Religion & Beliefs

Good Causes: The Nachshon Challenge

By Izzy Grinspan / May 27, 2008

In the story of Exodus, Nachshon was the first Israelite to wade into the Red Sea, confident that it would part like Moses promised. Jewish Funds for Justice is taking this metaphor and running with it: Their Nachshon Challenge gives grants to leaders who are boldly going, to mix Jewish metaphors, where no one has gone before. A couple weeks ago, Jewcy’s editor-in-chief Tahl wondered what would justify Judaism’s continuing existence in the 21st century. Not being a prophet or religious genius, I won’t pretend I have an answer, but I do think programs like the Nachshon Challenge are an excellent step towards continued relevance for one shockingly basic reason: Some of the people funded by the program aren’t Jewish. One, in fact, is a minister of a Baptist church. And their projects generally aim to do good not just within the Jewish world, but within the world at large. Look at the description of the project run by the Baptist minister, Reverend Calvin Keene:

Rev. Keene left a career as a successful businessman to become the pastor of Memorial Baptist Church in the Oliver neighborhood in East Baltimore, where he grew up. Working with BUILD (Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development), Pastor Keene has been a driving force in the renewal of the economically depressed Oliver neighborhood, which gained notoriety through the HBO series The Wire. Along with other members of the community, Memorial Baptist acquired adjacent houses and parcels of land to create a foundation for the area’s redevelopment. JFSJ is working in close partnership with Rev. Keene, BUILD, The Reinvestment Fund, THE ASSOCIATED: The Jewish Federation of Greater Baltimore, and other members of the Baltimore Jewish community, to revitalize the area and develop hundreds of lots for new homes and businesses.

Is social justice the soul of Judaism, as a Jewcy dialog once asked? Not necessarily. But is social justice in the Baltimore ghetto a Jewish issue? Of course, because Jewish organizations are making it a Jewish issue. And not even youngish leftish organizations like the JFSJ, but the Jewish Federation of Greater Baltimore, which is not exactly a "Shalom Motherfucker" kind of place. A Judaism that can help a Baptist minister fund a totally non-Jewy project simply because it's a good cause—that’s the kind of pluralistic Judaism that has a chance of meaning something in the 21st century.

You can read about other leaders and donate to the Nachshon Challenge here.

POST A COMMENT

  • By Ismail 5/29/08 at 1:35 p.m. UTC

    Way to ignore the substantive point of my post.

    I will assume from your clumsy attempt at misdirection that you realize your earlier geopolitical comparisons were nonsensical and that you're simply not man enough to admit how thorough and humiliating was your schooling at my hands.

    Laundry lists of Arab shortcomings will not soothe the sting of those tears of shame, my boy. 

  • By Anonymous 5/29/08 at 11:04 a.m. UTC

    Absent this particular, your contributions are useless…

    Ismail, address the problems in the Arab world. The problems between Israel and the Palestinians are pimples compared the cancers that afflict the Arab world, primarily the victimology that has afflicted the Arabs since they left Ottoman rule. Yes, the occupation justifies everything…killing Jewish civilians, Egyptian persecution of copts, Iranian persecution of Bahais, Iraqi persecution of Christians, Hamas persecution of Christians, Sudanese genocide of Darfur, lowest regional production of books, patents, etc

    Yawn

    Oh yes, you are a freedom rider, just like MLK, or perhaps like Saddam Hussein warning us that killing civilians is bad

  • By Ismail 5/29/08 at 10:27 a.m. UTC

    anon 9:14, you leave out the teeny detail that France doesn't exercise de facto rule over Monaco, nor do the US and Sudan over Mexico and Egypt, respectively.

    Absent this particular, your comparisons are useless. 

     

  • By Anonymous 5/29/08 at 9:14 a.m. UTC

    I have always been amused by the idea that because there is one densely populated area next to an area that is not as densely populated, they will have to merge. Monaco is more densely populated than France, but it doesnt mean they are going to merge. Mexico is more densely populated than the US, but a merger is not imminent. Egypt is more densely populated than Sudan, but no merger is imminent, despite the fact that there used to be an Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. Similarly, the Palestinians can have as many babies as the world community will support, but Ismail can forget his wet dreams of a one state solution. It has already been tried and was called the Palestine Mandate. It didnt work too well

  • By naftali 5/28/08 at 9:52 p.m. UTC

    You know what I mean, you avoid it though.  Cleverly, you avoid it with insults, and not just to me, but everyone who disagrees with you. 

    But, one more time.  This isn't a civil rights problem, this is a war–since everyone in the West Bank and Gaza keeps saying that it's a war.  Oh this is so complex. 

  • By Ismail 5/28/08 at 9:13 p.m. UTC

    Hi naf. You know, I get kind of a warm feeling just knowing that you're out there, coiled and ready to pounce whenever I appear.

    You like me. You really, really like me.

    I'd like to respond, but your comments are a trainwreck of non-sequiturs and factual inanities that allow the rational man little purchase. If you take the time to wipe the flecks of spittle from the corners of your mouth and try to say what you mean more clearly, I'll do my best to correct you.  

  • By naftali 5/28/08 at 4:28 p.m. UTC

    There should be a whole number set devoted to you Benjy Ismail. How do you get from the 'legendary fecundity of the Palestinian womb' to a fight for civil rights, when every leader talks about overrunning Israel and taking all of its territory, from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv? They even put it in their documents stating their overall purpose.

    What you are really saying is that the Arabs will take over all of Israel, and yet, in your last sentence you turn it into a civil right issue. And, why don't they already have all of these civil rights–they have their own government, their own media, their own police, their own army, their own UN Agency, their own seat at the UN–what more is there to want? Complete freedom to massacre Israelis? I notice how the West Bank and Gaza is just overflowing with civil rights for it's population–which Hamas governs, which the PLO governs.

    I won't even comment on your Trust Me On This Statement–since, given the comments that usually fly at you, not including mine, you don't engender buckets of trust.

Wanna post your own comments?