The Boundaries of Pluralism

"Sh'ma: A Journal of Jewish Responsibility" celebrated its move to the West Coast with a conversation at the Museum on the boundaries of pluralistic dialogue and engagement.

The conversation was moderated by "Shma" editor Susan Berrin and featured panelists, including Rabbi Lavey Yitzchak Derby, Karen Kushner, Peter L. Stein, and Carole Zawatsky.

Rabbi Lavey Yitzchak Derby, rabbi of Congregation Kol Shofar in Tiburon, has been instrumental in creating a community built on the principles of Torah study, spirituality, quest, practice, and social action. He is an eighth-generation direct descendant of Reb Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, for whom he is named, and is part of a family line of rabbis that traces back to the year 1500. Before coming to Kol Shofar, Lavey served as the executive director of the Council on Jewish Life, a community-building department of the L.A. Federation, and as director of Jewish education at the 92nd Street Y in New York. He is past President of the Northern California Board of Rabbis.

Karen Kushner is executive director of the Jewish Welcome Network, a nonprofit initiative that provides outreach consultation and resources to synagogues, agencies and Jewish schools of all denominations and affiliations in the Bay Area. For over 20 years Karen was a family educator. With Anita Diamant, she is co-author of "How to raise a Jewish child: a practical handbook for family life." And, with her husband, Rabbi Larry Kushner, she has written "Because nothing looks like god, Where is god? What does god look like?" and "How does God make things happen?"

Peter L. Stein is the Executive Director of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, the first and largest of its kind in the world and a field leader in the use of media to foster cross-cultural understanding. Prior to taking the helm at SFJFF in 2003, Stein was an executive producer at KQED (PBS/San Francisco), where from 1988-1999 he was responsible for developing and producing a wide range of series and programs for American public television. His feature-length documentary "The Castro," which he wrote, produced and directed, won a Peabody Award. From 1999-2003 he served as Deputy Director for Programming at The Jewish Museum San Francisco (now the Contemporary Jewish Museum).

Carole Zawatsky is the Chief Program Officer at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco. A seasoned museum professional, Carole most recently served as founding executive director of the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage in Beachwood, Ohio, where she oversaw the museums role as a cultural center for Jewish life and history in the region. She served as the director of education at The Jewish Museum, New York, from 1998 until 2004. She was program coordinator at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., from 1994 to 1998, where she conceptualized, developed, and implemented programs that focused on the lessons of the Holocaust for a broad public audience.

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