Overview: Announcing the launch of EA for Jews
We’re excited to announce the launch of a new EA outreach and community group: EA for Jews. EA for Jews’ mission is (1) to share EA ideas with Jews (broadly defined to include religious as well as secular Jews) and (2) to build a community of Jews interested in EA.
Join our Facebook group here and learn more through our website here.
We are currently launching within the EA community to grow the group and will then reach out more widely to Jewish communities worldwide. We are keen to find people who want to get involved in any way, big or small, from helping us run the organisation to speaking at your local synagogue or youth group about EA. If you’re interested in getting involved or would like to learn more, please fill out the form here and contact us if you have any questions!
Background
EA and Judaism share several key principles and values. There is also evidence that similar faith-based groups have been successful in both outreach and community-building (see, e.g., EA for Christians, Buddhists in EA). With this in mind, Ben posted this piece on the forum in March 2021, proposing the formation of EA for Jews. Since then, a group of volunteers have combined to build the website, launch the organisation, and begin working on future programmes. We hope that through fostering a global community of Jews interested in EA, we can encourage more individuals to use their time and money to more effectively tackle the world’s most pressing problems.
Group’s goals and plans
- Short term: launch internally within EA community in order to gauge interest and recruit volunteers to introduce EA to their communities and to help grow the organisation
- Medium term: build resources and programmes (e.g. presentations, fellowship), launch within the wider Jewish community; events both online and in-person locally
- Long term: potentially register as a charity and hire a part- or full-time staff member to run the organisation; continued outreach and programme delivery within Jewish community
How you can get involved
There are several ways to get involved with EA for Jews, from joining our community to helping to run the organisation. Here are several suggestions, but we would love to hear any other ideas, either by filling out this form or contacting us at shalom@eaforjews.org.
- Join the community Facebook group and newsletter to explore the intersection of EA and Judaism and meet others with similar goals
- Invite a friend to do the same!
- Volunteer with the central team to help run the organisation
- We are recruiting a team of talented and dedicated volunteers to help run the organization as it continues to grow at this early stage.There are roles at different levels of commitment in areas including content, community building, programs and events.
- Talk to your local community
- Our goal is to introduce EA throughout the Jewish community, and we’d love to have you on board. If you’d like to speak in your synagogue, youth group or other organization about EA and Judaism, we can provide resources and support to help you. We are non-denominational, but also have resources that can be appropriate for various audiences, from Orthodox to Reconstructionist.
- Offer feedback on the website by contacting us here
Woo, as the person running Buddhists in EA, really excited to see more groups like this! At this point there's enough of us (3 groups) that maybe it's time to start thinking about an EA Interfaith group. :-)
Thanks Gordon! I think an pan-interfaith group would be great! I'd love to compare notes and hear more about what your group is up to.
What would you say are the biggest benefits of being part of an EA faith group?
I think of it as coming from two angles. One is that it's a form of community building to expose folks to EA ideas who might otherwise not engage with them by doing so in a language they are familiar with. Two, it's a way for EAs who are religious to explore how EA impacts other spheres of their life.
I think it's also nice to have community by creating a sense of belonging. With EA being such a secular space normally, having a way to learn you're not the only one trying to combine EA and practice of a religion is nice. Good to have folks to talk to, etc.