We have the potential to educate all of the Jews in the world...that is why I am starting this blog.
I suppose now is as good a time as any to start a blog. I have begun this process at least 25 times, but my efforts always seemed to fall by the way side for one reason or another. Last night I finished reading one of the most fascinating books I have ever come across- Melachim II. No sefer (book) has ever imbued me with such chizuk (strength) before. Reading about the battles King Chizkiyahu and his grandson King Yoshiyahu fought on behalf of the Torah made me realize that Klal Yisroel have always fought against ignorance of the Torah. I felt overcome with empowerment as I read of their successes and the prevailing of G-d’s will. Despite these triumphs one could also become depressed when they realize these battles for the Torah were short lived and the Klal reverted back to their not so great (I always hated the terms “wicked” and “evil”) ways. Nonetheless, I refuse to focus on those issues. The bottom line is we have the potential to educate all of the Jews in the world if we roll up our sleeves and fight the good fight.
That is why I am starting this blog. For my first entry I wanted to highlight one of the heroes of this generation whom I met with last week, Michael Steinhardt. I met with him at his office and he was one of the most gracious persons I have ever met with. He welcomed me into his office with incredible warmth and asked me all about myself. Following our words of introduction to each other he stated that we are losing the battle of assimilation to an almost insurmountable foe….. American Culture. I proceeded to ask him about the creation of Birthright and the reason he chose to focus his efforts in the Jewish Community amongst collegiates.
Before I go on let me tell you some of my thoughts on Birthright so you can understand my perspective. Birthright is one of the most significant and innovative new programs of the century. Over the past five to six years Birthright has sent 100,000 Jews, ages 18 to 26, to Israel. The kicker is that they sent them for free. While the Jewish Community had been running study after study to determine how to keep Jews Jewish Mr. Steinhardt said enough with the studies, let’s put our money where our mouth is and see, ‘Are Jews interested in Judaism?’. Well, over 100,000 Jews answered with a resounding yes.
Back to my conversation with Mr. Steinhardt. He said that the community had never tried to affect the collegiate population in a major outreach way. Through his involvement in Hillel he felt he had the connections to get the cooperation necessary to make Birthright work. I told him that he had put College Kiruv on the map. At a recent AJOP convention I was pleasantly surprised to meet dozens of College Kiruv professionals. I believe that this development is due in part to Birthright placing college outreach on the map.
While Birthright is an incredible resource for Klal Yisroel I asked how we could generate a similar impact for Jewish Teens. My feeling is that the Jewish Community does not take the cause of outreach to Jewish teens seriously. Many in the Jewish Community feel that we should hold off on our outreach efforts until the collegiate years when young adults are more mature. It has always been my opinion that this is a grievous mistake. The Torah tells us that a child becomes an adult at the age of 12 (for a girl) and 13 (for a boy). This is precisely the time when we should be educating that new Jewish adult on the beauties of Judaism. G-d knows that the media and the general population are educating them right away with harmful messages. There is a reason that we currently have a problem in the Orthodox Community called ‘teens at risk’ and not ‘20 somethings at risk’.
Mr. Steinhardt told me that I would need to make the case for teen outreach. I need to show results. Walking out of his office I felt I had a new mission. That mission consisted of making the case for educating our Jewish Teens, but not in a stale and stagnant way. Rather, I want to show Jewish Teens that Torah is relevant and it can be cutting edge. It is not enough for NCSY to tout our intermarriage rate of participants at only 2%. Our communities need to arm teens with a living Judaism that they will keep with them for the rest of their lives and constantly refer back to.
OK, enough preaching for today. May you be receptive to the joys and pleasures of Hashem and Judaism every day.
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