The Outreach Hall of Fame

The primary mission of the Jewish Outreach Institute (www.JOI.org) is to "reach out and welcome in" the intermarried, and to promote inclusiveness in the Jewish community for intermarried families and disconnected Jews. Originally founded in 1988 as a think tank and research facility devoted to the study of intermarriage, JOI's services have since grown to include advocacy, training of outreach professionals, and the sponsorship of innovative outreach programs throughout North America as part of its Jewish Connection Partnership program (www.JewishConnectionPartnership.org). This column is an opportunity for JOI to share its findings and views with the InterfaithFamily.com readership.

One June 8-10, 2004, over one hundred Jewish professionals from across North America gathered in Boston for the JOI-sponsored conference Toward a New Definition of Outreach: National Conference for Serving the Unaffiliated--The Egon Mayer Memorial Conference. These professionals represented many different institutions including Jewish Community Centers, Jewish Federations, Reform synagogues, Conservative synagogues, and independent organizations such as InterfaithFamily.com. What all these professionals had in common was a desire to share what they know about serving the needs of unaffiliated and intermarried families, and to learn how to do it better.

The conference was not only an opportunity to learn from the present in order to better serve the future, but also an opportunity to step back and honor our past. The closing ceremony of the conference was the inaugural induction of the Outreach Hall of Fame.

The Outreach Hall of Fame is a (metaphysical) space celebrating the most important achievements in the history of Jewish outreach. The Outreach Hall of Fame honors those individuals who have moved American Jewry forward in creating a community more inclusive toward previously disenfranchised populations, especially intermarried families.

Inductees can include visionary philanthropists, lay leaders, practitioners, communal professionals, outreach workers, and advocates. To be considered for induction, candidates are nominated based on four general criteria:
* Impact: did they support the birth or growth of a now-celebrated program or idea when others could not see the potential?
* Innovation: how did their ideas, contributions, and leadership forever change the way the Jewish community defines "outreach"?
* Motivation: were their goals inclusive and welcoming, rather than exclusionary or preventative?
* Longevity: Has their ongoing work contributed to a positive change in the communal landscape?

The inductees into the inaugural class of the Outreach Hall of Fame are Dr. Egon Mayer (z"l), in whose memory the conference was named, David Belin (z"l), Rabbi Rachel Cowan, Rabbi Steven Foster, Rosanne Levitt, Rabbi Alexander Schindler (z"l), and Lynne Wolfe. In an emotional ceremony, they or their surviving family members were presented with an award and certificate, and had the opportunity to reflect on their life's work.

Below in italics is the text written on each inductee's certificate, along with a brief biography of their achievements:

David Belin (z"l)
In recognition of his visionary leadership and decades of effort in reaching intermarried families to elucidate "Why Choose Judaism," both through his chairmanship of the Commission on Outreach of the Reform movement and in co-founding the Jewish Outreach Institute.

In 1979, the Reform movement asked David Belin to chair a newly created Task Force to study and develop programs of outreach toward intermarried families. A prominent attorney, philanthropist, political appointee, and advocate for bringing Judaism to non-Jews, Belin led the Task Force to create programs and train staff. In 1983 the Task Force became the Commission on Outreach, for which Belin remained chairman until 1987. The following year, he joined with Dr. Egon Mayer to found the Jewish Outreach Institute, in order to extend outreach across institutional and denominational lines, and through secular and cultural programming as well as religious. Belin's longtime friends from the University of Michigan Law School formed JOI's board of directors and continue to this day, along with his wife Barbara Ross Belin, to provide vision and leadership for outreach in his memory.

Rabbi Rachel Cowan
In recognition of her pioneering work to create a just and inclusive Jewish community for newcomers to the faith, her leadership by example, and her advocacy on behalf of programs of outreach and education.

By openly sharing her journey into Jewish life, Rabbi Rachel Cowan cut a path for literally thousands to follow. In the early 1980s she and her husband Paul Cowan, of blessed memory, helped create a welcoming Jewish community toward interfaith families in New York City through a series of workshops at the 92nd Street Y that continue to this day. In 1987 they authored the influential Mixed Blessings: Marriage Between Jews and Christians, discussing obstacles facing intermarried families from the perspective of having been intermarried themselves, before her conversion. In 1989 Cowan was ordained as a rabbi. Her influential leadership in the Jewish community as Director of the Jewish Life Program at the Nathan Cummings Foundation helped support many innovative outreach initiatives, and she also helped found the Jewish healing center movement, promoting spirituality and women's issues.

Rabbi Steven Foster
In recognition of his vision and creativity in offering educational opportunities to unaffiliated intermarried families and their children, through warm personal relationships and the life-transforming Stepping Stones program.

Rabbi Steven Foster has been a leading national voice for a more pluralistic and inclusive Jewish community since the 1970s and he remains a pillar of guidance for the Denver Jewish community to this day. He has worked tirelessly in helping intermarried families raise Jewish children. After the 1983 Jewish demographic study of Denver showed an intermarriage rate of 66% for young couples, Foster led his synagogue, Congregation Emanuel, to create a program of education for children of intermarriage and their parents, to engage in concurrent learning. With support from the local Federation and other organizations, "Stepping Stones to a Jewish Me" began in 1985 and became one of the most replicated and successful forms of Jewish outreach. With a spin off of the program beginning in 2004 for intermarried families with younger children (age 0-4) called "Pebbles: Five Senses to a Jewish Me," Rabbi Foster's pioneering continues to this day.

Rosanne Levitt
In recognition of her decades-long dedication to outreach and her ability to create a safe space for intermarried couples in her "Interfaith Connection" program helping countless families find a welcoming home in the Jewish community.

Marriage and family therapist Rosanne Levitt took interfaith outreach beyond the synagogue, into the more secular (and perhaps more comfortable) Jewish Community Center setting, by creating Interfaith Connection at the JCC of San Francisco. Beginning in 1986 and continuing to today, her program remains a fixture of welcoming into the community. As Director she facilitated over 60 Discussion Series for Interfaith Couples, personally had contact with over 3,600 couples and led numerous workshops. Through her warmth and caring, Levitt touched lives with programs that included Raising Children Series and Jewish Holiday Workshops, and her success served as a model for others to conduct similar programming around the country. Levitt also helped design the Jewish Community Information & Referral Service in San Francisco. Though recently retired, she volunteers in the community and remains dedicated to the work of outreach.

Dr. Egon Mayer
In recognition of his lifelong passion for understanding through scientific investigation the needs and desires of intermarried families, and his advocacy for inclusion through his co-founding of the Jewish Outreach Institute and his genuine concern for individuals.

Sociologist and demographer Egon Mayer began studying Jewish intermarriage in the mid-1970s and became the preeminent expert on the subject. His breakthrough early studies, including "Intermarriage and the Jewish Future" (1979) and his 1985 book Love & Tradition: Marriage Between Jews & Christians, dispelled stereotypes about Jews who intermarry. Mayer saw beyond the numbers to the people, and couldn't remain a neutral observer. He became an influential advocate for the welcoming of intermarried families into the Jewish community, which led to his co-founding the Jewish Outreach Institute in 1988. Though a part-time endeavor while he remained a full-time professor and department chair at City University of New York, Mayer's tremendous research and advocacy efforts through JOI remain a powerful testament to his passion and an impressive achievement in transforming the Jewish community to become more inclusive.

Rabbi Alexander Schindler
In recognition of his outstanding leadership and vision that opened the door to Jewish life for innumerable children of patrilineal descent, and his view of Judaism as a welcoming and outward-looking religion that forever changed the way the Jewish community defines outreach.

A giant among 20th century rabbis, Alexander Schindler helped the Reform movement become the largest denomination in the US through his leadership in welcoming all who would enter. In 1978, as President of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, Rabbi Schindler threw down the gauntlet, to not only "look beyond conversion" to "do everything possible to draw the non-Jewish spouse of mixed marriage into Jewish life" but also to "launch a carefully conceived outreach program aimed at all Americans who are unchurched and who are seeking religious meaning." In 1983, he helped change the landscape of American Jewry by encouraging the Reform movement's decision to recognize "that the child of one Jewish parent is under the presumption of Jewish descent" regardless of whether that one parent is the mother or father. Schindler shared what he loved about Judaism with everyone he encountered regardless of his or her lineage.

Lynne Wolfe
In recognition of her innovative work and dedication over more than a decade to create "Pathways" linking unengaged intermarried families to Jewish opportunities across denominational and institutional lines, proving that outreach works best as a community-wide endeavor.

Lynne Wolfe pioneered the community-wide approach to outreach. By being based out of a federation (MetroWest, New Jersey), the "Pathways" program enabled her to work across institutional and denominational lines to match intermarried families with programs and services that would best meet their needs--or to create those programs when none existed. Since the late 1980s she's been organizing discussion groups, panels, conferences, and educational initiatives such as a Sunday school program for intermarried families, while continuing to refer people to other organization's programs throughout her community. Local federations across the country have emulated the program, and Wolfe has lent her expertise to create curriculum and train professionals. Her compassion and ability to genuinely listen continues to help countless intermarried families find a welcoming home in the Jewish community.

It is JOI's hope and goal that by establishing an Outreach Hall of Fame we can not only recognize and honor those who have come before us, but hold them up as examples to future generations of Jewish professionals and lay leaders to show how one individual can make a difference in the lives of countless Jewish families, and how a warm welcome and caring attitude is always the best policy.