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This notion of multiplicity of meaning is the core inspiration of the Jewish Artists’ Laboratory of the Midwest. The lab is a network of professional Jewish artists in six cities in the Midwest – Milwaukee, Madison, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Chicago, and Cleveland – now in its sixth year. In each city, a group meets twice monthly to study a theme related to Jewish life, and to create works of art for an annual exhibit/showcase based on their study. The artists include painters, printmakers, sculptors, fabric artists, musicians, poets, playwrights, choreographers, mixed media artists, photographers, and more.

They came from Britain and Germany; and from Albania, France and the Netherlands. Israel, Russia, Ukraine and the U.S. too. In all, almost 700 participants (representing 18 countries!) from across the generational landscape disembarked – just a short drive from Windsor Castle – for the first-ever Pan-European Limmud FSU Conference. And like the 1st events held in Los Angeles, New York and Ontario over the past decade, it was a smashing success.

What would happen, I wonder, if we did a better job bridging the academy and the community, convening spaces where greater interaction rather than token interaction becomes the norm? This is what CLAL, the National Jewish Center for Leadership and Learning, is attempting with a new initiative at the University of Pennsylvania that brings rabbis and academics together to create a bridge of ideas. That’s what I’m trying to do in the arena of Jewish education with a new initiative at George Washington University: the Mayberg Center for Jewish Education and Leadership. In the future we hope to develop new graduate degree programs in Jewish education, a distinguishing feature of which will be close partnerships with local and national Jewish organizations. A central tenet of the Graduate School of Education and Human Development, where the Mayberg Center is housed, is engagement between researchers, educators and communities in which teaching and learning happens. We also plan to offer a certificate in Jewish literacy, aimed primarily at Jewish communal professionals, as the only “non-Jewish” university to do so. The center will convene annual conferences to tackle areas where integrating research with what’s happening in the trenches can change the way we live and work.

Activists from Limmuds in the United States and Canada convened their first summit to establish a regional Limmud hub in North America. They voted to form a representative council comprised of members of each North American group and set up a 501c3, in order to advance regional development and support for local groups, and maximize pooled software and other systems. The initiative was launched as Limmud International celebrates its 10th anniversary. Held September 1-2, 2016, the summit was hosted by LimmudFest Atlanta + Southeast (SE), which immediately followed over Labor Day Weekend, at Camp Ramah Darom in Clayton, GA.