Be’chol Lashon

As mobility, intermarriage, conversion and adoption increase the complex identity of American Jewry, Be’chol Lashon (meaning “In Every Tongue” in Hebrew) strives to meet the needs of a growing, ethnically and racially diverse Jewish population and to help connect next generation and unafiliated Jews who want to belong to a more global Jewish community. As an initiative of the Institute for Jewish and Community Research, Be’chol Lashon promotes its demographic and qualitative research findings through conferences, workshops, publications and technical assistance, raising up these issues of inclusion and serving diverse Jews who feel marginalized and disenfranchised from Judaism. 

In May, Be’chol Lashon hosted its annual International Think Tank for racially and ethnically diverse Jewish leaders from all over the Jewish world. Following the Think Tank, sta  works year-round with a core group of 20 leaders in African American, Asian, Latino and mixed-race Jewish communities to strengthen each leader’s capabilities and to help grow the communities. For example, next generation leader Lacey Schwartz has begun working with Be’chol Lashon to build a social networking site that promotes racial and ethnic diversity in the Jewish community. To complement those partnerships, Be’chol Lashon hosts community building holiday events in the San Francisco Bay Area—usually co-sponsored by some 50 organizations—which attract over 400 participants. 

After 10 years, Be’chol Lashon has established and  ne-tuned its innovative model and is replicating, beginning with new ofices in Chicago and New York. “Diane Tobin has years of experience on this issue and has been a leader in the  eld.” The organization is “stepping out in front to do the research,” convene the events and raise the pro le of racially and ethnically diverse Jews in the United States and around the world. Certainly “other communities can learn from [these] goals and activities, which are meaningful for the whole Jewish community.”