Pluralism Rules

[alter_kaker]

In re the discussion in Meta Topic—What do we Want?

@alter_kaker said in Meta Topic—What do we Want?:

Another question is religion and how do we handle the radical differences between different frames of reference (i.e. Orthodox, Reform, etc)? I'm Orthodox, for example, which means that I need to either stay out of some conversations because my understanding is going to be straight up not welcome, or participate in some kind of bowlderized way, or risk serious conflict. One of my goals is to enable a space where people of different FoRs can interact, because I know Jews who for example have never knowingly spoken to a Reform Jew, or an Orthodox Jew, or a Queer person.

@talya said in Meta Topic—What do we Want?:

idk if i'm once again too trusting, but i'm thinking that so long as we proactively remind people that all FoRs are valid so long as they don't actively harm another person, that people should stay respectful, mindful of their biases, then i don't see why different FoRs wouldn't be able to mix. i think that so long as someone didn't open a discussion explicitly saying "hey i want to get the PoV of people from this FoR only, thanks", there's no reason not to allow someone to join in, so long as they're aware of their limits (and even possibly state them outloud, e.g. "as someone who grew up in Israel i'm aware my perspective on this may be biased, but yada yada").

@ellie said in Meta Topic—What do we Want?:

Make that goal clear from the outset. Also create a thread specifically to talk about how to do this so early members are all involved and those who join later can see our work and contribute their thoughts.
Tags so readers have an idea what to expect is good, and so is the expectation that people will handle themselves.

I'm going back and forth on the idea of categories for the movements while the group is small and have currently landed on build it so it's clear there's space for everyone.

I think that for me, Pluralism is a fundamental political principle, although as a value I still need to do work to define it within my Orthodox FoR. I would like this to be a space where we can practice pluralism, even when it's difficult and personal and messy. I hope that we can, as a community, reflect the larger Jewish community with all its great diversity, but learn, despite some existentially profound differences, to hold each other as fellows so that we can coexist within this small delimited space.

When you really think about it, pluralism is incredibly difficult; and it seems that each corner of the Jewish community has deeply held beliefs that totally invalidate the existence of at least one other corner (as someone who has inhabited a probably unusual number of corners, I can say this with confidence). How do we do it? How can we stay true to ourselves and our beliefs, but still carve out a space for others for whom our beliefs don't explicitly make space? Maybe we can start with a set of rules. We're Jews after all...

Oh and I hope that some of the very knowledgeable Torah students I invited come and help us talk about how to understand pluralism Jewishly in the Torah section.

[alter_kaker]

1. Be respectful.
   Examples: don't misgender people, don't tell people that they are child abusing misogynistic cultists.