In his Baccalaureate address, Kula, regarded as one of America’s “most influential rabbis,” said this generation of graduates has unique challenges ahead.
The members of the Class of 2017 were encouraged Friday afternoon to think about their moral futures in a world that continues to evolve technologically.
In a Baccalaureate message that was both humorous and thought provoking, Rabbi Irwin Kula told graduating students that their generation has a unique challenge ahead.
“As the first generation to have grown up in this new age, you will need to pave new paths. You will need to be road makers,” he said during Elon’s Baccalaureate service, a multifaith ceremony the university holds each year in Alumni Gymnasium to honor the graduating class, their families and the Elon community.
Kula, the president of the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, was one of several special guests attending this year’s Baccalaureate service. Maity Interiano ’07, the on-air talent for “Despierta America,” the top-rated live morning show for the U.S.-based Spanish language Univision network and this year’s Commencement speaker, and media mogul, Oprah Winfrey, were also in attendance. Winfrey was there to support Nosipho Shangase ’17, a graduate of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa, who will receive her bachelor’s degree in public health studies Saturday.
As an internationally renowned speaker and scholar on spirituality, Kula thinks a lot about the future of religion, especially in a world that is changing rapidly. He told the graduates that they are part of a privileged generation and joked that as Spiderman teaches “with great power comes great responsibility.” He also acknowledged that the “too muchness” of their lives can be overwhelming.
“Our technologies have outpaced our ability to metabolize the rapid change we are experiencing,” he said and explained that they will have to make many moral decisions in the years ahead.
“You see technology will enable us to realize our dreams but the quality of our dreams will depend on our expanding moral horizon,” he said. “… We are becoming the gods we imagined but are we creating the world God imagined? You will need to begin to answer this question.”
The more technology knows about our lives, the more we will need to know about ourselves. “Know thyself and ‘know before whom you stand’ will be more important for you than any generation in history,” he said.
Instead of following their passions, Kula urged students to follow their contribution. “Find what you are great at and align your greatness with what the world needs,” he said. “Follow your contribution and you will be the greatest generation unlocking the human potential of our global community.”
Kula has gained wide acclaim for his ability to use Jewish wisdom to speak to all aspects of modern life and relationships. He received the Walter Cronkite Faith and Freedom Award in 2008 for his work “toward equality, liberty and truly inter-religious community” and has been named by Fast Company magazine and the PBS program “Religion and Ethics Newsweekly” as a leader who is shaping the American spiritual landscape. Newsweek has listed him for multiple years as one of the country’s “most influential rabbis.”
Before he spoke, University Chaplain Jan Fuller remembered Demitiri Allison and Derek Winton, two members of the Class of 2017 who passed away. Allison, whose parents were in attendance, died in November 2015, and Winton died in September 2016.
Seniors Benjamin Lutz, Leena Dahal and Emma Warman offered reflections about the meaning they’ve made out of their time at Elon. Dahal, who is from Nepal, spoke about the Hindu philosophy vasudeva kutumbakam, which means the whole world is one family, and how she experienced firsthand what that means while at Elon.
“This family if far from perfect and a lot of work needs to be done,” she said. “But I am still wide-eyed, and I still have faith in vasudeva kutumbakam because of the people I know at Elon who will continue working tirelessly to better this community because, quite simply, they love the world enough to change it.”