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December 25, 1998/ 6 Tevet 5759, Vol. 51, No. 14
Keeping youth connected
Organizations taking action to ensure young people stay involved in Judaism
DANE D'ANTUONO
Staff Writer
Scott Kelman (left) and Adam Moskowitz tell Hadar Avrahami and Tami Trachtenberg about their travels in Israel at the Israel Experience Program Fair for high school students in Phoenix, while Arielle Gereboff (second from right) shares her account with a parent and her son. Local and national Jewish leaders are placing renewed emphasis on Israel travel programs to help young people maintain ties to their religious heritage.
Photo courtesy Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix
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Are the Jewish federations, youth groups, community leaders and synagogues failing to keep the hearts and minds of their youth engaged in the religion?
Various national and community leaders are worried about losing their Jewish youth, and they say polls reflect a loss of Jewish identity among teens and 20-somethings.
Earlier this month, the Reform movement adopted a program to dramatically increase its resources devoted to youth in grades 5-12 and build Jewish identity through interwoven formal and informal education programs.
Acknowledging it is failing to actively engage the majority of teenagers past the age of 13, the Union of American Hebrew Congregations is planning a broad array of programming to help synagogues engage their youth.
The UAHC's youth director, Rabbi Allan Smith, says in a statement that "young people today have a great affinity for the synagogues ... and congregations need to find a way to keep them in."
In the same statement, he refers to the upcoming 2000 National Jewish Population Survey, saying "the study will probably find that there are about 5 million Jews, or just under two percent in the United States, and that ethnicity is disappearing," Smith says.
Differing with Smith, Assistant Rabbi Barry Cohen of Reform Temple Beth Israel in Scottsdale says the trends do not necessarily suggest that synagogues are failing to reach youths. However, he acknowledges that congregations have been "put in a difficult situation in responding to today's youth when they have so many competing social choices."
The religious continuity debate is a major issue that the organized Jewish community has been struggling to resolve. Cohen theorizes that "youth have more choices and opportunities to choose from in their social lives. In the past, less choices meant the youth would gravitate toward their Jewish community."
He reasons that disinterest "if it can be called that" may be a result of the fact that Jews in general are now so widely accepted by the community at large.
"In the past, we were so limited to who we had contact with," Cohen said, referring to the non-acceptance of Jews in professional groups, clubs, schools and other organizations during and shortly after World War II.
Admittedly, Cohen says synagogues single-handedly can't increase the interest of the young.
"It has to be encouraged by parents who will stress the importance of having Jewish friends, and then, looking to the synagogue to kindle those friendships."
He acknowledges that it is the role of synagogues to "provide creative, interesting Jewish programs that will lead the youth to being more active in their Jewish lives."
At Conservative Har Zion Congregation in Scottsdale, youth director Leon Vanshelbaum says the key to capturing youth and preventing teens from dropping out of the faith is to have programs and activities that kids enjoy.
Vanshelbaum, himself only 21, helps to keep the congregation's teens active in monthly activities, such as the one scheduled for later this month, when young people from Har Zion will join peers from other Western states to go on a three-day excursion to Magic Mountain Amusement Park in California.
Orthodox leaders say a recent study of 1,070 alumni of the National Council of Synagogue Youth found evidence that participation in an Orthodox teen youth group spurs people to lead more Jewishly committed lives, even if they don't come from observant homes.
While 94 percent of the NCSY alumni were yeshiva students in high school who continued their Jewish education, 80 percent of the public school students did also, according to the study.
Rabbi Zalman Levertov of Congregation Bais Menachem/Chabad-Lubavitch says his experience mirrors the results of NCSY study of alumni.
"I think it's 100 percent right," he says. "Children, students or adults that are involved in any Jewish institution, the longer their involvement, the more they will be involved later.
"(Since) we believe that halachah (Jewish law) is from God, ... definately they will be more involved in observance."
When a student is involved with religious people, it has an effect on him or her, Levertov says.
"He doesn't practice for the sake of practicing, but he also sees the reasons behind it, enjoys it, and sees that it is a nice way of life."
Vanshelbaum says Conservative research also shows that the kids who go through social programs such as Jewish youth groups, like United Synagogue Youth, tend to have a higher identity with Judaism. He reasons that is because they get to experience the fun part of it, rather than the traditional religious school setting, which can be perceived as "something boring, something you have to do because your parents make you do that."
The youth director also says home life plays an important role.
"Parents are the ones who take kids to the youth programs. If parents aren't interested in taking those kids to youth programs, the kid is not going to be there."
Societal patterns play role
Art Paikowsky, executive vice president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix, says the trend of becoming disaffected, unaffiliated and uninvolved has been around a long time and has become exacerbated as the rates of intermarriage among members of the boomer generation have increased.
"What you are seeing is those people in their 40s or 50s, and their children are in their teen years, and those kids are growing up facing issues that manifest themselves in not a great deal of interest in Judaism," he says, adding that the Jewish community as a whole has failed to create in children an emotional connection to Judaism.
What's the answer to increasing youth connection? Paikowsky says it's obvious: "We need to give more of our children a quality day-school education. We need to improve the quality of after-school education. It needs to be more exciting. A lot of times when kids are asked about the quality of the experience, they say it's like torture."
In addition, Paikowsky believes there is nothing more motivating than an Israel experience. He himself went to Israel as a teen.
"It completely changed my life," he says, adding, "It changed my perspective of being Jewish. I went there as a sort-of interested Jew. I came back a proud, motivated, excited Jew.
"Maybe it won't turn you into a zealot like it did me, but it at least heightens your Jewish awareness, creates a connection to the Jewish state and gives you a sense of pride."
So what then is the secret to keeping youth involved? Vanshelbaum says consistency is the key. "You can't have a program one month, and not have it the other month," he explains, adding that he judges by his experience and what he sees. He quotes the famous line from the film "Field of Dreams" - "If you build it, they will come."
Strategies take shape
In moves to get young people involved in their religion, Jewish organizations are making major new commitments of time and money for new programs.
The Reform movement's UAHC is committing between $500,000 and $600,000 to its new youth initiative in its first year, and will be undertaking an aggressive fund-raising campaign to fund the initiative as it grows in scope. The UAHC currently spends $950,000 a year on its National Federation of Temple Youth (NFTY) programs; its 11 camps have a combined budget of $18 million, and $4 million is spent each year sending youth to Israel.
Programs that promote youth visits to Israel are also getting a major boost in funding. Last month, the UJA Federations of North America unveiled the "Birthright Israel" initiative, which will create a $300 million fund to provide first visits to Israel for every Jew age 15 to 26.
"It's an opportunity for many Jews to find themselves, to identify with the state of Israel and to live meaningful Jewish lives," said philanthropist and Birthright Israel founding chairman Charles Bronfman, as he announced the program at the federations' General Assembly in Jerusalem. (Bronfman was international chairman of the G.A.)
Birthright Israel will be sponsored by a coalition of Jewish philanthropists, the Israeli government and local communities around the world. Many Israel trip providers see appealing to the participants, rather than parents, as one of Birthright Israel's most promising aspects.
"From our perspective, Birthright Israel is going to enable us to reach a constituency we haven't been able to reach until now - college students," says Rabbi Smith of the UAHC.
"Next spring break we've got an offer you can't refuse," Smith says in a mock pitch to prospective participants. "How about going to Israel? We'll pay the bill."
In fact, because most high school summer Israel tours are four to six weeks long, college students on spring or winter break might best be able to take advantage of the 10-day subsidy of about $1,500 per person offered by Birthright Israel.
Valley residents can contact the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix at 274-1800 for more information on the Birthright Israel program. The federation and local synagogues also have information on other programs designed to send young people on trips to the Jewish state.
Julia Goldman of Jewish Telegraphic Agency contributed to this report.
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