We live in a time of extra­or­di­nary choice. Today, the hyper-empow­ered indi­vid­ual is free to choose from among end­less pos­si­bil­i­ties in her pri­vate, pro­fes­sion­al, social, and com­mu­nal life. And in mak­ing her choic­es, this empow­ered indi­vid­ual explores and ques­tions the cul­tur­al and reli­gious insti­tu­tions and orga­ni­za­tions that seek her affil­i­a­tion. Do they address her inter­ests? Will she be an active par­tic­i­pant in their pro­gram? Do they hold mean­ing for her?

Pres­i­dent and CEO of the Jew­ish Fun­ders Net­work and a vet­er­an of Jew­ish orga­ni­za­tion­al life, Andrés Spokoiny is deeply con­cerned about the chal­lenge that cul­tur­al and reli­gious insti­tu­tions face today and about the future of Jew­ish com­mu­nal life. Its insti­tu­tions were con­struct­ed for peo­ple whose view of them­selves and the world is dif­fer­ent from that of today’s empow­ered indi­vid­ual. These are insti­tu­tions for peo­ple who were brought up in car­riages in which they faced their par­ents, who made order in their lives. Today, chil­dren grow up in strollers that face for­ward, with the world ahead of them and the choice of where to look. How do we cre­ate com­mu­nal orga­ni­za­tions that can encom­pass so many viewpoints?

Spokoiny devotes the first half of the book to a review of Jew­ish his­to­ry from the very sta­ble and reg­u­lat­ed world ruled by God and king to the more flu­id mod­ern world in which Jews were grant­ed rights as indi­vid­ual cit­i­zens and could actu­al­ly ​“shed … the yoke of Judaism and its many restric­tions.” The respons­es to moder­ni­ty and the nation state were var­ied: the Haskalah, Reform, Con­ser­v­a­tive, and Mod­ern Ortho­dox move­ments all emerged, as did Hasidism, ultra-Ortho­doxy, and Zion­ism. And then Judaism crossed the Atlantic Ocean and gave rise to even more orga­ni­za­tions to adapt to the new pos­si­bil­i­ties in Amer­i­ca. But what­ev­er affil­i­a­tion Jews chose, it was a well-defined group, a group designed to deal with com­mu­nal con­cerns. This does not suit today’s generation.

To meet today’s needs, Spokoiny calls for three rev­o­lu­tions: a rev­o­lu­tion of mean­ing, a rev­o­lu­tion of com­mu­ni­ty, and a rev­o­lu­tion of orga­ni­za­tion­al struc­ture. Spokoiny spends a chap­ter with each of these, call­ing for seri­ous thought, increased Jew­ish lit­er­a­cy, and will­ing­ness to exper­i­ment with new com­mu­nal forms. Spokoiny doesn’t pro­pose spe­cif­ic solu­tions but indi­cates the direc­tions they might take.

The issues Spokoiny iden­ti­fies — the role of social media; the sense of iso­la­tion many feel, per­haps inten­si­fied by the pan­dem­ic; and the dumb­ing-down of pub­lic inter­course — are not unique to Judaism. How­ev­er, Judaism has thrived on com­mu­nal life, and this is Spokoiny’s chief concern.

Tra­di­tion and Tran­si­tion will be of most val­ue to pro­fes­sion­als, and to Jew­ish pro­fes­sion­als in par­tic­u­lar. It speaks the lan­guage of orga­ni­za­tion­al life to lead­ers who will have to change the way they use their posi­tions and ener­gize their institutions.