Isaiah Berlin (Princeton University Press 240 pages, $24.95, 2000) Contemporary Jewish life, torn by factionalism that turns complementary polarities into warring polarizations, has much to learn from the balanced wisdom of the celebrated historian of ideas, Sir Isaiah Berlin. Bolstered by vast erudition, Berlin challenges the long prevailing absolutistic conceit in western thought: that there … More »
Meditation on Risk
Reena Bernards On a sunset cruise in San Francisco Bay a few years ago, I looked out over the edge of the boat and saw the Golden Gate Bridge gracefully slung across the water. I mentioned to a few friends that I thought bridges were the only human-made objects that actually improved the beauty of … More »
Risk vs. Reward: Can We Afford to Fund Young People’s Innovations?
Brian Gaines Can young innovators make a difference in today’s Jewish community? Is the Jewish com-munity ready for such innovation? Is the community ready to risk its resources to find out? It appears more and more that today’s Jewish leaders are increasingly answering these questions with an emphatic “yes!” Here’s why. Twenty- and thirty-year-old American … More »
Portrait of the Artist as Risk-Taker
Rebecca Goldstein To take risks means to subject yourself to forces that are not entirely in your control. After all, if you could control them, there would be no risk. A risky action then introduces into your life a certain element of pure passivity. You open yourself up to being affected - how significantly is … More »
The Roots of Secular Humanistic Judaism
Steven Greenberg Seven years ago I wrote an anonymous article called “Gayness and God.” Then I was the closeted Rabbi Yaakov Levado. Today I am, as far as I know, the first openly gay Orthodox rabbi. While I have been out to family and friends for nearly a decade, last March I decided that it … More »
A Feminist Ethic of Risk
Sharon D. Welch (Fortress Press, 180 pages, $18.00, 2000) “Risk” is not just about specific actions fraught with danger. Sharon Welch’s “ethic of risk” is captured beautifully by the Adrienne Rich poem “Natural Resources” which appears in her book: it means seeing all that needs to be repaired, acting without the illusion of certainty or … More »
Risk-Taking and Contemporary Jewish Communal Life
Jeffrey R. Solomon The genesis of this piece emerges from the editor of Sh’ma reading this list posted in my office and wondering about risk at the top of such a list. Derived from the writing of Tom Peters, co-author of In Search of Excellence and other books analyzing management practices, the list often piques … More »