Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks often reminded us that the universal begins with the particular — that a genuine concern for humanity must be rooted in a deep love and responsibility for one’s own community. This discussion explores how Sacks navigated the tension and interplay between the universal values of moral responsibility and the particular commitments of Jewish life. Together, we will consider how his ideas speak to the central challenges facing Jewish communal leadership today: sustaining Jewish identity, purpose, and solidarity while engaging meaningfully with the wider world. Participants will reflect on how Sacks’s thought continues to shape the ethical and strategic foundations of Jewish communal work in our own time.

Barry Shrage is currently a faculty member at Brandeis University. At Brandeis he works on issues of Jewish Identity (part of the Cohen Center that has overseen all the Birthright research for the last twenty years) and teaches in the Hornstein Program, training students for work in the Jewish community. He blogs on the Times of Israel.

Previously he served as president of CJP—Boston’s Jewish Federation--from 1987 to 2018. Under Barry’s leadership, CJP focused on three priorities: Jewish education, adult Jewish learning and engaging future generations, strengthening our connection to Israel through community-to-community and people-to-people partnerships, and creating a caring community dedicated to torah tzedek and chesed.

He and his wife Ellie live in Newton, where they raised their two children. They have six grandchildren.