Sunday, October 3, 2021
10:30 am to 11:30 am
REGISTER HERE
Consider these discouraging statistics about Jewish identity in America today. A Pew Research Report, issued in May 2021, observed that 27% of U.S. Jewish adults do not identify with the Jewish religion. They consider themselves to be Jewish ethnically, culturally, or by family background, and have a Jewish parent and/or were raised Jewish. But in answer to what current religion they are, they respond as atheist, agnostic, or “nothing in particular” rather than as Jewish. Among Jewish adults under 30, an astonishing 40% describe themselves this way.
In an L.E.D. program on October 3rd, David Kuney, author of the engrossing intergenerational memoir, On Rockingham Street, will provide an important perspective on the challenges posed by the Pew Report.
Kuney’s book weaves his family’s journey from Vilna to the suburban South with the reality of how Jewish learning and practice are challenged by the struggle of immigrants and their offspring to become assimilated into American life. He explores what it means to be Jewish in America today and how Judaism can survive. Kuney focuses on creative ideas for how the younger generation might best find relevance and meaning in Judaism and whether Jewish literacy and Jewish education need new impetus and direction.
David Kuney is an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University Law Center and has practiced law for over 46 years. For the past twelve years, he has been actively involved in Jewish education and literacy. He currently sits on the Board of Directors of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies and has previously served on the Board of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and the Adat Shalom Congregation in Bethesda, Maryland.
Join us for what promises to be a timely and informative talk.
