SHOSHANA CARDIN
SHOSHANA S. CARDIN GUEST COLUMNIST What better gift can we give our children than an inner sense of uniqueness, purpose and meaning'? Ours is an age in which the sacred tailing of our people, the...
...What better gift can we, one of the most affluent and sophisticated generations in woild history, give our children than an inner sense of uniqueness, purpose and meaning...
...None was perfect...
...with "But there arc so many positive opportunities available and so much beamy if one is but aware...
...The most powerful source of increased Jewish commitment and insured continuity is not antiscmiiisni or a focus on Jewish suffciing but the joy of a Jewish home and community filled with celebration, shared commitment to Torah's value of human life and a vision that you and I, in spite of our weaknesses, can transform the world...
...I frequently turn to l'hkei Aval, Ethics of Our Fathers, as I grapple with unanticipated and unprecedented challenges of the day...
...Ours is an age in which the sacred tailing of our people, the responsibilities of out chosenness, is increasingly played out in new places...
...all were flawed as are we...
...My Jewishness has enabled me to answei those who question, "Is that all there is...
...No longer can wc neglect Jewish spirituality...
...These holy tasks of communal life are not competing with daily life...
...only by addressing our personal Jewishness can wc address Jewish continuity...
...We establish sacied time when we work on behalf of the Jewish people...
...The domain of kedusliah—of sacred-ness—in the world is expanding...
...For-nieily, she served as president of the Council of Jewish Federations and chair of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry...
...Jewish leaders must communicate to our young adults that we have a special mission in history—that "chosenness" is not elitist or exclusionary, but part of our covenant to help heal the world, and that this covenant is a source of personal meaning and personal conviction...
...We stand in a sacred place when we demonstrate against racism and prejudice wheie\ei they appear...
...But faith and a commitment to covenant enabled them to persevere and to succeed...
...For me, that uniqueness, that chosenness, has been an inspiration, affording me a sense of self worth, which no one can lcmove...
...Jewishness has been an avenue of joyous expression when celebrating simrhahs and a souice of comfort and strength in times of stress and personal challenge...
...Jewish living has provided me with an antidote to loneliness and a celebration of family through Shabbat and holidays...
...Shoshana Cardin, the new rhan of CIAL, the National Jewish Center for Learning and [.eadet.shi/i, lecenlly ended her lemue as ehair of the Conjhence of Piesidents of Majoi Anient an Jewish Organizations...
...I find reassurance, motivation and guidance...
...They are all gateways for Jews to connect their daily lives to the Jewish dream of (Am otam, perfecting the world...
...We must be willing to admit that there can be no institutional and communal transformation without personal transformation...
...Jewish leaders who are making decisions that affect the Jewish community must be actively engaged in a dialogue with the richness of our literature and with the story of the Jewish people...
...At a lime when we search for role models, our patriarchs and matriarchs, leaders and prophets, come alive...
...Our community hungers for this connection...
...We pet (brin sacied woik when we raise funds lor the hungry or clothe the naked...
...We enhance keilitsliah when we defend the State of Israel and when we participate acthely in political processes...
Vol. 18 • February 1993 • No. 1
