The Jewish Faculty Roundtable (JFR) has brought to our attention an interesting set of seven online focus groups that the Government of Israel and the Jewish Agency are currently running on “Securing A Thriving Jewish Future.” Like JFR, the Brandeis Center is most interested in higher education issues, so we were drawn to the focus group on “Jewish Life And Israel Engagement On Campuses.” Yesterday (Sunday, February 17, 2014), the discussion was devoted to “inspiration,” and the discussion from that topic is available online. Today, as described in the above box, you are invited to discuss the “paradoxes” that must be resolved to secure the Jewish future. Check it out if you are interested in sharing your views about what must be done to protect the future of the Jewish community. See the prospectus at http://securingthejewishfuture.ning.com/ You may register at http://securingthejewishfuture.ning.com/main/authorization/signUp From the summary on “Jewish Life And Israel Engagement” THE POSSIBILITIES: current ideas that can be pursued • Recruit, train, and retain a core campus team including a) a local Hillel young engagement professional, b) an Israel Fellow, and c) a seasoned Hillel Jewish educator on 200 campuses to exploit the opportunities of Birthright and expand on-campus programming that creates greater engagement, including that related to Israel. • Pluralize programming expertise within and beyond the Hillel framework; invest in a variety of organizations who can offer expert content that strikes a Jewish chord with the diversity of students. • Exploit the resource of university faculty to shape the students’ journeys through courses for credit relating to Jewish civilization and Israel studies, increased faculty exchange programs with Israel, and scholar/artist-in-residence initiatives. • Offer student innovation funds and micro-grants that enable the speedy execution of sparky ideas of merit, and potentially larger grants with mentoring, to stimulate numerous models of Jewishly-rich engagements that are driven by students, for students. Create a Virtual Campus in which the Jewish People’s foremost lecturers can provide recorded courses (some for credit), student-led discussions about matters of the moment, book clubs, comedy clubs, parashat hashavua sheets, “find a bed” in another country, etc. • Incentivize collaboration among the numerous Jewish groups active on campus, recognizing the significant pole position that Hillel holds on the campuses and universities of many countries, and hand to them the significant role of galvanizing collaboration.