Barry Finestone, Josh Miller: Judaism Unbound Episode 194 - Funding the Future
Barry Finestone, President and CEO of the Jim Joseph Foundation, and Josh Miller, its Chief Program Officer, join Judaism Unbound to discuss the Foundation’s recently-completed process of rethinking and resetting its strategic approach to grantmaking in its main area of focus, Jewish education and learning. [1]
(0:01 - 18:38): To begin the episode, Barry Finestone and Josh Miller talk about the life and work of Jim Joseph, who established the Foundation in his will, and they explain how the Foundation was built around his commitment to Jewish education and the strategic approach he took in business. [2] Finestone hones in on the ways in which the past few years have represented an important moment of transition for their foundation, as some key governance decisions and a process of visioning for the future have allowed them to think expansively about their funding priorities moving forward. [3] Miller outlines the three main priorities that they have laid out, which are: (1) powerful Jewish learning experiences; (2) exceptional Jewish leaders and educators; (3) R&D (research and development) for the future of Jewish learning. Finestone compares these funding areas to elements of a diversified stock portfolio.
(18:39 - 37:33): Dan asks about the third funding priority — research and development for the future of Jewish learning, and Finestone asserts that Jewish philanthropy writ large has under-emphasized and not been as focused on what he calls “forecasting" when compared to projects with a more immediate or short-term scope, which generally means that the changes they represent are incremental. [4] As a comparison, Finestone reflects on the decades-long process that went into (eventually) landing on the moon, and Miller asks whether the Jewish institutional landscape could benefit from similarly ambitious, “moonshot” attempts to identify ideas that will truly revolutionize Judaism, even though any such highly-experimental attempts would carry with them a significant possibility of failure. Shifting gears, the two guests address the big question of: What is “Jewish learning” anyway? Miller discusses the ways in which many Jews’ (and Jewish institutions’) relationship to that question has changed [5] — where once the goal may have been to support Jewish learning in order to “perpetuate Judaism,” Jewish learning is now viewed and utilized more and more frequently as a means toward connection, meaning, and purpose. He emphasizes a framework of “inflection points” — moments that arise over the course of someone’s life, in which Jewish learning often can serve a particularly vital role.
(37:34 - 55:27): Through the examples of using a phone, or driving a car — two activities that people do incredibly regularly, but which do not involve a great deal of learning or knowledge about the processes that make them happen — Dan digs deeper into ideas of Jewish learning and Jewish experience. Finestone and Miller respond to his questions by looking to their own personal experiences with Judaism, and how it has contributed to their own personal growth. [6] Finestone also responds to the question with his own, asking whether the people who have significant Jewish knowledge are able to “do the right things with it.” He highlights the Jim Joseph Foundation’s partnership with the Shalom Hartman Institute, one of the foundation’s grantees, as one example of how those leading the field of Jewish learning can be supported in doing their work. Lex looks at the duality between “learning about” Judaism and the “experience of” Judaism. The two guests answer by reflecting on Jewish summer camp, [7] which they name as a particularly compelling realm for both sides of that equation. To close the episode, Finestone and Miller reflect on both the privileges and responsibilities of the Jewish philanthropic work that they do.
[1] Learn more about the Jim Joseph Foundation at JimJosephFoundation.org, and learn more about Finestone and Miller here.
[2] Dive deeper into the foundation’s strategy at JimJosephFoundation.org/strategy. For a fascinating visual representation of this strategy (their “road map”), click here.
[3] For a helpful explanation of the “5% rule” that Dan and Barry Finestone discuss, click here.
[4] Finestone mentions the idea of “skating to where the puck is going to be.” Dan wrote an article applying that teaching (from hockey superstar Wayne Gretzky) to Judaism, which you can access here.
[5] Miller cites our recent Judaism Unbound conversation with Miriam Heller Stern, in exploring the foundation’s new approaches to Jewish learning and education. Listen in to that episode by clicking here: Episode 186: Re-Imagining Jewish Education - Miriam Heller Stern
[6] Here, Miller refers to two Judaism Unbound conversations exploring contemporary practices of Mussar (a Jewish modality for character development). Listen in to these episodes at the following links: Episode 167: The Meaning of Mussar - David Jaffe and Episode 168: American Mussar - Greg Marcus
[7] For a deep-dive into the subject of Jewish camping, and its role in the broader Jewish educational ecosystem, see Episode 190: Jewish Camps, Jewish Utopias - Avi Orlow.