March Madness at the Jewish Federation
March Madness is a special part of college basketball culture because it's a highly anticipated, unifying sports tournament that encourages fandom. Here in Fed-land, I’d like to emulate the excitement and energy of March Madness, also known as the Big Dance, with a new forum called March Mondays with Moshe.
I’m inviting “fans” of the Jewish Community of Greater South Bend to bring your own lunch on the first four Mondays in March as we imagine the future of our Jewish community. That’s the purpose of March Mondays with Moshe—to generate as many ideas as possible to pull us into the future.
What will propel us into the future? I think a slice of that answer is our collective ability to imagine our sense of place in Jewish South Bend – where we can present our authentic, imperfect selves with meaning and purpose, belonging and blessing.
Your Fed Team has been busy thinking about our Jewish future as a sense of place with a unique collection of qualities and characteristics – visual, cultural, social, spiritual, and environmental that transforms mere locations into something much more meaningful.
The only way we can move into the future is by bringing together the best of our collective ideas. Mondays with Moshe opens a dialogue to that process and it is a part of a much larger vision. Below I’ve included a brief breakdown of this bigger plan titled “A Journey to the Promised Land.” I go over some of the most important highlights from this plan as well as some of the obstacles that we are encountering along the way.
With so much at stake, we hope to see you at our “Big Dance” over the coming weeks. No need to RSVP. Just bring a brown bag lunch. We’ll meet from 12-1 PM for my version of March Madness in the Federation’s conference room on March 3, 10, 17, and 24.
