Identity In, ‘Spirituality’ Out For Jewish Teens

by Hannah Dreyfus for JeducationWorld

What do the Jewish members of Generation Z — the one right behind the millennials — want?

Not conventional “spiritual” practices, including synagogue attendance, it turns out. What they do want, according to a major report released last week by the New York-based Jewish Education Project, is to be better human beings.

The study, based on the views of 139 teens between the ages of 12 ½ and 17 and from four cities — Atlanta, Boston, Denver and Los Angeles — found that while Jewish teenagers take deep pride in their tribal Jewish identity, they are largely checking out of traditional kinds of Jewish engagement.

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Jewish teenagers want to engage. Just ask them.

From The Blog, jewishva.org

Welcoming teens into Jewish life is both one of the most important and seemingly challenging endeavors of the Jewish community. The rapid decline in teen engagement in Jewish life post-b’nai mitzvah is well-documented and depressing. It’s also an entirely reversible trend, but only if the Jewish community approaches teen engagement in a new way — one that recognizes the whole teen and values her or him as an equal partner in creating experiences that add meaning to her or his life.

In general, Jewish teens (like non-Jewish peers) today are deeply thoughtful, inquisitive and ambitious. Also like their peers, they can be narcissistic and attached to technology. Most of today’s teens are vastly different than a generation ago, and in many ways different than a decade ago. These changes are due in large part to the changing world in which we live, the central role of technology and the nearly endless opportunities for personal customization a click away.

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Incantation - A Novel for Teens by Alice Hoffman

Review by Linda R. Silver for Jewish Book Council

The burning of Jewish books in the town square is the first portent that life for sixteen-year-old Estrella is going to change. Set in Spain during the Middle Ages, the story is about secrets and self-knowledge. Estrella’s family are Conversos, who practice Judaism in secret at home and in a church where all of the congregation plus the priest are like themselves. As the persecution of Jews draws ever closer to Estrella’s own family, she is told about their secret, given a ring to buy herself safe passage to Amsterdam if need be, and taught the rudiments of kabbalah by her learned grandfather. This unlikely act is undoubtedly a gesture toward the current popularity of  kabbalah and it does little to mar the credibility of the plot, consisting only of a few “kabbalistic” customs like wearing a red thread and learning the names of the ten gates of Paradise.

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J-TAG Fellows

J-TAG Fellows is a month long summer program (2 weeks in Israel and 2 weeks in the US) offering unique outdoor adventures, travel, community service and leadership development for Jewish teens entering 10th to 12th grades from Israel and the US.

"I have experienced all sides of Israel, from the beautiful, natural attractions, to the political unrest that comes
with the possession of such sacred land.  I ahve a greater appreciation for Jewish culture and history, and
I am more proud to be a Jew than ever before...It was truly a life changing experience."
          J-TAG Fellows, 2015

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Staging History

by: Charlie Goldsmith for Fresh Ink for Teens

A high school production of ‘Letters to Sala’ made the Holocaust feel relevant to all audience members.

Presenting the Holocaust on stage in a way that high school students can relate to is challenging. Many Jewish teens have strong emotional ties to this history while non-Jewish teens may view this time period as the distant past. Last month, I attended a local high school’s production of “Letters to Sala,” a play written by Arlene Hutton. The show demonstrated how high school theatrical productions can provoke emotion and introspection among diverse audience members. The play was performed at Mount Notre Dame High School in Reading, Ohio, and the cast was comprised of students from a Catholic girls’ school and other Cincinnati-area high schools. The actors conveyed a difficult topic and moved the entire audience.  For schools or groups looking for an alternative to the classically powerful, “Diary of Anne Frank,” “Letters to Sala” is an outstanding option.

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