And they saw the God of Israel: Under His feet there was the likeness of a pavement of sapphire, like the very sky for purity.
—Exodus 24:10
Guide to Hosting a Sapir Salon
We know you love a great conversation. We do, too.
That’s why we’re inviting you to host your own SAPIR Salon and join a like-minded community of different-minded thinkers.
How? It’s easy. After the release of each issue, gather a few friends for thought-provoking and meaningful conversations around the essays featured in the journal. You can host one in your living room, at a nearby park, or anywhere where you feel most comfortable having a rich discussion. We invite you to join SAPIR Salons Facebook Group to create or join a community near you.
Use the guide below and let the good conversations roll!
Interested in Starting a Salon? We want to hear about it.
Be sure to email us at salons@sapirjournal.org with 1) a photo of your SAPIR Salon in-action and 2) an insightful takeaway from the conversation. We will feature a select number of submissions in one of our newsletters soon after the issue’s launch. And if you’re one of the first 15 to submit a photo and takeaway, we will send you a SAPIR mug or SAPIR water bottle.
Recommended articles to get your conversation started
- Has Judaism become too convenient—and if so, what have we gained and what have we lost? Where in your own life might you have shifted from “doing” to “consuming” Jewish life?
- Taylor is suggesting that Judaism has long been an “embodied practice” – a melding of idea and action. Do you find that being physically engaged (through, for example, communal prayer, baking Challah, building a Sukkah) is necessary for feeling connected to your Jewish practice?
- Which of the six domains (Building, Making, Wearing, Marking, Giving, Voicing) feels most alive in your life right now? Which one has atrophied—and why?
- If Jewish institutions measured participation instead of attendance, how would your own Jewish life look different? What is one practice you could reclaim—this month—that would put Judaism more fully back into your hands?
- Do you agree with Teitelbaum’s contention that we’re facing a real crisis of masculinity in Jewish life?
- Have gains in gender equality unintentionally left some boys or men behind, or is that a false narrative? In your own experience, have you ever felt displaced—or empowered—by these shifts?
- Think back to the experience of watching a young man in your life become a Bar Mitzvah: did it feel like a transformation or a performance? What would have made it more formative? What did the process look like before the “event” and what followed it?
- How much agency can we give to boys and young men in this journey? How much can we set the table for them to have the best chances of succeeding?
- What do you think about Teitelbaum’s suggestion that we rebuild the Bar Mitzvah ritual, moving it from a “finish line of Jewish childhood” to “an initiation ritual into Jewish manhood” that involves prolonged engagement through adolescence and input from the community? Should there be a version of this for girls as well?
- What do you make of the author’s assessment that “social acceptance in America” and “maintaining strong communal ties with a global Jewish family” is increasingly becoming a zero-sum dynamic? Is it possible to sustain both? Why or why not?
- What would it actually mean, in practice, for mainstream Jewish institutions to embrace the MENA Sephardic “preservationist” approach described by Bitton? What are the trade-offs and what are the opportunities
- Bitton enumerates institutions (schools, synagogues, JCCs, and summer camps) that American Jewry built over generations – often, though, at a cost: they made it too easy for many Jewish families to outsource their Judaism. If that diagnosis is right, is this a reversible trend? And what might we need to do to restore parents and grandparents as the primary transmitters of tradition?
- Bitton proposes four reforms: 1) reinvest in the Jewish family; 2) adopt communal boundaries that follow the logic of family; 3) take a less self-conscious approach to spiritual life; and 4) cultivate a thicker skin, a renewed American Jewish confidence. Of these four, which one(s) do you think you might embrace, and how?
- Joshua Foer argues that moonshots begin with identifying something “the Jewish world lacks but badly needs,” even at the risk of total failure. In your community, what specific Jewish problem today rises to that level? Alternatively, which widely discussed challenges do not rise to that level, even if they feel pressing?
- Do you agree with William Foster’s suggestion that we are living through one of “the greatest period(s) of innovation in Jewish civil society”? What are examples of truly successful creative Jewish initiatives? And how can we tell whether today’s explosion of Jewish innovation represents genuine progress, or simply more activity?
- What are the potential consequences – positive and negative – of big failures? Do we build individual and communal capacity to make big bets and build big projects? Do we cannibalize existing institutions and mindshare?
- Here’s a thought exercise: Think of an existing Jewish initiative or institution and then consider: If this were proposed today, would it find sufficient funding—or would it be dismissed as too risky? Why?
- As America marks its 250th anniversary, what Jewish moonshot might you seek to bring into this world to ensure a thriving American Jewish future over the next five years? What about the next 50 years?
Resources for Past Issues
