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New Book Explores Jewish Life Today
L OCA L
JARRAD SAFFREN | JE STAFF
THE QUESTION OF what
the Jewish community looks
like in the 21st century has not
quite been answered yet. In an
increasingly digital age, with
younger generations that are
less committed to traditional
institutions, it’s a question with
no easy answer.

But a new book, “Warm and
Welcoming,” edited by Jewish
Exponent contributor Miriam
Steinberg-Egeth, attempts to
answer it.

Steinberg-Egeth’s book, as
its title alludes, tries to define
those modern challenges under
the label of inclusivity. There
are chapters on welcoming
LGBTQ Jews, interfaith
families, Jews of color and Jews
with disabilities. There also
are sections on how to build
Jewish life around the desires
and habits of millennial and
Generation Z Jews, with such
chapters focusing on millen-
nials and Gen Z people in
general, education, fundraising
and marketing.

If inclusivity is the unifying
challenge, adaptation is the
8 DECEMBER 16, 2021
unifying action that Jewish
institutions need to take,
according to Steinberg-Egeth
and her authors, five of whom
live in the Philadelphia area or
have Philadelphia ties.

“Warm and Welcoming,”
published by Rowman &
Littlefield, came out Nov. 15
and is available on Amazon.

com. Each author is an expert
in the field in which he or she
wrote about, Steinberg-Egeth
said. The Exponent contrib-
utor has been “a leader in the
Philadelphia Jewish commu-
nity since 2006,” according to
her editor bio on the book’s
website. She has worked for
the Center City Kehillah, the
Board of Rabbis of Greater
Philadelphia and the Hillel of
Greater Philadelphia’s Jewish
Graduate Student Network.

Her co-editor, Warren
Hoffman, is the executive
director for the Association
for Jewish Studies in New
York, per the site. He worked
with Steinberg-Egeth in
Philadelphia for several years
as the associate director of
community programming
for the Jewish Federation of
Warren Hoffman
Courtesy of Miriam Steinberg-Egeth
Greater Philadelphia and as
senior director of program-
ming for the Gershman Y.

“I care deeply about the
Jewish community, and
the Jewish community has
to be a place where people
feel comfortable,” Steinberg-
Egeth said. “Being able to
get this work out into the
world was a really incredible
opportunity.” Hoffman came up with
the idea for the book and
was working with a publisher
before the pandemic. But in
May 2020, he asked his old
friend to join him.

According to Steinberg-
Egeth, Hoffman knew she
was a capable writer who had
done other writing projects.

He also knew that she was
used to considering deep and
important questions about
Jewish life.

For the Exponent, Steinberg-
Egeth writes “Miriam’s Advice
Well,” an advice column.

Often, her answers to readers
either have practical or moral
implications — or both.

Recently, she has been
getting a lot of questions about
interfaith families. So as she
thought about that dynamic,
she realized that her answer
applied to the modern Jewish
community more broadly.

JEWISH EXPONENT
Miriam Steinberg-Egeth
“The importance of inclu-
sion and that welcoming
spirit,” the writer said. “Valuing
people’s experiences.”
The book’s Philadelphia-
based writers,
Gabby Kaplan-Mayer, Beverly Socher-
Lerner, Rebecca Bar and Rabbi
Mike Uram, all dig into those
themes, too.

Kaplan-Mayer runs
an inclusion program for
Jewish Learning Venture, a
Jenkintown nonprofit that
helps Jewish families build
Jewish lives. Her chapter
focuses on disability access.

In it, she explains that the
Americans with Disabilities
Act of 1990 does not apply
to synagogues and religious
buildings. Therefore, it’s
incumbent upon those places
to take up disability access as a
moral imperative.

“Each community really
needs to do the work and talk
to their congregants,” she said.

In Jewish educational
institutions, the challenge is
slightly different, according
to Socher-Lerner, who wrote
the book’s education chapter.

Jewish enrichment programs
need to find their community
members, she said.

Socher-Lerner is
the founding director of the
Makom Community in Philly,
Courtesy of Miriam Steinberg-Egeth
which tries to modernize
Jewish education. Makom
developed a program in which
Jewish students can attend a
Jewish program after school
five days a week. It even
organizes transportation to
help working parents.

“It fits in their lives,” she
said of the program.

And once Judaism fits in
their lives, it starts informing
how they live.

“Our Jewish education has
to be one where we constantly
reflect our Jewish wisdom onto
our community and into our
relationships,” Socher-Lerner
said. “So we can grow into who
we want to be.”
So to become more inclu-
sive, and to adapt to new
generations that don’t view
institutions as worthy just
because, Jewish organizations
must change how they think
about their relationships with
community members.

Jewish life today is about
filling a spiritual need more
than a practical one.

“Investing deeply in people
and relationships from a place
of empathy,” Socher-Lerner
said. “Not just getting them to
invest more and donate more.” l
jsaffren@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0740
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