Towards a Community of Belonging

Mijal Bitton and Yolanda Savage-Narva explore the complexities involved in building the kind of vibrant Jewish community of belonging that we aspire to live in.

Mijal Bitton, Yolanda Savage-Narva, Gil Preuss

May 13, 2022

May 13, 2022

Mijal Bitton

Dr. Mijal Bitton is a Research Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, and the Rosh Kehilla (communal leader) and co-founder of the Downtown Minyan in New York City. Mijal received a BA from Yeshiva University and earned her doctorate from New York University, where she conducted an ethnographic study of a Syrian Jewish community with a focus on developing the field of contemporary Sephardic studies in America. She is an alumna of the

Yolanda Savage-Narva

Gil Preuss

Jewish Peoplehood, Community, Ideas for Today, Video

What Does it Mean to Truly Belong in the Jewish Community?

True community is created through our relationships with one another and the sense that our presence is felt and valued. How do we engage the full potential in each of us? How do we form relationships across difference to co-create a vision for a culture of belonging?

Mijal Bitton and Yolanda Savage-Narva, Director of Racial Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (REDI) Union for Reform Judaism, moderated by Gil Preuss, CEO of The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, explore the complexities involved in building a vibrant Jewish community of belonging and push our thinking on how to create the community we aspire to live in.

Presented in partnership with

This program is part of Ideas for Today, our curated offering of courses led by leading scholars addressing the compelling contemporary Jewish issues of the day.