Dan Horwitz: Judaism Unbound Episode 210 - Escape from Egypt
Dan Horwitz, Founding Director of The Well, joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation about outside-the-box approaches to Passover. [1]
(0:01 - 26:01): Horwitz kicks off this episode by reflecting on some successes of The Well’s innovative, co-created Passover gatherings, like a deliciously unexpected horseradish-infused vodka. He describes the process of bringing together diverse groups of community members, not just staff, to create programming. Lex notices that for programming like FriendSeder [2] and the Passover Escape Room, [3] The Well “Passoverified” phenomena that were already popular with its target age-group. [4] The conversation turns to how and why our institutions engage Jewish millennials. Horwitz asserts that programs must enrich people’s lives, not maintain institutions, and that millennials need to be part of that work. [5] Pivoting back to the programming design process, we discuss The Well’s philosophy of finding the best people to make each event truly excellent. Horwitz cites David Bryfman’s talk on “The Power of Free,” and says he hopes to teach a generation of young Jews to be willing to pay for meaningful, substantively rich Jewish experiences. [6] He laments the scarcity of programming funding in many Jewish institutions, and offers the possibility of interdependent communal organizations as a more sustainable model.
(26:02 - 40:56) Horwitz talks about the limitations that come with the small, local staff structure of The Well. Because most capacity is focused on the Detroit community, the programs that the team develops is not picked up in as many places around the country as he believes they could be. Horwitz explains that working in a community like Detroit means national funding attention is sometimes focused elsewhere, but the cost of doing business as a Jewish programming R&D lab is cheaper. We take a moment to recognize the insight behind The Well’s decision to continue innovating after early programming successes like the Escape Room rather than repeating different versions of the same event every year. This sparks a conversation about the merits of Jewish variety versus Jewish consistency. Horwitz describes the intention that The Well brings to choosing venues and creating each gathering as an organization differentiated by its variety. [7] He says he is trying to license past programming like the Escape Room to other Jewish organizations in order for The Well to focus on building something new.
(40:57 - 55:48) Horwitz recounts some non-Passover events by The Well created with the same out-of-the-box, grassroots process, like a Shavuot Swiss and Schvitz event [8] or a dinner theatre collaboration with The In[HEIR]itance Project. [9] Horwitz compares the The Well’s programming for minor Jewish holidays like Shavuot to a sneak attack; people come for cool events and end up doing some Jewish learning. He highlights the importance of “What To Expect” sections of outreach materials so people know what they’re walking into. Horwitz doesn’t aim to fundamentally transform people who come to the Passover Escape Room as if they experienced slavery in Egypt, but he hopes to pique their interest in the holiday to begin a process of thinking about it differently. This raises the question of whether transforming people should be a goal of Jewish holidays. Horwitz wonders if there’s a base level of knowledge required to access deeper parts of the holiday tradition. He hopes that his work can give people some tools to make meaningful Jewish experience more accessible. Lex asks Horwitz what we should be leaning into or looking to achieve over Passover and the transition to Shavuot. Rather than answer, Horwitz replies that there is no should and offers free reign to Jews to create our own unbound Passover experience. We close the episode by inviting you, our listeners, to use this Passover series as inspiration to put your spin own Passover.
[1] Learn more about Dan Horwitz by visiting www.RabbiDanH.com. Learn more about The Well at www.MeetYouAtTheWell.org, and listen to our previous interview about its work: Episode 105: The Well - Dan Horwitz.
[2] Find everything you need to host a FriendSeder here, and read about its inspiration FriendsGiving.
[3] Read about The Well’s Passover Escape Room.
[4] You can check out the work of Hillel Smith, the graphic designer behind The Well’s Hagaddah, at https://hillelsmith.info.
[5] When Horwitz refers to drinking the "Kula Kool-Aid," he is referring to the ideas and teachings of Irwin Kula. If you're interested in hearing from Irwin Kula, tune into Episode 53: Death and Rebirth and/or Episode 54: Judaism's Job.
[6] Horwitz mentions David Bryfman’s ELI talk, “The Power of Free.” Find it here, and listen to our interview with him: Episode 76: The Project of Jewish Education - David Bryfman.
[7] Horwitz references Priya Parker's The Art of Gathering: How We Meet And Why It Matters during the discussion of choosing venues for The Well events. Find it here.
[8] Learn more about The Well’s Swiss and Schvitz event.
[9] Explore Brooklyn-based Jewish theatre troop The In[HEIR]itance Project.