Beyond the ‘big tent’: Harnessing pluralism to forge Jewish identity

Beyond the ‘big tent’: Harnessing pluralism to forge Jewish identity

The sun-filled Son Room at an evangelical mission center in rural Kentucky became my unlikely Shabbat refuge during a formative college summer. As the only identifiable Jew for dozens of miles, my own mission was to set up programs that would bring together mostly liberal groups of diverse college students with local evangelical ministries. Navigating this generally conservative community forced me to articulate my Jewish beliefs with newfound c…