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.