In the spirit of the New Year, I’d like to propose to American Jewry a low-cost, no-risk resolution for improving our selves and strengthening our communities: the Current-Events Chavruta. (A "chavruta" is a study partner with whom one meets on a daily or weekly basis to study important texts-usually Talmud or Jewish law, but in this case, the news.)

This resolution is designed to capitalize on our strengths (it assumes that we are hyper-literate, and equally enamored of disputation) and our weaknesses (it kicks in around the middle of January, when along with the rest of America we’re struggling to stick to our stay-away-from-chocolate-and-get-back-to-the-gym resolutions), and it aims at redressing two of our biggest challenges-our atomized political, religious, and social landscapes and the inherited, unexamined, uninformed echo-chamber that all too often passes for our conversations about current events and public policy. (Yes, this resolution takes aim at our soft spot-while we are bright, we are also a bit in the dark-but then, what good New Year’s resolution doesn’t?).

Here’s a quick diagnostic question to help determine if you’re a good candidate for this Current-Events Chavruta resolution:

What is the Cloward-Piven Strategy?

If, like most American Jews (and most Americans, for that matter), you responded, "Huh?" or, "Who’s Howard Givens?", congratulations-this is the resolution for you! (After you’ve read this essay and set up your chavruta, Google "Cloward-Piven Strategy" for a sure-fire way to get things started.)

When it comes to making a change, there’s no time like the present, and for this resolution, that’s particularly true. We’re living in momentous times. With events such as President Obama’s historic first year in office (be sure to scroll down for the graph), the worldwide economic meltdown and its potential impacts on Jews, a decade beginning with this book and ending with this one, the looming Iranian threat-cum-opportunity, the resurgence of global anti-Semitism (particularly from often-unexpected quarters), and the fluid situation in Israel, the time is right for American Jews to sit and reason together, to re-examine and clarify our assumptions and understandings about what is going on in the world and what our responses, and our roles, should be.

The chavruta is not just timely and topical, though. It’s central to our history and our identity, to the traditional activity that made so many of us so sharp: sitting down with a friend to debate and understand a piece of text, and then getting up to act on that understanding. This back-and-forth give-and-take is one of the foundations of the strong Jewish communities throughout history and today, it is sorely needed. Alongside the conversations hosted online at sites like this one, there’s nothing like reasoning together in the flesh to build community and to force ourselves outside of our comfort zones.

OK, enough talk; let’s get started. Here’s how the C-E Chavruta will work. First, this isn’t another centralized, top-down program but rather, more of a grassroots project that can be taken on by individuals at synagogues, JCCs, Starbucks, living rooms, and anywhere else where Jews might come together. There are no dues, no bureaucracy, no boards and no directors, and this isn’t the kind of thing where you watch passively as pundits debate on cable news or in the JCC auditorium or even in the pages of some or another magazine-this is active, this is just you and your chavruta and the texts, and the questions, the analysis, the conversations, and whatever may follow.

Below, there are two lists-one for some blogs and magazines from the "left" and one for some from the "right." Every day, you and your chavruta will each spend at least fifteen minutes on the sites from the column on the left and fifteen minutes on the sites on the right. There are many more sites to choose from, but these are a good starting point. And, of course, you’re free to add your own. I’ve also included some recent books representing something of a synthesis of the left and right perspectives and that can be read and discussed on an ongoing basis-two are groundbreaking analyses of the Israeli situation, and three are by thinkers who have had, as they say in the trade, "second thoughts"-and these are fairly groundbreaking as well.

Let’s read actively-taking notes, and printing out the pieces that particularly challenge or inspire or anger us-and arrive for our weekly get-togethers charged up and ready to dive back into the texts. We’ll ask questions such as, What exactly is the argument here? What is the evidence? Does this seem right? What don’t I understand? Is the writer leaving something out? Does it seem like a deliberate omission or just an oversight? What do I agree with? Why? What makes me uncomfortable? Why? Which writers seem more well-informed? Have I learned anything new? Which of my assumptions have been challenged? Now what?

Now what?

Senor and Singer, Start-Up Nation

Gilder, The Israel Test

Gordis, Saving Israel

Solway, The Big Lie and Hear, O Israel!

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