What is Judeofuturism?
Judeofuturism is a framework that imagines and works towards expansive, affirmative Jewish futures rooted in vibrant pluralism and collective flourishing rather than a sole focus on fear and survival-at-all-costs.
It is multidisciplinary: Judeofuturism combines elements of theology, history, art, ritual, scholarship, practice and culture to create a rich tapestry of practices and principles of Jewish imagination.
It is metabolic: Just as the process of metabolism transforms what we take in into energy for creating and shaping, Judeofuturism does not erase or minimize the histories of violence, trauma, and grief that impact Jewish life. It insists on acknowledging their reality and weight, while refusing to allow fear and survival narratives to become the organizing principle of our collective future.
It is co-created: No one of us “owns” Judeofuturism; rather, it requires the active efforts, imaginations, and collaborations of as many of us as possible across geography and generation.
It is evolving and revolving: The Judeofuturism Project aims to codify and strengthen practices and principles that have existed since the very beginning of Jewish identity and community. In this moment of crisis and crash, Judeofuturism supports us in midrashic practices of interpretation and meaning-making – bridging the ancient, the new, and the not-yet to reinvigorate and reimagine what it means to have futures worth building toward.
On Lineage and Influence
Judeofuturism does not emerge from nowhere. It is in explicit conversation with other futurist traditions, like Afrofuturism – the visionary framework expressing notions of Black identity, agency and freedom through art, creative works and activism that envision liberated futures for Black life – as well as queer futurisms, which refuse heteronormative timelines and insist on the radical possibility of worlds built around different ways of loving, belonging, and becoming.
These traditions share a core insight: that communities who have been told they have no future – or whose futures have been imagined only through the lens of violence and survival – have a particular power and responsibility to dream expansively. Judeofuturism learns from and is accountable to these lineages, while rooting itself in the specific textures of Jewish history, theology, and collective life.
For more insights and discussion on this topic, please see:
Note: These resources represent a spectrum of thinking about Jewish futures; they are not exhaustive, and inclusion here does not indicate wholesale endorsement. Judeofuturism is a living, contested conversation, and we share these as a starting point for thinking, questioning, and imagining.