Billboard spawns conversation on what it means to be Jewish

During the first round of group discussion, the spirituality/ ethics group deliberates. /Lauri Lee

Readers may recall an article in a recent Jewish Voice about the colorful billboard adjacent to I-95 advertising the Jewish Community Day School of Rhode Island (JCDSRI). A bright eye-catcher against the sky, the billboard’s neon pink and yellow coloring is not all that makes it noticeable: the words “TOO JEWISH?” emblazoned across it prompts viewers to think about what exactly it means to be “too Jewish.” Jews have wrestled with this question for many reasons, but especially in the context of assimilating into a non-Jewish community.

Adam Tilove, who is both the head of the JCDSRI and the main driver of the “Too Jewish?” campaign, led a community conversation at the Brown RISD Hillel on Nov. 19 to discuss just that. The meeting, also called “TOO JEWISH?,” asked community members to “join your neighbors to discuss what being Jewish means in our modern, diverse world.”  

While the billboard brought attention to the issue, Tilove used it as a springboard to facilitate a community conversation about the broader topic of Judaism.

“My intention here was never to have a conversation about the billboard,” he said. “I realized that the billboard got a lot of people stirred up, and I wanted to use it as an opportunity to bring people together to talk about what’s important in Judaism.”

After establishing the “open space” nature of the conversation, Tilove immediately got attendees involved. Posting a large piece of paper bearing the question “What is most important to you Jewishly?,” he asked the roughly 35 participants to write down their answers on large sticky notes and place them on the poster. Tilove then arranged responses, and the participants, into four broad groups: Israel, community, education and spirituality/ethics.

These groups spawned discussions on the changing nature of Judaism, how it appeals to the next generation, and what it means to be Jewish in this day and age.

Judaism is famously hard to define; even as Jews, we debate about its status as an ethnicity versus religion versus culture versus some mix of the three. But a participant in the spirituality/ethics group offered a metaphor that might help explain the status of Judaism today:

“Some of us are on a spiritual ladder, some of us are on a behavioral ladder, and some of us are on a religious … ladder. But we’re all on these ladders!”

Maybe that’s the point: There isn’t only one ladder – or avenue – to being Jewish.

Then Tilove posed another question: “What would you like to see in the community?” Answers varied from more kosher restaurants to improvements in the city’s infrastructure. One participant simply wrote “more fun.”  

During this second round of discussion, Tilove observed that the local Jewish community wants to be “a community that takes risks – that challenges the status quo.” To do so, attendees were asked to think about their role in the community, and to learn from others. One member of the education discussion group said, “Education is a life source. Whatever we do comes back to what we learned.

The forum, Tilove believes, was worthwhile.

“It felt good to be in that meeting,” he said. “They had really meaningful conversations with people that they’d never met before.”

And there are possibilities for another conversation in the future, with the hope that it will be multidenominational and intergenerational.

“I wanna do it again and get 300 people!” Tilove said. “I want to facilitate community building; where are the opportunities for growth in the community? I think we’ve got some. But I guess we’ll wait and see.”

ARIEL BROTHMAN is a freelance writer who lives in Wrentham, Mass. She was the summer intern at The Jewish Voice in 2012.