We’ve all heard the expression, ‘everything old is new again,’ and in this era of growing ennui and rising cynicism about most things, it is amazing when we have the opportunity to flip the script and create experiences where everything genuinely new is also old, in the best sense of the word. That is precisely what Clal is doing in Rochester, NY.
Clal has deep and old roots in Rochester. In fact, one of our 3 founders was Neil Norry, of blessed memory, local and national lay leader, and father of current board member, with his own track record of both local and national leadership, Lewis Norry, and Rabbis Without Borders alum, Hillel Norry. So Clal in Rochester is “old.” And Clal in Rochester is also new.
Last night, I had the pleasure of leading a program which is just one part of a new and visionary multi-year project in partnership with the Rochester Jewish Federation, leading communal foundations and not-for-profit institutions both within and beyond the organized Jewish community. A genuinely new approach to building the Rochester of the future, with a genuinely new generation of rising leaders.
Last night, 30 rising leaders gathered in a room, thought expansively, spoke frankly, and reimagined boldly–how to create collaborative relationships and ventures in an era of ever-increasing polarization. And frankly, in Rochester, as it is pretty much everywhere, it all comes down to three words: trust, trust, and trust. Together we considered trust — how to create it, how to nurture it, and how to sustain it over time.
Trust is created, nurtured, and sustained when people and communities privilege relationships over rules, when they are animated by covenants more than contracts, and when they build based on shared values more than shared practices.
Building on both the roots of the Rochester/Clal relationship going back almost 50 years and ancient wisdom that is more than 3,000 years old, a new generation engaged the present and imagined a future that was not only more collaborative and creative but one in which they have new opportunities to lead with new meaning and purpose. Together, we began to genuinely feel, in the words of an old spiritual, “that we are the ones we’ve been waiting for,” and that is how everything is both old and new again.
Listed for many years in Newsweek as one of America’s “50 Most Influential Rabbis” and recognized as one of our nation’s leading “Preachers and Teachers,” by Beliefnet.com, Rabbi Brad Hirschfield serves as the President of Clal–The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, a training institute, think tank, and resource center nurturing religious and intellectual pluralism within the Jewish community, and the wider world, preparing people to meet the biggest challenges we face in our increasingly polarized world.
An ordained Orthodox rabbi who studied for his PhD and taught at The Jewish Theological Seminary, he has also taught the University of Pennsylvania, where he directs an ongoing seminar, and American Jewish University. Rabbi Brad regularly teaches and consults for the US Army and United States Department of Defense, religious organizations — Jewish and Christian — including United Seminary (Methodist), Yeshivat Chovevei Torah (Modern Orthodox) Luther Seminary (Lutheran), and The Jewish Theological Seminary (Conservative) — civic organizations including No Labels, Odyssey Impact, and The Aspen Institute, numerous Jewish Federations, and a variety of communal and family foundations.
Hirschfield is the author and editor of numerous books, including You Don’t Have To Be Wrong For Me To Be Right: Finding Faith Without Fanaticism, writes a column for Religion News Service, and appears regularly on TV and radio in outlets ranging from The Washington Post to Fox News Channel. He is also the founder of the Stand and See Fellowship, which brings hundreds of Christian religious leaders to Israel, preparing them to address the increasing polarization around Middle East issues — and really all currently polarizing issues at home and abroad — with six words, “It’s more complicated than we know.”