I suspect the kind of outreach we’d want to do for secular Jews is basically the kind of outreach EA already does or whatever would work best for atheists and secular people generally (or keeping in mind average differences in political views if any, but then it seems it might be better to divide along political lines), and messages targeted towards religious Jews that don’t appeal to the average atheist would not appeal to the average secular Jew, either, and may even be off-putting. Or, maybe those who identify most with Jewish culture, regardless of religious views, would still find religious messaging appealing, so they’ll self-select?
So, I’m not sure if it would be good to have a group with some explicitly religious public messaging trying to do outreach to secular Jews. It might be better to just have a group with religious messaging focusing on religious groups, and/or a group without religious messaging focusing on (cultural or ethnic) Jews more generally (or just secular Jews, if there will be one for religious Jews).
I don’t say this with much familiarity with these communities, though.
Yes, these are good points—I agree that basically, different groups will be more or less responsive to different types of outreach/messages. One of the goals of the site would be to have a really diverse set of blog posts and other content highlighting people who came to EA through different paths—some through a religious path, some not. (Some in between?) I suppose there is some risk that religious content on the site could “turn off” secular or cultural Jews who visit the site, but I think that’s unlikely, so long as there is content that speaks to them as well on there. Worth thinking about this downside risk carefully though!
If necessary, it might be good to frame the arguments from religious texts as connecting with traditional Jewish thought, not in a way that demands a belief (or lack of belief) in the literal accuracy of the Talmud—basically what (my understanding of) Reform Judaism does. It might be good to intersperse religious arguments with secular arguments as well.
Absolutely—this is my intention in both regards. First, in my ideal vision the website would have content that appeals to both religious as well as non-religious Jews. So in addition to highlighting or discussing traditional commentary on, say, tzedakah from the tanakh and talmud I’d also like to highlight Jewish thought broadly related to social justice throughout history. Luckily there is thousands of years worth of content to mine in both regards!
I suspect the kind of outreach we’d want to do for secular Jews is basically the kind of outreach EA already does or whatever would work best for atheists and secular people generally (or keeping in mind average differences in political views if any, but then it seems it might be better to divide along political lines), and messages targeted towards religious Jews that don’t appeal to the average atheist would not appeal to the average secular Jew, either, and may even be off-putting. Or, maybe those who identify most with Jewish culture, regardless of religious views, would still find religious messaging appealing, so they’ll self-select?
So, I’m not sure if it would be good to have a group with some explicitly religious public messaging trying to do outreach to secular Jews. It might be better to just have a group with religious messaging focusing on religious groups, and/or a group without religious messaging focusing on (cultural or ethnic) Jews more generally (or just secular Jews, if there will be one for religious Jews).
I don’t say this with much familiarity with these communities, though.
Yes, these are good points—I agree that basically, different groups will be more or less responsive to different types of outreach/messages. One of the goals of the site would be to have a really diverse set of blog posts and other content highlighting people who came to EA through different paths—some through a religious path, some not. (Some in between?) I suppose there is some risk that religious content on the site could “turn off” secular or cultural Jews who visit the site, but I think that’s unlikely, so long as there is content that speaks to them as well on there. Worth thinking about this downside risk carefully though!
If necessary, it might be good to frame the arguments from religious texts as connecting with traditional Jewish thought, not in a way that demands a belief (or lack of belief) in the literal accuracy of the Talmud—basically what (my understanding of) Reform Judaism does. It might be good to intersperse religious arguments with secular arguments as well.
Absolutely—this is my intention in both regards. First, in my ideal vision the website would have content that appeals to both religious as well as non-religious Jews. So in addition to highlighting or discussing traditional commentary on, say, tzedakah from the tanakh and talmud I’d also like to highlight Jewish thought broadly related to social justice throughout history. Luckily there is thousands of years worth of content to mine in both regards!