opinion
some in the audience at Trinity insisted
they gave Renewal too much credit for
a movement by and for women. In her
essay in the Chanes/Silk book, Sylvia
Barack Fishman of Brandeis University
offers a counter-narrative of Jewish
innovation over the past 50 years. In
her chapter, she credits the “active
partnership” of women in revitalizing
American Judaism: Women’s religious
expressions, she writes, “create social
contexts and are distinguished by a
communal dynamic, quite unlike the
isolated, personalized Jewish experi-
ence, which some have claimed defines
contemporary Jewishness.”
I came away convinced that Renewal
has had an outsize influence on Jewish
life, especially for baby boomers like me.

But I also wondered if its outward-fac-
ing, syncretic Judaism failed to instill
a sense of obligation to Jewish forms,
institutions and peoplehood — unlike,
by contrast, Orthodoxy in all of its
booming present-day manifestations.

I asked Magid in what ways Renewal
might have fallen short.

“Part of its failure is that it is very,
very anchored to a certain kind of
American counterculture that no longer
exists. It hasn’t really moved into a 2.0
phase,” he said. “There are students
and staff members that are still very
tied to [Schachter-Shalomi’s] vision,
and then there’s a younger generation,
Gen Z, who have read some of his work
and they’re influenced by it, but they
really are thinking much more about,
well, how does this translate into a
post-countercultural America?”
If Rabbi Green’s speech at the JTS
graduation was any indication, then
the ideals of Jewish Renewal still hold
their appeal.

“We need a new Judaism in America
… where we also have the fresh air
needed to create it,” he said. “How
do we move forward … in articulating
a Jewish theology for today that is
both intellectually honest and spiritu-
ally rewarding?”
The audience of future Jewish
leaders and teachers leapt to its feet. ■
Andrew Silow-Carroll is editor-at-
large of the New York Jewish Week
and managing editor for Ideas for the
Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Meeting Words with Actions to
Support Holocaust Survivors
Talia Kaplan and Michael Balaban
A fter World War II, hundreds of
thousands of Holocaust survivors
emerged as symbols of the resilience
of the human spirit, having endured
unimaginable acts of Nazi persecution.

As a community, we have become
experts at commemoration. But in our
commitment to remembrance, we must
also remember the living. This past
weekend, we celebrated Holocaust
Survivor Day, a time to honor the
courage, strength and resilience of
those who survived the atrocities of
the 1930s and 1940s.

To honor their resilience and courage
and the miracle of their survival,
communities around the world —
from Philadelphia to Jerusalem, New
York to Sydney, Chicago to Krakow,
and Palm Beach to Los Angeles —
organized events with Holocaust
survivors, community
leaders, government officials and dignitaries.

In Philadelphia, we held a special
luncheon at the Weitzman National
Museum of American Jewish History
with Philadelphia-based survivors and
their families.

Honoring their heroism and courage,
however, requires more than lunches
and one-day celebrations. We must
also commit all year long to ensuring
that all survivors have access to criti-
cal resources that will enable them to
live their twilight years with dignity.

Philanthropists, Federations and
local agencies must work together
to raise awareness while prioritizing
investments in organizations that are
doing the critical work of supporting
survivors. The survivors still alive today, now in
their 80s and older, were just children
during the Holocaust. Many of them
spent their formative years in extreme
poverty and oppression — and too
many of them still live in poverty.

Around the world, too many survivors
are forced to choose between neces-
sities like food, heat and medical care.

The most recent data available shows
that one-third of Holocaust survivors
in the United States live in poverty,
experiencing a higher rate of poverty
than elderly Jewish people who are not
survivors and all elderly Americans.

Slipping through the cracks of society,
these individuals struggle to meet basic
emergency needs like rent, utilities,
food, home care, transportation and
medical, dental and vision services. For
many aging survivors, the expense of
in-home senior care is simply infeasible,
but leaving home comes with a cost of
its own — the resurfacing of decades-
old trauma. It’s a silent crisis that is a
generation in the making, made worse
by skyrocketing health care costs and
other expenses of daily living.

In many communities, Jewish
Federations and other organizations
run local programs designed to aid
Holocaust survivors. Years ago,
the Jewish Federation of Greater
Philadelphia approached Seed the
Dream Foundation for financial assis-
tance in closing a gap in funding to care
for local Holocaust survivors. When it
returned with the request for additional
funding the next year, it became clearer
just how pervasive the issue was. The
need was – and still is – greater than
any one organization or single donor
can give to bridge the gaps in care.

There is more we can do and should
be doing. To meet this rising need, the
answer is philanthropic models in which
locally raised funds are matched dollar
for dollar by national funding partners.

Such partnerships leverage a broad
funding base while tapping into local
expertise to meet the urgent needs of
individual survivors.

In 2019, Philadelphia was the first
community to join us when Seed the
Dream Foundation paired with KAVOD
to launch Kavod SHEF (Survivors of the
Holocaust Emergency Fund), a collab-
orative national support initiative to
address this need.

Over the past three years, emergency
home care services funded by the initia-
tive have increased by 300%; in the first
three months of 2023 alone, the initia-
tive fielded 3,200 requests for support.

As survivors face the increasing health
care challenges that come with age, the
requests for aid continue to climb.

Take Morris, for example, who
suffered trauma related to his teeth
while in concentration camps in Poland.

Throughout the years, he has under-
gone a mouthful of extractions and now
requires permanent dentures to speak
and eat. With an extremely limited
income, though, Morris is unable to
cover his dental needs and no longer
feels comfortable being seen in public.

Survivors like Morris have suffered
enough. He and thousands of others
like him deserve to age with dignity,
and time is of the essence.

Together, we have the opportunity to
make a strong, collective impact that
works toward meeting survivors’ urgent
needs — but only if we take swift action.

These individuals, who have
witnessed the darkest depths of
human depravity, deserve our utmost
respect, support and care. When we
mark Holocaust Survivor Day each
year, let us celebrate their miracu-
lous survival, honor their courage
and resilience, and let us recommit to
upholding our shared responsibility to
meet our words of remembrance with
action, ensuring that survivors can live
their late years with the dignity they so
profoundly deserve. ■
Talia Kaplan is the executive director
of the Philadelphia-based Seed the
Dream Foundation. Michael Balaban
is the president and CEO of the Jewish
Federation of Greater Philadelphia.

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