New Website Launches One Week From Today
As the Jewish world counts up to Shavuot and the revelation of Torah on Mt. Sinai, The Shalom Center is counting up to the revelation of our new website at 12pm EDT on Thursday, May 25th.
The Shalom Center has needed a new website for quite some time. As technology and the world evolves at rapid speeds, it’s imperative that we keep up. We’re so excited that this new site will help us do just that. As you can see from the sneak-peek of our new homepage below, we are bringing our outward-facing digital presence into contemporary times. The site will have a new and clear navigation menu, updated organizational and programmatic information, and a user-friendly resource bank.
But even more than bringing The Shalom Center into contemporary times, our prayer is that this site serves as one key aspect of our broader generational transformation into TSC 2.0, mapping a future-oriented movement of meaning-making and world-building rooted in the Jewish festival cycle.
Contemporary writer Bayo Akomolafe asks: “What if the way we're responding to the crisis is part of the crisis?” In this question, we understand him to be probing the nature of activism. For those who take to the streets to protest what we see as unjust, is there a new way to show up that doesn’t reify the divisions and distress already present in our society? Is there a way for us to build the world we want to see, rather than shout for it? Our responses to these questions are the foundation of TSC 2.0, The Shalom Center’s strategic vision for the next generation.
The Shalom Center does not believe the future we desire will be achieved through the holding of cardboard signs, angrily yelling across a stanchion or at a large building. We believe that a world of abundance, dignity, and wholeness will only be achieved through collective care and celebration. That is why we are particularly interested in evolving from “social justice” to “sacred justice.” A kind of justice that honors the holiness of all people and Earth, and recognizes that we will only get where we wish to go if we do it together. Acting from a place of inspiration, desire, and vision, rather than coercion, fear, and shame.
The world is in deep and existential crisis, like the Israelites standing at the edge of the Reed Sea, and we need new approaches and experiments if we hope to get to the other side. That is why we are catalyzing a national movement of prophetic Judaism rooted in the Jewish festival cycle, so that our holy festivals may serve as portals for the creation of a shared future for all Creation. In so doing, we hope to redraw the contours of both Judaism and activism.
We hope you will visit theshalomcenter.org next week at this time, as our new website goes live and TSC 2.0 becomes an offering to the Jewish world, to be shaped and molded together as we step into that sea.
To follow along between now and then, as we continue to reveal new highlights of the website, like us on Facebook here and follow us on Instagram here.