Having read about the findings from the Cincinnati 2030 forum, I was struck by how relevant my Jewish Drinking initiative is for these findings.
For those less familiar with my Jewish Drinking initiative, I began it a couple of years ago with resources on drinking in Jewish history, tradition, and life. In addition to links to off-site resources, it also has a bunch of written resources and posts and I also began a podcast. This podcast, The Jewish Drinking Show, now has over 80 episodes published and is also available for viewing on YouTube, along with various clips from episodes where I invite academics, rabbis, and more to discuss drinking in Jewish history, tradition, and more.
Considering not only that the pillars of the Cincinnati 2030 strategic plan are “building deeper and broader connections and engagement with Jewish life, building on our caring community, and strengthening relationships with our wider world”, clearly, Jewish Drinking can provide building deeper and broader connections, as well as engagement with Jewish life.
Specifically for this engagement aspect, it clearly provides an easy opportunity for collaboration across community organizations to provide opportunities to be together and making opportunities to engage easily and accessible open to all by partnering with local Jewish organizations along with Jewish Drinking. More specifically, these collaborative programs would be compelling to all so that everyone feels welcome is also pretty clear. Moreover, owing to the nature of the content of the material to be discussed, it also provides an easy on-ramp, especially for Jews who are not so familiar with their own heritage and allows them to be able to connect and also facilitate ways for them to more deeply connect with their heritage and with others.
As I think more about this very clear synergy that would be offered for local Jewish organizations in partnership with Jewish Drinking, perhaps I should be reaching out more to local organizations to to discuss collaborative opportunities for them….