Identity 2.0
by Michael HoffmanWednesday, January 30th, 2008
I had a conversation today with a major Jewish Federation about technology change. They are thinking about the future and wanted to look seriously into how changes in technology will impact their activities in the future. They are thinking beyond fundraising to service delivery, health care, and many other segments of community activity for which they are responsible. I tried to give them a framework in which to think about this kind of change and we discussed different models to explore and teach this subject.
The change taking place with technology isn’t simply about operational efficiencies. These changes in technology are creating fundamental changes in how people see their role, the community and their identity. In philanthropy, for example, the people-to-people connectivity of a Kiva is not a new concept, but the internet makes it possible on a new scale.
Not too long ago, I had the pleasure of meeting Ariel Beery, one of a whole crop of young technology savvy Jewish thinkers and creative types. Walking in the footsteps of my friend Yossi Abramowitz, these folks are putting out cultural products and shaking the traditional tree with new ideas.
Ariel Beery’s ideas are included on a blog I have been reading called The New Jew: Blogging Jewish Philanthropy. I was turned on to this blog by a friend and then given it to review as part of the Nonprofit Blog Exchange, which introduces nonprofit bloggers (like me) to other nonprofit bloggers through our work.
How do you think the web and technology change will impact identity? Is Facebook and MySpace a trend? a tool? or a fundamental shift in how people connect and communicate and create networks. Read Ariel Beery’s ideas here and let me know what you think.
January 31st, 2008 at 12:47 am
Wow, that Beery piece was long. I must admit I didn’t read every word.
I can’t summarize what he said. That’s not good a good sign — cause he’s definitely trying to sell something, and this customer doesn’t know what it is.
Have you read the Talmud and the Internet by Jonathan Rosen? It’s fantastic. A totally bizarre title, contrived by the publisher since memoir-writing was not “in” when the book was published, Rosen overlays the two very different stories of his grandmothers with a meditation, mediated by a literary view of Jewish history, on change and alienation.
What is so compelling about the book is that Rosen gets you “there” via the micro, the details of his memories about the life and death of his thoroughly Reform born-in-America grandmother who he knew very well, contrasted with family tales of his other grandmother, a victim of the Holocaust whom he never met.
Beery’s ideas are big ideas that don’t sit in my gut. Rosen has small ideas that make me feel. But of course I’m turning fifty and Beery is not.
Whether it’s regarding Judaism or understanding economics, I believe that it is the particular that points to the universal. I want to re-claim my tribal identity - living according to Jewish tribal customs, not because they are better, but because I am a Jew. To stand fully in my own Jewishness without any claim to superiority is, I think, a redemptive act. And it’s what I want every other group to do for themselves. A healthy cultural ecosystem is one where people flock to be themselves.
Is this a vision that is compelling to others? I don’t know.
But I do know that there seems to be a piece of Beery’s “new” creative Zionism which feels very old. He writes:
Did he answer the “Why be Jewish” question for himself in the article? Is the reason to be Jewish to fight off the existential threat? If I have to convince someone to become a tribal Jew because our survival is at stake, I’m not interested.
Come stand next to the Torah and simply witness those really cool letters, hand written while all kinds of crazy laws were followed. Come have a Shabbat meal where all game-boys and computers will be turned off –awesome– and we’ll tell jokes and eat too much good food and sing, until we have to take the dog for walk.
January 31st, 2008 at 4:37 am
Dear Michael,
Thanks for linking to Ariel Beery’s proposal on my website. I am very glad to have discovered your blog and will certainly be returning.
Shai, no doubt that the proposal is a long read, which takes away from it in the world of blogging as you lose some of its power and meaning. The Talmud and the Internet is a great read. I too was thinking of it when reading these proposals.
Maya
February 4th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
Dear Michael,
Don’t know if you saw it, but my last comment posted here last week was supposedly marked as spam. Did it show up in your filter?
Thanks,
Maya