Lost in Translation?: The Mandel Winter Consultation December 17th-21st


Where do we face issues of translation in our professional practice? What kinds of literacy  – if any at all – are preconditions for a flourishing Jewish life? To what extent does the existence of a Hebrew-speaking society ensure flourishing Jewish culture – if at all? 
It was with questions such as these that participants in the  Mandel Winter Consultation grappled throughout their time at the Mandel Institute in Jerusalem. The conference brought together a group of leading Jewish educational and social innovators currently helping to shape Jewish life in America, providing a forum for dialogue between them and the Mandel Leadership Institute, which operates a number of programs for outstanding educational professionals in Israel and the Jewish world.

This winter, the Mandel Leadership Institute sought to examine with the participants how profound questions of contemporary Jewish life are played out in their work: how might big ideas and profound conceptualizations – whether modern and familiar or from other times and places – inform their work as Jewish educational and social innovators?
 
The Mandel Winter Consultation focused on one particular issue, common to the practice of all participants – that of translation. There were a number of questions on the agenda and more uncovered during the course of consultation, such as: What is lost in translation? How, if at all, can it be retrieved or compensated for? Participants addressed the question of obstacles to multilingual Judaism in America, what they are if they indeed exist and how to overcome them, should they wish to do so.

For more information about the Mandel Winter Consultation, please email: danielbar@mli.org.il