Using Jewish Practice to Build Healthier Communities
Welcome to American Scripture Project, a program that will bring your congregation together to grapple with our country’s poems, speeches, documents, stories, and other past writings. Through the encounter with texts, communities can confront tensions between our foundational aspirations and contemporary realities, deepen the conversation around what it means to be an American - and to be Jewish - in the 21st century, and strengthen the ability to talk across differences.
This project grew out of concerns about the growing polarization in our varied communities - our families, workplaces, houses of worship, and local, regional, and national governmental and nongovernmental institutions - which are the foundation of our nation. This problem affects democracy at every level, including the local synagogue Board. We have lost the ability to disagree civilly, and our divisions threaten to tear us apart. Diverse viewpoints turn into a toxicity that separates families, sows distrust within and between communities, and poisons our belief in institutions.
Our hypothesis is that this toxicity emerges out of a spiritual brokenness, rather than any intellectual or moral difference about policy or even politics. We believe part of today’s hyper-partisanship stems from a deep loneliness and a spiritual desire to belong. Thus, American Scripture Project utilizes the spirituality of Jewish Torah study, or parshanut - the careful dissection and investigation of text with love - to access this spiritual side of participants’ minds. We believe that the exploration of American scriptures - various texts written throughout our nation’s history to express great ideas - will reteach us (1) how to talk with each other in a way that fosters the democratic values of dignity, respect, courage, openness, compassion, and justice, and (2) how to wrestle with, understand, question, strengthen, and/or rewrite our national narratives.
Used initially with Northern Virginia Hebrew Congregation in 2018, American Scripture Project was recently piloted with 10 Reform and Conservative congregations across the United States. According to participants in the pilot, benefits of their participation in the program included challenging their preconceived views and gaining new insights about the texts, as well as building community through sharing and discussing ideas.
Project Purpose and Objectives
Americans have always been deeply divided over our national narratives - stories that tell us where we came from, who we are, and where we are going. But these narratives are more than stories. They sustain collective visions and national values, frame anxieties and hopes, and clarify individual duties and public roles. They embody values such as equality, religious freedom, prosperity and individualism, citizen activism, and constitutionalism.
For over more than 350 years, Jews have come to America seeking and finding religious freedom, security, and economic opportunity, creating a Golden Age in the vast arc of Jewish history. Yet today, both here and abroad, antisemitism has reared its ugly head, threatening our freedoms and causing some to minimize their Jewish identities. The toxicity of our national discourse fuels that antisemitism, empowering hatred at both ends of the political spectrum.
American Scripture Project aims to reinvigorate political discourse through spiritual practice. By “political” we mean the processes and norms that guide group deliberation and create policies. Politics is how we solve problems without violence. By examining American narratives with our spiritual values of dignity, respect, courage, openness, compassion, and justice, we aim to transform how we live and lead, revitalizing democracy in the synagogue and beyond.
Participants in American Scripture Project can expect to:
Read all or part of influential American texts and consider their meaning to personal identity and experiences.
Consider the connections of the texts to the teaching of Judaism and Jewish values.
Use the habits of parshanut to share perspectives and gain new insights from respectful dialogue with others.
Reflect on personal, political, and historical biases and the tensions between the intent of the texts and present-day realities.
Identify personal and community actions to constructively collaborate with those expressing opposing views.
By the end of the program, participants should be able to:
Comprehend the contradictions and tensions in the texts.
Recognize their own personal experiences related to the texts and understand how those experiences have shaped their American identity.
Engage more actively in their community.
Identify how participation in the program has helped their synagogue members better engage in discussions on difficult topics.
Texts to Be Considered
Calling a document “Scripture” separates it from its mundane purpose and elevates it to a source of moral guidance (even if we gain wisdom from it through disagreement). The potential library of American scripture is vast. The texts for this program were selected using the following four criteria: (1) they incorporate the fundamental American narrative ideas of liberty, equality, exceptionalism, and justice; (2) they attempt to represent both normative and marginal voices from our national history; (3) they demonstrate the varied ways (what we call “mechanics”) that narrative can be used to inspire citizens; and (4) they are old enough that groups can avoid being drawn into arguments about current events.
Series 1:
Session 1: “The New Colossus,” Emma Lazarus: Written by a Jewish woman, the poem distinguishes the American experiment from other famous civilizations in human history and resonates with personal histories of migration. Simultaneously, it demonstrates how mere words on a page can transform the country, going so far as to subvert the purpose of a massive civic project.
Session 2: “The Declaration of Independence,” Thomas Jefferson: As one of the most inspiring and effective documents in human history, the Declaration is unparalleled in its power. Yet its use of the word “savages” to describe Native Americans, and Jefferson’s personal history, raise contradictions at the core of its argument for absolute human equality. Groups will have to confront the spiritual challenge of our disappointment with incomplete aspirations.
Session 3: “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” Frederick Douglass: Using familiar biblical texts, Douglass shines a spotlight on perhaps our most important national ritual, the celebration of Independence Day. In so doing, he simultaneously attacks the way Americans undermine our national narrative of liberty while upholding the true meaning of that narrative.
Session 4: “Tear Down this Wall,” Ronald Reagan: At the height of the Cold War, when the country faced terrifying nuclear peril, Reagan used the power of sacred space to argue for American exceptionalism and freedom. Because this speech was delivered within the living memory of many participants, it will challenge their ability to separate national narratives from personal partisan beliefs.
Session 5: “Ain’t I A Woman,” Sojourner Truth: Delivered by an illiterate, formerly enslaved woman, but published in two different versions separated by 12 years, this cornerstone of feminist activism demonstrates the ways that texts can be used and misused by audiences. Because this session involves careful textual comparison, it relies on familiar concepts of scripture study and allows groups to confront their internal biases.
Session 6: “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” Ursula K. LeGuin: Relying on the great American narrative of a New Jerusalem, LeGuin questions our individual obligations when we realize we are implicated in social injustice. And as a short story, “Omelas” draws readers into a painful confrontation with the reality of American inequality and exploitation.
Session 7: “Remarks at the 1960 Greater Houston Ministerial Association,” John F. Kennedy: Given the anti-Catholic attacks on Al Smith during the 1928 Presidential campaign, Kennedy presents a vision of an absolute separation of Church and State. Studying this issue in a religious context asks groups to consider how faith traditions and behavior can positively and negatively influence our political system.
Session 8: “America, The Beautiful,” Katherine Lee Bates: By setting her aspirations for the country’s moral beauty against its physical grandeur, Bates subtly pushes the country to address its founding contradictions. Because most participants will know only the first and last stanzas, facilitators can explore the sophisticated moral agenda in the second and third stanzas (where, incidentally, Ray Charles began singing in a famous performance during the Vietnam War).
Session 9: The United States Constitution, Article II, Section 1, Paragraph 3 (the Counting of the Electoral College Vote): This dense and obscure passage of the Constitution appears mundane, yet it describes an elaborate ritual to accompany the selection of a new president. Given that this was the precise Congressional event attacked on January 6, 2021, the text elevates the importance of rituals in communicating meaning and maintaining national cohesion.
Approach to Learning
The suggested format for reviewing and discussing each session’s text is based on major principles of adult learning and effective instructional design. This includes individual preparatory work (reading and reflection in response to questions); engagement of participants (through listening and small- and large-group discussion); and recognition of future individual and group responses (to productively respond to differences of opinion, misconceptions, misunderstandings, inequalities, and injustices).
Individual preparation prior to sessions helps settle participants’ need to approach the texts using more familiar secular paradigms learned in school and professional life. This program’s explicitly spiritual learning approach may initially make some participants uncomfortable, given that educated, sophisticated, modern, rational thinkers are typically more accustomed to literary analysis, legal reasoning, or historiography. Instead, this program will present reflection questions in advance, at the start, and at the end of each session to help participants incorporate the ideas of the text into their individual identities and consider changes in their behavior.
Torah study has always been first among the pillars upon which Jewish civilization stands. This is because the experience—the culture, the human interaction, the encounter with the sacred, the connection to past and future interpreters, the hermeneutics, the creativity, and the mystery and majesty of the text itself—functions like a gymnasium of the mind and soul, incubating certain patterns of thought, necessary character traits, and assumptions about human interaction. Three “technologies” related to Torah study stand out as extraordinarily helpful for healing American democracy:
We are not meant to be passive recipients of the text, but active partners in the acquisition of truth. The Torah text intones, lo bashamayim hee, “it is not up in heaven.” Jewish tradition interprets this to mean that God’s truth is revealed through our participation in study. Similarly, American politics demands participation, not only when we pull a lever at the voting booth, but also when we engage fellow citizens about the country’s path and identity. When we invite learners to wrestle with a text or topic, particularly one considered American “scripture,” and especially when we do this in a spiritual context, the wrestling dispels cynicism and inspires possibility.
Jewish study is not an individual engagement or a dependence upon the study leader. Even the most fundamentalist forms of Judaism engage with the text within a circle of learners or with a learning partner (hevruta). While the idea of “truth” implies clarity, simplicity, and a unity of thought, Judaism recognizes that humans as individuals are messy, inconsistent, complicated, and able to maintain simultaneously contradictory thoughts. Only God is fully One. The Torah ends with the lesson that “Never again did there arise in Israel a prophet like Moses—whom the Eternal singled out face to face” (Deut 34:10). Only Moses accessed God’s Truth directly. Thus, we agree to seek the truth together, even when it is hard, knowing we cannot fully reach it. We build our relationship on epistemological humility. When we enter the circle of learners, especially to study the texts we share as American scripture, we find the trust necessary to hold citizens in a polity.
Jewish study thrives when it finds contradiction in the text. Our method is built upon the assumption that the scripture has an inherent truth, and contradictions challenge us to pull from the text (the Hebrew for commenting on Torah, drash, is the same as the word “to demand”) explanations that provide a deeper level of meaning. This assumption helps contain the complexities, paradoxes, and tensions found in our American narratives and instills humility within us about our views and positions. Torah study offers an approach that puts learners into a conversation about messy and often inconsistent and contradictory ideas, relying upon relationships to bridge the tension. It creates a superordinate identity stronger than any disagreement about a simple truth.
Finally, it is important that participants be engaged in a manner consistent with democratic values. We need to model the very values the texts acclaim – dignity, respect, courage, openness, compassion, and justice. This is purposefully embedded in the structure of each session through using opening and closing prayers and songs to set a tone for calm communal engagement. Groups can also opt to acknowledge each person’s contribution by responding with “shemati,” I have heard you. This tool can be especially helpful when conversation gets heated.
End-of-session reflections will cement participants’ experience of encounter with the group and the text. This will deepen individual understanding about how American narratives operate around us. Reflection on ideas heard within the session will also strengthen a community’s confidence with experiencing internal disagreement in public, ideally carrying over into other areas of congregational life and inspiring changes in personal leadership.
