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August 6, 1999/24 Av 5759, Vol. 51, No.44
Teens work to make difference
TAMI BICKLEY
Staff Writer
Bureau of Jewish Education students, from left, Scott Kelman, Lesley Lustgarten, Harry Flaster and Joshua Flaster (along with a construction worker at far left), help build a house for Habitat for Humanity, a Phoenix housing project, in 1997.
Photo courtesy of Burea of Jewish Education
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When Joel Charnick was a teenager growing up in San Diego, socializing with his peers ranked high on his list of desirable free-time activities. And as a member of United Synagogue Youth (USY), an international Jewish organization that then promoted social interaction among Jewish youth, he was able to do that.
But now, a decade later, Charnick realizes that the Jewish youth of USY today are not only interested in socializing and games anymore.
"These kids are more involved at the philanthropic level than they were a decade ago," says Charnick, who took on the job as director of youth activities for Beth El Congregation's chapter of USY last month. "(USY youth) want to do as much as they can in the name of tikkun olam (repairing the world) and as Jews. ... Ten years ago, we were more concerned with just having fun, and that's why we joined a youth organization. It was almost all social. Now, these kids are motivated by something much bigger than that."
A number of international youth organizations such as USY have in recent years added educational programs and community volunteer work to their agendas, stressing to their young members that tikkun olam goes hand-in-hand with being a Jew, says Charnick. He says he's uncertain whether these programs are one cause for the shift in teens' attitudes, or merely a response to their changing viewpoints.
At least one Jewish teen program - Rockville, Md.-based Jewish Civics Initiative (JCI) - not only suggests tikkun olam, but requires it, and has shaped its existence around it.
JCI is one of several programs of the Washington Institute for Jewish Leadership and Values. Founded in 1994 by Rabbi Sidney Schwarz, who is also the founder and president of the institute, JCI is a collaborative program of the institution and the Jewish Education Service of North America (JESNA).
JCI offers an education in social justice, Jewish values, Jews' involvement in areas of social concern and hands-on community and political action opportunities. The program is outlined in the "Tikkun Olam/World Repair Manual," published by the institute. The manual is a curriculum that, if followed by Jewish youth groups and Jewish educational programs, can teach students ways to become active citizens in their communities and in the United States.
Each winter, the institute mails applications for the JCI program to Jewish federation executives and heads of bureaus of Jewish education throughout the country. Applicants decide if their community's teen youth groups and teen Jewish education programs would benefit from JCI. After applications stream in, the institute selects a maximum of four communities per year, with about 40 teens per community, to participate in the year-long project. The institute chooses those communities in part by how involved in community service they have been in the past.
"These Jewish kids are (already) involved heavily in community service," explains Schwarz. "We want to (make Jewish) that experience. We're starting where they are at and not where we hope they'll be."
At the end of the curriculum, JCI holds a retreat in Washington.
Although Phoenix is not one of the 19 communities adopted by the JCI program so far, the Bureau of Jewish Education in Phoenix does offer a class that follows JCI's course curriculum, according to Myra Shindler, programs coordinator at the bureau.
"We never applied to be (a JCI community) because we instituted the curriculum right into our Hebrew high school (Phoenix High School of Jewish Studies program)," says Shindler, adding that the bureau's 380 teenage students choose whether or not they want to participate in the program.
If the bureau were to become an adopted community, however, students would lose their freedom to choose, and instead be required to follow the course exactly the way it is set up.
"We wanted to give our kids the options to do (tikkun olam) any number of ways that worked for them," Shindler says. "There are some communities that don't have Hebrew highs, so when their JCC or organization decides to (participate in JCI), that is the only course they have. ...We have a very strong Hebrew high program, and (the course) is not the only thing we have, so it's never been a (top) priority."
The bureau's Hebrew high program, which is the most heavily populated Jewish teen program in Phoenix, welcomes students of all Jewish denominations from a variety of local youth groups, including USY and B'nai B'rith Youth Organization (BBYO). Students decide which classes to take.
Even if students do not opt to take the JCI program course, they may travel to Washington for the JCI retreat, Shindler says. The bureau provides a $500 stipend per student - enough money to cover half the trip's cost - for six students each year. Almost all students who take the course or attend the Washington retreat remain active in community service afterward, Shindler notes.
Charnick believes that most Jewish teens inherently want to "have a rich Jewish background, and to be able to maintain their Jewish lives in college and beyond college," and this includes continuing tikkun olam.
In the wake of numerous reports about the demise of teenage morale and an increase in youth violence, Schwarz says teens' participation in programs such as JCI offers proof that many Jewish teens actually strive to perpetuate the Jewish tradition of giving.
"There are so few places that give encouragement and support to the idealism of teenagers," he says. "Everything in the media talks about how teens are growing apart. The reality is most teenagers have a strong idealistic streak and very little in their schools ... support that. (Our programs) work with that idealism and challenge them - all in a Jewish key."
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