to recreate at the General Assembly because the message points need to be heard by people who hold the purse strings and those who put the money in that purse
Michael Dorf has attempted similar efforts at International Jewish Presenters Association Schmooze conferences which tried to create a Jewish SXSW on the heels of the annual APAP Conference.  FJC did a bit of planning and even implementation with its New Jewish Culture Network.  All of these have been significant achievements but none go far enough.  We need buy-in from establishment organizations and entities, these efforts fall short.
As someone who runs a Jewish cultural initiative, I’m very interested in this and am excited that its taking place.  I’d be interested to know who’s attending and if any funders or folks from the institutional community will be within earshot.  And of course, as a non-New Yorker, I’m glad to see there’s three other regional centers represented on the panel.
Cultural folks- what are your thoughts?

One thought on “The future of New Jew Culture

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