Rabbi Shai Gluskin on the rabbinical statement on Gaza – ‘We are learning. We aren’t going away.’

Thanks for all the support. And as Brant said, we are finding our voice. I'm committed to start blogging on this topic and Brant will undoubtedly continue at his blog Rav Shalom.

I do want to make it absolutely clear that we were not "muzzled" or otherwise shutdown in any way. Brant and I share the brunt of the responsibility for this not working out the way we envisioned. But we learned a lot for next time.

Our main learning challenge is that we were novice community organizers. This is what we need to do better next time:

1. Give perspective signatories a lot more time. Rabbis often lead synagogues or organizations. The line between speaking for yourself and speaking for your community is a very delicately negotiated one. Rabbis moving too quickly on this are not treating their organizations or synagogues with due process and respect. In my case I'm transitioning out of earning my living as a rabbi. I started a web development/strategy business over a year ago and will be full time in that on 2/1/09. Part of what I like about this transition is that, ironically, my rabbinic voice will be freer. But there is no question that I'm taking much less of a risk than my colleagues (including Brant) in speaking out like this.


2. Have the initial list of signatories spread out evenly between the movements. Brant and I are graduates of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College as 80% of the other rabbis/rabbinical students were on the list. Those are the folks we know best. But with better networking over a longer period time, we would have found many more Reform, Renewal and Conservative rabbis to balance the list. Given the Recon dominated list, it is no surprise that we got push-back (not muzzling) from our Reconstructionist colleagues. The skewed list can make it look like we are trying to speak for our movement without engaging in any due process at our movement institutions. Next time our initial list must include a balanced list.


3. Include more people in the drafting process. We probably could have avoided some of the drafting hassles had we recruited an initial core group based on a few bullet points but then had that group do the writing.

It might seem weird that I'm talking community-organizing fine points in the wake of Gaza having been significantly violated. It would seem like the impulse to stand up to blatant violations of human rights would have been enough to overcome the poor planning of our endeavor.

But one thing we can learn from Obama for America was that the fine points count the most. Hillary was gloating about taking all the big states while Obama's team was hatching delegates one at time with a clear plan for victory.

We are learning. We aren't going away.

Again, thanks to all your readers for the many emails and comments of support.