Limmud Conference and Mash Ups

In his book, The Age of the Unthinkable, Joshua Cooper Ramo explains that we live in an age of ‘mash-ups’, one of unexpected combinations of things, whether that be Islamic terrorism and jet airplanes, or hedge funds and home mortgages.

I thought back to Ramo’s mash-up phrase yesterday evening, as I sat listening to ‘Pharoah’s daughter’ in concert on the last night of the Limmud UK conference.

Because what way better to describe the phenomenon if not by Chasidic melodies being sung in Yiddish, Hebrew and English by a woman playing the oud, backed up by acoustic guitar and beatboxing, or sessions discussing Sukkot and Halloween, or Rabbi Akiva and Omar from the TV show ‘The Wire’,

While slightly less 'mashed up', the sessions I presented at Limmud focused on delegitimization of Israel, the political process with the Palestinians, leadership and identifying adaptive challenges, and the theological significance of the Shoah.

They were well received, and I was pleased with how they went.

But maybe for next year I should learn how to play the oud and beatbox...

Sessions:

• Delegitimization: A Crisis in Israel’s National Security Doctrine (two sessions: presentation part 1, part 2 and audio recording)
  
  
• 2011: The Year of a Palestinian State? (presentation and audio recording)
  
  
• Theories of Leadership: Identifying and Closing Trends (presentation and audio recording)
  
  
• The Theological Significance of the Shoah (source sheet and audio recording)