S3K Leadership Network member Rabbi Sharon Brous, in Sh’ma’s JTSFuture Blog:

We don"t need a niche — we have Shabbes. We don"t need a new narrative — we have yetziat mitzrayim, the promise that the world need not look the way that it does, and that human beings, in partnership with a living God, have the power to shape history. We don"t need a PR makeover — we need to get back in touch with our essence. What the movement needs is not, in the words of the Slonimer Rebbe, to paint over the cracks in our walls and replaster. What we need is to uproot our spiritual home — to have the courage to ask the most fundamental questions about the issues facing us as Jews and human beings today, and then make space for the voices of our tradition to guide our own voices in addressing those questions.

The future of Conservative Judaism will depend on our ability to embody an ethic of passionate, committed involvement in the world that flows naturally from, and likewise directly informs, humble and courageous encounter with the Jewish tradition. We need to articulate the fundamental connection between a halakhic, Torah-centered life on one hand, and a serious concern for and engagement in the world on the other. We need to remember how to dance, how to daven with real intention, how to study text with passion and purpose. If the movement is true to its deepest aspirations, allowing the creative tension between our tradition and modernity to fuel our religious existence, then it will undoubtedly inspire a new generation to become both actively committed Jews and agents of change on the world stage.

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