Be’chol Lashon began to shift its focus domestically in order to respond to the politics of race in America. We created a blog on MyJewishLearning.com called Jewish& that gives voice to the racial, ethnic and cultural diversity of Jewish identity and experience and provides a forum for personal reflection, discussion,..Read More
Bay Area program began to build community and wanted a deeper experience so we started convening a Family Camp Shabbaton Retreat at beautiful Walker Creek Ranch in West Marin, an hour north of San Francisco. The annual Shabbaton weekend included Friday night Shabbat dinner, Saturday morning services, and workshops for..Read More
The topic of race in the Jewish community brings to mind iconic images of Dr. Martin King and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. Although unquestionably meaningful, it does not mitigate the lack of consciousness about race today. Race has taken center stage on the national front again the last few years..Read More
“Racial Diversity and the American Jewish Community,” an article by Diane Tobin & Aryeh Weinberg, was featured in The Journal of Jewish Communal Service, essentially summarizing our world view, including the extent to which the American Jewish community has become embedded in America’s racialism, whitewashing Judaism’s most valuable asset in..Read More
Dr. Gary A. Tobin spent the first 24 years of his professional career in academia at Washington University in St. Louis and as the director of Brandeis University’s Maurice and Marilyn Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies. In a risky and courageous move, words often used to describe his work,..Read More
As the Bay area Be’chol Lashon children got older, they requested a camp experience without their parents. Camp Be’chol Lashon is the only summer camp focused on Jews as a multicultural people that teaches about global Jewish diversity, builds community leaders, and inspires a love of Judaism. It is for..Read More
In Every Tongue: The Racial and Ethnic Diversity of the Jewish People was published in 2005. The book—a summary of the study and the first 5 years of Be’chol Lashon programming—explains that “Jews have always resembled the peoples among whom they live, whether in Africa, Asia, or Europe. In America..Read More
IJCR’s 2003 Jewish Population Survey estimated the American Jewish population at 6 million Jews at a time when the National Jewish Population Survey was citing 5.2 million American Jews. The research also revealed that American Jews are more diverse than many assume, with 20% of America’s 6 million Jews or..Read More
Be’chol Lashon International Think Tank The Be’chol Lashon International Think Tank was an invitation-only conference for leaders of Jewish communities around the world: Africa, Asia, Latin America, Australia, Europe, Israel & the United States. It was lively forum for conversation, creative thinking, and developing new approaches to communal growth that..Read More