Megan Brown
Staff Writer
Rabbi Joshua Stanton will bring his passion for religious pluralism and his rabbinic experience to Chautauqua as he speaks as part of Week One’s “Potluck Nation: Why We Need Each Other to Thrive” Interfaith Lecture Series at 2 p.m. today in the Hall of Philosophy.
Reflecting his dedication to building interfaith relations, Stanton serves as the associate vice president for Interfaith and Intergroup Initiatives of the Jewish Federations of North America and as the board of governors of the International Jewish committee on Interreligious Consultations, a committee that focuses on Jewish-Christian relations.
His most recent book, co-authored with Rabbi Benjamin Spratt, Awakenings: American Jewish Transformations in Identity, Leadership, and Belonging tackles how Jewish institutions can adapt to meet Americans that are shifting their religious identities and alignments.
In an article co-authored with Pratt for Religion News Service, Stanton explained that the changing Jewish community in America shouldn’t be a cause for concern — instead, it should impel Jewish leaders to adapt to the needs of their community.
“The decline of these legacy institutions doesn’t portend a death spiral of assimilation for American Judaism, so much as an overdue reckoning with our community’s changing needs,” wrote Stanton.
“No longer a marginalized community of immigrants, we have not only acculturated ourselves but are slowly coming to embrace a surprising number of converts. … After grieving the pain of change, we will come to see the bounty of a Jewish awakening that reshapes our people’s largest diaspora community.”
As he researched American-Jewish transformation, he noticed that other American faith institutions were undergoing a similar “awakening.” From white evangelicals to Catholics, the population of their churches are either emptying or changing, respectively. White evangelicals are experiencing smaller congregations, and with an increase in immigration to the United States, the constitution of Catholic churches looks different than it had years ago.
Muslim and Hindu communities are also seeking institutions that align with their beliefs.
“Many American Muslims feel deeply connected to faith, meanwhile, but are ‘unmosqued’ for lack of access to communities that empower women as equals or embrace LGBTQ people,” wrote Stanton in the same article. “Hindus search for American expressions of a faith that grew out of South Asia. Seekers who dabble in multiple traditions befuddle many clergy but are coalescing in increasingly holistic communities
of practice.”
His desire to adapt to new Jewish communities led him to collaborate with Spratt to create Tribe, which hosts events like Sholom 20s & 30s. This group works to bring “Jewish, Jew-ish, Jewishly-adjacent or Jewishly curious” young adults together to celebrate Shabbat or just spend happy hours together.
Outside of his community in New York City, Stanton looks at nationwide and international events to see how to align interfaith groups. For Interfaith Kosovo, he attended along with other Tribe members to learn about how the country handled interfaith relationships between Jews and Muslims. They hoped to take their knowledge with them back to New York and implement it in their own community.
“The nerve-wracking thing for me is I don’t know the outcome,” Stanton said to Religion News Service reporter Kimberly Winston in 2016. “But the exciting thing is I think we’ve picked the right people. I think they are going to figure it out.”
