By Emily K. Alhadeff, Assistant Editor, JTNews
Can foreign aid really help Africa? How can the U.S. move toward a just domestic agenda? And why are these Jewish questions?
Armed with an innovative vision and a grant from the Legacy Heritage Jewish Studies project under the Association for Jewish Studies, the Stroum Jewish Studies Program at the University of Washington is holding a series of talks addressing the relationship between global human rights issues and Jewish values.
The series, “If I Am Only For Myself, What Am I? Judaism Confronts Human Injustice,” brings UW professors and renowned Jewish activists together in conversation. The first talk, on December 1, features American Jewish World Service president Ruth Messinger and international studies professor Dan Chirot.
“The vision is that Jewish studies has historically provided an important value in the community,” said Noam Pianko, assistant professor of Jewish Studies and the departmental chair. “At the same time, it’s increasingly clear to me we want to be relevant to a broader portion of the community, to expand what kind of topics we’re looking at.”
Pianko applied for and received $25,000 from the Association for Jewish Studies for his program idea, “Community Building 2.0: Visions of Justice in the Jewish Tradition.” In addition to the speaker series, Pianko is building a blog and a social media presence. According to the grant summary provided by the AJS, “Community Building 2.0” is a response to new, tech-savvy styles of interpersonal communication. The blog serves to support innovative programming and provide a space for learning about and discussing Jewish topics.
There is a need “to create a new kind of public program for Jewish studies,” Pianko said, and “to do it in a way that would be relevant to a younger generation, to a generation that is interested in understanding why Judaism is meaningful.”
The topic of the December 1 talk is “Can Foreign Aid Really Help Africa?” Messinger, whose organization supports more than 150 projects in 16 African countries, and Chirot, an expert in African affairs, will help shed light on the complexity of this topic.
“Notions of justice and social action are important for young adults in Seattle,” Pianko said. By bringing activists and scholars together, he hopes to provide “a chance to get beyond some of the headlines and think more deeply.”
For instance, he said, “I think one issue has to do with the complexity of trying to help a government when it’s not clear” how much aid is going into the cause. “What are the reasons we’re giving aid? Are we giving aid equitably?” he asked.
Pianko also wants to take the conversation out of the lecture hall. The event will take place at a more intimate venue in South Lake Union. He’d like the group to be able to sit in a circle, as opposed to the traditional podium–audience setup, and for the speakers to converse with the help of a moderator.
“The idea is to make it more of a conversation than a frontal lecture,” he said.
The following three lectures also bring to the proverbial table highly regarded Jewish activists. In January, former CEO of Jewish Funds for Justice Simon Greer will interact with Professor David Domke of the UW’s Department of Communications on the topic of “Can America Move Toward a ‘Just’ Domestic Agenda?”; in February Hazon executive director Nigel Savage will present alongside political science professor Karen Lifton on “What’s Religion’s Place in Food Politics?”; and in April, Ken Weinberg, CEO of Jewish Family Service, and Professor Marcia Meyers, of the School of Social Work, the Evans School of Public Affairs and director of the West Coast Poverty Center, will discuss “What Would it Take to End Poverty in Seattle?”
The program, true to its mission to serve its students, is going to where they are: Their social media feeds. So Pianko has posted an Africa quiz on Facebook. Other plans for the remaining lectures are in the works. He hopes the quiz will generate interest in the program and reach out to potential participants.
“For most folks Africa’s this big place,” he said.
With next week’s program, he hopes to make it that much smaller.