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From: R. Halevi
Subject: Formative experiences
Date: 26 Elul 5783
Subject: Whose experiences?
I want to return to a question that has been circling this discussion.
Every time someone proposes a code, someone else asks: but what about my experience? The objections are not obstruction. They are the nature of formation itself.
Formation is particular. It happens in specific places, specific times, specific communities. The attempt to generalize it into codes will always privilege some experiences over others.
If we list summer camps, we privilege American Jews. If we list army service, we privilege Israelis. If we list youth movements, we privilege those whose communities had such movements.
The specification cannot contain all of Jewish history. But the moment we select, we exclude.
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