June 29, 2011 | 9:02 am

The Next Big? Jewish Idea?

Posted by Pini Herman

A new Jewish Paradigm?

The LA Jewish Federation is about to announce the winner of The Next Big Jewish Idea. 

Innovation, innovation, innovation is the mantra.  Jewish social service agencies and providers in LA are having their historical funding from the Federation reduced, greatly reduced or eliminated.

Bob Goldfarb, president of the Center for Jewish Culture and Creativity,  puts innovation in context in “Innovation and Responsibilty”

Whom does Jewish innovation serve? It’s a question that needs closer attention as the sector continues to grow. According to a recent report, The Jewish Innovation Economy, this sector “is more focused on Jewish identity and belonging, along with religious expression, than on social services and large-scale institutional action.” That’s markedly different from Federations, which typically have a primary commitment to caring for Jews in need.

I fear, that the current paradigm shift is: Rather than serve the needy, the innovators see themselves, and people they know and are like them, as in need of the organizations they are developing to actualize where they see their place in the world.

Our LA Jewish Federation is marching bravely into the new Jewish Innovation world as Jay Sanderson, Federation president, heralded his view of The Jewish Innovation Economy study.

Goldfarb describes the findings of The Jewish Innovation Economy

These data confirm the emergence of a new class of Jews defined by disproportionate access to communal resources. As several attest in the study, they often use their advantages to pursue their own interests. One speaks of “the drive to create a Jewish community that I would want to participate in myself.”

Goldfarb points out the possibility of a reverse Robin Hood.  Resources from services to the needy being diverted to the well-off.

If the innovation sector displaces older communal structures, the question of whom it serves becomes even more urgent. Here is a sector spending $200,000,000 a year on projects directed by a privileged group of leaders, yet with social services and human services glaringly underrepresented. This would have been a good time to correct that imbalance by recommending incentives to take care of the helpless and the needy among us.

Pini Herman is immediate past President of the Movable Minyan a lay-lead independent congregation in the 3rd Street area. .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) pini00003@gmail.com

June 27, 2011 | 11:14 pm

Facebook - a Jewish Home Away From Home

Posted by Pini Herman

Fruit stands next?

The big survey story in June was the Foreskin Protectors swarming the Demographic Duo circumcision survey and thus revealing a bit about their lifetsyle and ethics. Nothing surprising. A few loud extremists in a media echo chamber. Foreskin Protectors to the Fore in Jewish Journal Blog Survey and Superiors” Court our Protection from Circumcisions were the workhorses of that topic.

At this rate of response, I would have to leave on the 7th billion man blog on for another week to get a desired forty respondents on its survey.  The majority of sentiment is that it is unlikely that Judaism will be popularly adopted in the world.  The minority view was that Judaism is somewhat likely to gain popular adoption, in order of likelihood in Mexico, South America, Africa, Russia and finally China. See Survey.

A Mexican conversion trip log by Rabbi Daniel Mehlman put bones and sinew on the phenomenon. No missionary work there, the potential Jews by choice are pretty much shunned by the traditional post-Conquistador Mexican Jewish community.

We’re decreasing population-wise in the past 10 years was the consensus of the few Jews who responded to Left out of the Picture, Looking at Our Navels blog.

Will Facebook Save Israel / American-Jewish Relations? I came out against sir and lady bountiful exotic social service tourism and railed against the lack of attention to local needs. On the survey only one in five hadn’t been to Israel and predictably the majority who had traveled to Israel had done so privately, not as part of an organized Jewish group.  Most people who had been to Israel acquired Israeli Facebook “friends.” Most friended Israelis met on private trips, but a fifth did so on organized trips.

Again, as in two non-survey blogs, I took the Jewish Federation to task for not undertaking a population survey since 1996, 15 years ago.

My foray into the death penalty only elicited respondents who were for the death penalty, all three of them in the The $308 million You Saved Calfornia Taxpayers

In Facebook’s Goodness Shines Upon Jews. Community awareness is big.  Only a tenth of respondents didn’t know the names of neighbors who lived close to them.  This is not Sweden.  Two-thirds of responders were users of Facebook.  Almost like Jewish homeownership rates.

2 to 3 hours on Facebook on the last 24 hours was the largest group of respondents with only a tenth spending less than an hour in the past day.

Pini Herman serves as President of the Movable Minyan a lay-lead independent congregation in the 3rd Street area. .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) pini00003@gmail.com

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June 26, 2011 | 12:18 am

Big in Facebook, Jews lose face on National Geographic’s 7th Billion Typical Man

Posted by Pini Herman

Can you locate a Jewish zit?

Jews may not be increasing, everybody else seems to be. Minority babies in the U.S. are now aborn the majority. That was old news in LA hospitals for years.  Its lucky for us in LA, because in a quarter of all US counties there are more coffins than cradles now.

My world is largely defined by my monthly dose of National Geographic Society (NGS) magazine.

Responses so far

While Jews are such a great presence on the virtual world of social networking sites, we were airbrushed off in the NGS March 2011 magazine graphic of the typical 7th billion man.  Jews could have rated a bit over 120 of the seven thousand little person figures that comprise this picture.

I’m looking for a Jewish mole on the face of the world at seven billion.  At least NGS could have given us a pimple.  Jews don’t even rate mention on the religion chart.

Our coreligionists have adopted some really cute Chinese baby girls. Now, with many Jewishly well educated, some may grow up to be the next Jewish Aimee Semple McPhersons of China.  As Sister Aimee said:

With God, I can do all things! But with God and you, and the people who you can interest, by the grace of God, we’re gonna cover the world!

Pini Herman serves as President of the Movable Minyan a lay-lead independent congregation in the 3rd Street area. .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

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June 24, 2011 | 4:31 pm

Circumcision Survey shows Intactivists Pretty Limp

Posted by Pini Herman

So far, what is in for this blog’s ongoing web survey,  is that Intactivists, or as I like to call them, the Foreskin Protectors have predictably skewed the survey the against circumcision.

What is surprising is the amount of zeal and energy some put into survey. During some periods exceeding over a fifty percent response rate of all who opened the link to the Demographic Duo blog.

Other than the actual responses, only the time of response is captured. I can describe the Foreskin Protector respondents as voting early and very often.  I wouldn’t be surprised if the same ethic probably applied to their signature gathering for the petitions to put their initiative on the ballot in Santa Monica and San Francisco. 

This is further evidence that this is a pretty small group. The Foreskin protectors have created a media tempest in a teapot.  I don’t foresee them gaining a lot of traction and getting very much popular support in the near term.  If Intactivists had more popular support, the swarm on this survey would have been greater. Melt the server, they didn’t.

Taken from the results spreadsheet: Of 180 responses so far, some lonely person probably put in an all-nighter with 27 responses (15 percent of the total) coming in one night from 9 pm to about 7 am the next morning :

6/21/2011 20:40:11
6/21/2011 21:00:17
6/21/2011 21:24:28
6/21/2011 21:26:36
6/21/2011 21:27:24
6/21/2011 22:08:15
6/21/2011 22:45:09
6/21/2011 23:45:12
6/22/2011 1:08:00
6/22/2011 1:35:50
6/22/2011 1:36:53
6/22/2011 1:37:28
6/22/2011 3:16:14
6/22/2011 3:44:14
6/22/2011 3:44:53
6/22/2011 3:45:06
6/22/2011 3:52:44
6/22/2011 3:59:47
6/22/2011 3:59:59
6/22/2011 4:15:49
6/22/2011 5:09:52
6/22/2011 5:22:57
6/22/2011 5:25:24
6/22/2011 5:34:09
6/22/2011 6:14:13
6/22/2011 6:17:52
6/22/2011 6:37:21
6/22/2011 6:42:01
6/22/2011 6:44:24

Pini Herman serves as President of the Movable Minyan a lay-lead independent congregation in the 3rd Street area.

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June 23, 2011 | 11:45 pm

Left out of the Picture, Looking at Our Navels

Posted by Pini Herman

We're in there somewhere.

Today’s LA Times lead article headlines a “strong increase” in the past decade in non-traditional families such as single parent families, unmarried partners and and same-sex partners.  Whats happening with the Jews? The census doesn’t capture information on religion because of strictures of Church/State separation.  That’s a good thing.

Whats bad is that the Jewish community has no idea of whether anything has changed in more than 14 years.  While Thomas Jefferson’s decennial US census creates a new vision of reality, current Jewish communal policy and planning is based on anecdotes and assumptions colored by Anetevka.

So, Jewish community, study something cheap and easy, say Jewish start-up organizations. All the information can be gathered from the Internet. No messy, time-consuming interviews with thousands of plain old people.

The trumpeted study of Jewish non-profit organizational start-ups found dearth of social service organizations among the start-ups featured in the survey. 

A study co-author Shawn Landres said,

Jews already do social service work quite well and the impact of a new start up might be limited. Second, although the new generation of Jewish start-ups might not be focusing on social service provision in their hometowns, many individuals and organizations are doing important work in the developing world.

It is more fun to get on an jet and be the photogenic exotic abroad and the brave returning hero at home.  Its more messy to deal with violent couple living nearby or the festering wounds that can’t find adequate treatment or facilities locally.

Its no wonder that the Jewish injunction is “The poor of your city, first.”  If no one ever looks, through an organized scientific survey, to see if there are such Jewish people around, then its easy to look elsewhere for challenges and sexier funding opportunities.

Federation President Jay Sanderson, who moderated the panel, said it would be difficult for start-ups to compete with larger organizations — like the one he leads — when it comes to courting donors.

I hope Sanderson dresses well and arrives in style when he goes acourtin’.

Pini Herman serves as President of the Movable Minyan a lay-lead independent congregation in the 3rd Street area.

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June 23, 2011 | 12:33 am

Morning Minyan Mortality Measure

Posted by Pini Herman

Just until the tenth person comes.

Sometimes a demographer doesn’t need a fancy survey to feel that the Jewish population is shifting.  The Jewish vitality of an area can often be judged if it’s morning minyans, prayer quorums, live. 

People die and mourning family members, as they recover, look for a minyan to say Kaddish.  Kaddish can traditionally only be recited within a quorum of ten Jews.. Males, if Orthodox, and all genders if Conservative or Reform.

You can see a perhaps dying Minyan from the street.  Someone in a tallit, a prayer shawl,  may be standing outside on the sidewalk intently sizing up the the Jewish and availability characteristics of passersby.  If they can snag a Jewish person before the eight or less others have to leave, then they’ve constituted a minyan.  The communal sigh of relief when the tenth person enters isn’t audible, but still palpable when the prayer leader continues the stalled service. 

This is especially critical on Monday and Thursday mornings (traditional village market days with lots of buying and selling Jews about) when Torah reading takes place, only in the presence of ten Jews.

The morning minyans in an Jewish area develop their own ecology.  In areas of robust Jewish population, the “shulI I wouldn’t set foot in”  often has the same starting time of a nearby mirror minyan, competing for the loyalty of the minyan goers.

When minyan goers thin out in Jewish areas,  start times become staggered. Cooperation and symbiosis may kick in.  If an acceptable nearby minyan isn’t formed, the earlier unsuccessful minyan, members can fulfill their minyan needs at a later minyan, that they also help complete.  Some later starting minyans send a member or two to an earlier nearby minyan with the understanding that early minyan members will go sit through a second morning service if needed.

In areas with declining Jewish populations, without cooperation, cordiality and mutual support, minyans may die out more quickly. Rabbis who won’t be seen on the dais with other rabbis may soon find themselves with failed minyans.

Then, there are “minyan factories.” In areas of really dense Jewish and Orthodox presence,  such as near the diamond districts of New York and Tel Aviv,  a few places with continuously forming minyans around the clock fill the needs the Jews for morning, afternoon and evening services.  If you find a minyan factory in LA, let me know.

Pini Herman serves as President of the Movable Minyan a lay-lead independent congregation in the 3rd Street area.

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June 21, 2011 | 9:11 pm

Foreskin Protectors to the Fore in Jewish Journal Blog Survey

Posted by Pini Herman

A new ritual for Foreskin Protectors.

Surgically glued to their screens, in front of a Jewish Journal Demographic Duo blog, the Foreskin Protectors had nothing better to do than to submit survey after survey.

Between 3:44 pm and 7:30 PM on Tuesday, June 21, 2011, the Circumcision Survey showed a response rate of about 50 percent, where 2-3 percent response is historically experienced. 

Predictably, their lab monkey-like lever pressing regarding circumcision was exclusively in the direction of female genital mutilation and something out of the dark ages.  As for the rapid up and down motions of their hands, it could have been used more pleasurably than survey taking, though I did notice some significant lulls.  It did keep them off the streets and away from the call-in programs, so the survey wasn’t useless.

I would imagine that regular readers who saw the results display saw something fishy when the Circumcision Survey skewed so radically away from the consensus of the Jewish community. 

The survey is still running, so if the Foreskin Protectors need to maintain their ritual, they are welcome to return to their devotions, courtesy of the Jewish community.

Pini Herman serves as President of the Movable Minyan a lay-lead independent congregation in the 3rd Street area.

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June 21, 2011 | 8:38 pm

The $308 million You Saved Calfornia Taxpayers

Posted by Pini Herman

You felt like murdering someone, but you didn’t do it and you didn’t end up on death row and then in the gas chamber. That simply may have saved everybody $308,000,000.  It cost us $308 million for each of the 13 executions carried out since the death penalty was reinstated in 1978.

American Jews rarely wind up facing death row. A Jewish soccer mom, Lara Lavi, does own Death Row Records, recently catty-corner from the LA Jewish Federation building.

Lara Lavi bought out Death Row’s Suge Knight, imprisoned, later paroled and who promptly created mayhem post release.

The Knight experience brings to mind that in a few months the streets of Southern California are going to be filled with returners.  About 25,000 recently paroled inmates, and thousands of young military veterans will be back in Southern California.  The impending military draw-down of troops exiting Afghanistan, some with PTSD, MST, as well as others having acquired a taste for the easily available heroin processed near the poppy fields.

A perfect storm may be headed our way. Hundreds of probation officers are to be laid off in LA county, some remaining have caseloads of over 2,000.  Sorely lacking psychological and drug treatment services for returning soldiers has been a staple of NPR coverage.

We can still prevent some inevitable murderous rages by planning ahead for what is coming from afar to our streets in the next few months. We can save ourselves $308,000,000 times too many.

Pini Herman serves as President of the Movable Minyan a lay-lead independent congregation in the 3rd Street area.

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