Study finds Jewish teens flourish socially, emotionally and spiritually when connected to youth groups

There was a time when “Don’t trust anyone over 30” was the mantra for the young. But if a new study of Jewish teens—the largest of its kind ever attempted—can be believed, the situation is much different today, news that will no doubt come as a huge relief to parents.

Eighteen-year-old Yael Berrol is intimately involved in Jewish life—be it in her Conservative synagogue in Oakland, Calif., where she teaches fifth-graders in the Hebrew school; during her 10 years at Camp Ramah in Ojai, Calif.; in Israel, where she rode with an ambulance crew; or at events at her B’nai B’rith Youth Organization (BBYO) youth group.

“The best part of BBYO for me are the conventions, a real connection with Judaism and a weekend away with a bunch of Jews,” says Berrol who’s one of a handful of Jewish students in her high school. “Being together is when I feel like my true self.”

Yael Berrol and her station partner, Evan, at the Meitar MDA station outside of Beersheva. Credit: Courtesy.

More than 17,000 Jewish teens like Berrol participated in an online survey, developed by the Jewish Education Project and Rosov Consulting. Most of the names came off lists from 14 youth groups representing Jews of all backgrounds, including Bnei Akiva, National Council of Synagogue Youth (NCSY), Young Judaea, CTeen (Chabad-Lubavitch), United Synagogue Youth (USY) and the Union of Reform Judaism Youth (URJ/NFTY).

“We were basically interested in the lives of Jewish teens and understanding the impact of youth groups,” says Stacie Cherner, director of learning and evaluation at the Jim Joseph Foundation which, with the Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah, and the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, funded the study.

The funders were especially interested in teens’ social and emotional development, “how these programs impact them in these ways,” says Cherner. One happy surprise: how many teens actually took the time to complete the survey.

The almost 18,000 respondents came in part from the youth groups that contributed and from a link pushed out through social media. “And we were all impressed with the honest, thoughtful answers we got,” replies Cherner.

Among the findings:

  • Jewish teens like their parents; they enjoy spending time with their family and often look to their parents for guidance and to demystify the world around them.
  • For most teens surveyed, Jewish beliefs and practices are closely linked with their family relationships and loyalties.
  • The respondents believe teens need help in coping with pressures like academic pressure, self-esteem issues and a fear of failure.
  • Jewish teens see social media as a mixed blessing, saying it can both cause stress and help them deal with stress, as well as connect with friends and help change the world.
  • Most of the teens (75 percent) identify as Jewish (and 16 percent claim to be culturally Jewish), but many of those who say they have “no religion” also hope to engage with Judaism at some point in the future.
  • Many (45 percent) rank anti-Semitism as a problem for today’s teens, though few feel personally threatened.
  • Most of the teens (71 percent) report either a strong or very strong connection to Israel, with the majority of those who have not yet traveled hoping to do so one day.

Most crucially, the study found that teens active in a Jewish youth group (regardless of denomination) tend to flourish socially, emotionally and spiritually as compared with those who are not. They also report feeling more connected to being Jewish, have higher self-esteem and better relationships with family, friends and other adults, and feel empowered to make positive change in their world.

“The parental issue was the big surprise,” says Rabbi Michael Shire, dean of the Graduate School of Education at Boston’s Hebrew College and a member of the study’s advisory board. And, he says, together with the results of a few other studies, it makes “a pretty good case for religious education and youth groups specifically. It seems that, along with a strong family and the belief in a higher power you’re connected to—this makes for someone who’s healthier in every way. It’s almost like these young people have a protective shell around them.”

Carl Shulman regularly sees these trends in action. “In our programming, we look at Jewish values, including how they were expressed in the civil-rights movement and other social-justice causes,” says Shulman, the youth engagement adviser at Temple Etz Chaim, a Reform congregation in Franklin, Mass. “And we make sure it’s tied to Jewish tradition—something in the Torah or Talmud that speaks to them.”

Shulman says youth-group advisers play a unique role in a teen’s life. “We’re a cross between a teacher, a friend and a camp counselor,” he says. “So they feel they can be open about their thoughts and feelings and confide in us.”

One feature of the study, giving the participating youth movements feedback on how their teens stacked up in a variety of ways, provided much-appreciated input, says NCSY’s international director Rabbi Micah Greenland.

“This is a terrific opportunity to learn about what our teens are gaining from involvement with us. It invites us to better understand and reflect on where we are relative to the field and where we have room to grow.”

Over at URJ, they’re also evaluating the results. “We knew it anecdotally,” says Miriam Chilton, URJ’s vice president for youth. “But now we have the data that demonstrates that participation in Jewish groups goes a long way toward achieving our goals of seeking meaning and seeing themselves as connected to both Jewish tradition and the world.”

Not surprisingly, adds Chilton, most NFTY/URJ teens ranked higher on social justice than on the ritualistic aspects of Judaism, she says. “It’s not good or bad, but it is reflective of Reform values.”

Participants in the Union of Reform Judaism Youth (URJ/NFTY) convention in Dallas. Credit: NFTY via Facebook.

Another take-away for Chilton: multiple points of contact result in maximum impact.

“Those involved in youth group, their temple, Israel and a Jewish camp, for instance, had the most positive impact,” she says. “And given the number of our families who have just one Jewish parent, whose connection may not be as strong, we can look to offer a wide variety of programming. It gives us a pretty compelling case for the best ways of working with the next generation.”

For David Bryfman, The Jewish Education Project’s incoming CEO, this study’s biggest gift is “giving organizers of Jewish youth organizations a good look at the outcomes they’re having in outreach today. Basically, the study shows the more kids doing Jewish activities the more engaged they are.”

The study was also designed to go well beyond the previous emphasis on youth groups as nurturers of Jewish continuity, he adds. “Here we’re looking at how their engagement makes them not just more Jewish but a better person, a better member of the community, more effective in the world and just more human. Some people might argue that this isn’t the traditional use of youth group, but if we don’t help them thrive, none of the rest of it really matters.

Besides,” he add, “when you can get the Reform, Conservative, Orthodox and even the unaffiliated to sign onto the same study, you’re already doing something right.”

The No. 1 finding, he says, is “even though we knew that youth groups have huge impact on teens, right up there with day schools, Jewish summer camps and trips to Israel, this study actually shows the power of that involvement.”

Looking to the future

“We got confirmation that generally speaking, we’re doing really good job in Israel engagement with our teens, with Jewish tradition, and how much Shabbat and the holidays matter to them, and even the extent to which they attribute these values to their NCSY involvement,” says NCSY’s Rabbi Greenland. “But we can also see that we are below average in the realm of taking responsibility for making a difference in the world at large. And, in addition to everything else we do, that’s something we’ve been talking about a lot since the results came out; it’s pushed us to look at ways to enhance that quality, too.”

“If we design programming that reflects the way young people see the world, we’ll be able to maximize personal development and Jewish identity and commitment,” says URJ’s Chilton. “This study also gives us a benchmark so if we adjust something now, we can look back in a few years and see how we’re doing.”

“The study sends a clear message that Jewish engagement doesn’t have to end at bar or bat mitzvah if you provide young people with programming they see as meaningful,” says Bryfman. “If the Jewish youth organizations can provide that, the teens will be there.”

It’s a message the funders are taking to heart.

“What we’ve learned from these teens is that they are very Jewishly identified, though their ways of expressing it may not be the same,” says Jim Joseph Foundation’s Stacie Cherner. “It’s confirming to us that we’re on the right path—that our investments are having a positive impact.”

As California teen Yael Berrol puts it: “We don’t have many Jews near us, but my parents have made it easy for me to connect. Our family friends are mostly Jewish, Camp Ramah is like my home, and my synagogue is where I go when I’m missing being with other Jews, when I need that grounding, in community and in my authentic self.”

To see the entire study, visit https://www.jewishedproject.org/genznow.

Source: “Study finds Jewish teens flourish socially, emotionally and spiritually when connected to youth groups,” Deborah Fineblum, JNS, June 6, 2019

Will it Last? Introducing A Tool to Assess Program Sustainability

“What would remain if Foundation funding disappeared?” This was a common question that former Jim Joseph Foundation Executive Director Chip Edelsberg posed to challenge the professional team during the early launch phases of Foundation-supported teen education initiatives. But really, the question itself reflects a guiding principle of the Foundation since its inception; that is, to support organizations and initiatives in ways that are sustainable so that Jewish learning endeavors live on—and continue to benefit young people—even after a grant period concludes.

This principle, essentially a goal for each grant, has informed grantmaking decisions and the lengths and structures of Foundation grants.  We have learned lessons over the years about strategies and approaches to make this goal more likely to be achieved, including awarding matching grants to encourage new funding sources, supporting grantee-partners’ strategic planning processes, open and frequent conversations with grantee-partners, setting expectations with grantee-partners, and providing grantee-partners with enough time to position themselves for success if and when Foundation funding ceased. We have also gained a deep understanding about the power of a capacity building grant to help a grantee-partner grow in a sustainable way. Through trials and errors—and some fail forwards—we have learned about both the benefits of growing and the potential risks when a grantee-partner or the marketplace simply is not ready.

These are all important learnings and strategies for the Foundation, and perhaps for peer funders as well. What they are not, however, are actual tools for the grantee-partner to use to help them on their path towards sustainability. Over the last couple of years, the Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Funder Collaborative (FC)—a complex, multi-faceted grouping of different funders and organizations from around the country—elevated the goal of sustainability for each of its ten communities in very concrete ways. The FC’s ten community teen initiatives all worked diligently from the beginning to lay the groundwork for sustainability. Community stakeholders were engaged throughout so that our local funding partners, often Federations, designed initiatives that reflected the community’s actual needs and wants—not just what the local partner thought the community needed or wanted. Communities had conversations with program providers at the beginning stages of the grant period about expectations around sustainability. This complex community planning process helped develop teen initiatives that had broad buy-in from the start, thus also enhancing the likelihood of their sustainability.

In this vein, the communities came together to develop clear Measures of Success—one of which is to “Build Models for Jewish Teen Education that are Sustainable.” However, defining what success looks like without also offering a way to measure against it would somewhat render it moot. While complex surveys were developed for other measures of success—an appropriate approach in those cases—measuring a community’s readiness for sustainability required something different. That’s when Rosov Consulting, which serves as the cross-community evaluator, developed the Sustainability Diagnostic Tool (SDT) for communities to better understand the ways in which they were developing a sustainable ecosystem. This diagnostic process, which, importantly, communities can use themselves, offers community leadership and stakeholders the opportunity to assess and reflect on their progress towards sustainability.

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As seen above, the SDT offers clear indicators and a qualitative sliding scale for communities to gauge progress themselves. Taken together, communities will gain a deep understanding about their readiness to “make it on their own.” Particularly important is that this is a usable diagnostic tool that communities themselves can deploy; each community received instructions to conduct interviews with key community stakeholders. They posed questions to elicit answers that would inform where the teen initiative fell in different categories of the rubric: “To what extent would you say that the leadership of the community’s teen ecosystem has a clearly stated mission for its work?” To what extent would you say that the community’s teen ecosystem has strong and stable leadership?” “To what extent would you say the community’s teen ecosystem has secured a financial future?” With the indicators in mind, to what extent is there evidence in the teen ecosystem of demand for service?”

Like other funders, we have seen expensive efforts we supported grow and build momentum, achieve great programmatic outcomes, but then fail to build the kind of broader communal investment that an initiative needs to endure over the longer-term. The SDT is designed so that grantee-partners can help themselves develop that kind of staying power. We are sharing this now as some communities in the FC move towards the final stages of their grant period. They already planned initiatives, received their first grant, received a renewal, and are fine-tuning the most effective parts of their initiatives. The communities nearing the end of their grant periods are finding great value in the SDT. Equally as exciting is that other communities, in earlier stages of their grant period, are already using the SDT so that the rubric and accompanying interview questions inform their stakeholder conversations and related initiative planning now:

The Sustainability Diagnostic Tool has really helped keep us honest with respect to how we’ve measured inroads and impact in our community’s initiative. Having this rubric has been a great way to remind ourselves what we mean by ‘success’, and has enabled us to validate some paths we’ve taken, or think about course corrections when necessary. – Brian Jaffee, Executive Director of the Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati, the local funder of the Cincinnati Jewish Teen Collective.

The FC itself is a “big” story with many layers, organizations, and learnings. We’re telling one specific, yet critical, part of it now. We hope that by highlighting our Foundation’s learnings regarding sustainability and what we believe to be a critical new tool, other funders and organizations will be able to adapt the new SDT for any initiative that they want to see achieve sustainability. Having sustainability as a principle, as a goal, was important. But the SDT helps us and grantee-partners more definitively and accurately answer that key question: “What would remain if Foundation funding disappeared?”

Before using the SDT, please reach out to Sara Allen, Executive Director of the Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Funder Collaborative, at [email protected] for full instructions and insights.

Aaron Saxe is a Senior Program Officer at the Jim Joseph Foundation.

A Funder Approach to the (Seemingly) Limitless World of Online Learning

[This post is the last in the series on the new report, The Future of Jewish Learning is Here: How Digital Media Are Reshaping Jewish Education, by Stanford University’s Ari Y. Kelman. The report, commissioned by the Jim Joseph Foundation, was released in conjunction with the recent Jewish Funders Network conference. The series shares multiple perspectives on the findings and questions raised in The Future of Jewish Learning.]

The Future of Jewish Learning Is Here is an admittedly ambitious title for a report. Yet it seems to capture both the seemingly endless opportunities that new technology presents and the critical reality that people are utilizing many of these technologies to learn and to positively influence their lives. Digital media, specifically for Jewish learning purposes, are being consumed on a meaningful scale, in different ways, and by diverse groups of people, and are changing how we, as a field, should think about Jewish education.

For the Jim Joseph Foundation, this report offers much to unpack and to reflect on. A decade ago, digital media was in its nascent stage of opening new and more opportunities for Jewish learning. Yet, the Foundation shied away from any significant investment. The space, for the Foundation, presented too many unknowns. At the same time, our approach and understanding of Jewish education admittedly was not yet broad enough to include some of the very real learning that was in fact occurring online. Thus, The Future of Jewish Learning Is Here is indicative of our own evolution in thinking and recognition that the nature of Jewish learning has, and continues to, evolve – and that it is driven in part by digital media opportunities today.

A few years ago, the Jim Joseph Foundation and the William Davidson Foundation released Smart Money: Recommendations for an Educational Technology and Digital Engagement Investment Strategy, which shared both a landscape report of the trends and tools used in Ed Tech and a set of recommendations for our foundations to consider about how we might invest in them. Following the report, the Foundation made several new grants to support some new “digital-first” Jewish education platforms as a way to expand our reach and deepen our learning and involvement with the tools of online learning. Our most important insight from getting to know these platforms is affirmed for us in this new report – people are learning online and those online engagements should be viewed as educational. While of course online learning looks different than learning in a classroom, summer camp, or beit midrash, we now see how online learning can be deeply meaningful and substantial – and often much more accessible than more traditional learning experiences.

By growing our understanding of online Jewish learning and of how these platforms are used, those of us interested in designing or investing in these learning experiences can make better informed decisions to address learners’ needs. Expanding beyond the landscape analysis in Smart Money, the Future of Jewish Learning report provides rich, compelling insight and information into how, why, and when people learn online. People turn to online Jewish learning because the experiences are accessible, can be tailored to their personal needs or questions, help connect them to a sense of community, and for many other reasons.

Advancements in digital Jewish media have minimized, if not outright eliminated, the concerns of physical space, time, teachers, and other factors that impact a person’s ability to learn. Moreover, while these previous limitations often are rendered irrelevant when a user learns through any kind of online platform, The Future of Jewish Learning makes clear that Jewish content providers offer a particularly specialized experience, replete with an “imprimatur” that provides a sense of credibility. At the same time, these uniquely Jewish platforms can also serve as vehicles for powerful real-life connections among people.

As a funder, we welcome these key findings while recognizing the call to action they seem to present. First and foremost, we know we need to learn more and to better understand how this form of learning integrates into peoples’ lives. While this report sheds light on ways in which online learning makes people less reliant on traditional institutions, offers comfort in exploring questions about Judaism, fosters connections and a sense of connection, and often follows the rhythm of the Jewish calendar, there is still much we don’t know. We are eager to continue to learn with others in the field about the communities that evolve around online learning; the types of platforms best suited for certain learning experiences or people; how educators can be further utilizing online learning tools for themselves and with their students; what this means for Jewish family experiences; and how these tools can help us reach more diverse populations of learners. These are timely and big questions that we are eager to explore.

More and more, the Foundation approaches its own learning by investing in R&D to pursue innovation and to try new experiments. This approach is warranted both in traditional learning and in online learning experiences. In the limitless world of online learning, R&D is an important way to push the field forward and to bring offerings to scale. The possibilities for where, when, and how learning can happen is entirely different than a decade ago. Let’s explore these new opportunities together, as a field, so that anyone can engage in Jewish learning – wherever, whenever, and in whatever way is meaningful and conformable for them. The future is here.

Josh Miller is Chief Program Officer at the Jim Joseph Foundation. Seth Linden is a Program Officer at the Foundation. The complete report, The Future of Jewish Learning is Here: How Digital Media Are Reshaping Jewish Education, is available for download here.

originally posted in eJewishPhilanthropy

Makom 4HQ Moishe House Cohort

Through a year-long learning training program from Makom, Moishe House residents and Moishe House Without Walls (MHWOW) hosts are bringing engaging Israel programing to their peers. Makom’s 4HQ program takes the penultimate line of Hatikvah—To Be | A People | Free | In Our Land—and adapts it to four question areas that address the ongoing creative tension between 1) security, 2) Jewish Peoplehood, 3) democracy, and 4) the Land of Israel. The result is that a topic, Israel, that once was avoided for programming at Moishe Houses, is now discussed, debated, and appreciated in its full complexity.

It feels like this whole approach to digging deeper into Israel programming, and having the hard conversations, could be applied to all our Moishe House programming.
– Member of 4HQ Cohort 1

The 4HQ cohort of residents and hosts engage in webinars, in-person gatherings, 1-on-1 mentoring sessions to dive deeper into what they’re learning, and one weeklong trip through Israel. All of these platforms are vehicles to explore the social, historical, and political landscape of Israel from a multitude of perspectives. The trip to Israel, for example, showcases the beauty of Israel, gives space to grapple with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, offers meetings with Palestinians and Jews living over the green line, enables discussions with ultra-Orthodox Jews, provides experiences in cutting-edge civil discourse initiatives, and more. This reflects Makom’s goal not just to teach Moishe House leaders how to engage others with Israel, but to teach these leaders Israel content as well. In the second cohort, scheduled to begin this summer, Makom will roll out a unique Israel 101 Quiz intended to help participants set learning goals, while learning more about the history and culture of Israel.

As the training progresses, cohort participants gain the knowledge, skills and confidence to create and facilitate meaningful, practical, real-life Moishe House programs about Israel with their peers—for which they receive microgrants from Makom.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lh_bycFHZYE&feature=youtu.be
A spoken-word performance, reflecting on the experience of engaging with Israel

Around the country, Moishe Houses and young adults are finding that Israel programming can inspire deep engagement, excitement, and interest. When approached through the 4HQ framework, young adults of various backgrounds and perspectives come together, respect each other, and dive into Israel. Based on the success of the first 4HQ Moishe House cohort, Moishe House and Makom have begun reviewing more applications for cohort 2. More program and application details are available here.

Take part in “The Makom Parallel Israeli Election” and access resources about the Israeli election at www.makomisrael.org. The parallel election is meant to engage Jews around the world in the Israeli election, encouraging them to learn about the salient issues in Israel today, and ultimately to strengthen the conversation between Jews around the world and Israelis.  

 Makom’s 4HQ training program for Moishe House received one of ten grants in educator training from the Jim Joseph Foundation, following an open RFP.

New Working Paper Provides Fresh Data About Experiences of Educators in Jewish Settings

A new Working Paper released today by George Washington University Graduate School of Education and Human Development (GSEHD) and CASJE (Consortium for Applied Studies in Jewish Education) is the first report of a multi-year, comprehensive research project addressing the recruitment, retention, and development of educators working in Jewish settings in North America. “On the Journey” shares preliminary insights on individuals who work as Jewish educators today and by comparison with educators who either transitioned to administrative roles or left the field. Stakeholders focused on quality and impact of Jewish education across the country believe that attracting and nurturing talent is one of the greatest challenges today.

The multi-year research project, being conducted by Rosov Consulting, is funded with generous grants from the William Davidson Foundation and Jim Joseph Foundation. The concepts reviewed in the “On the Journey” report lay the foundations for additional analysis of relevant data on experiences of working educators, and for other parts of the study, which will continue over the next 18 months. GSEHD, CASJE, and the researchers welcome comments on the working paper, which can be submitted to Joshua Fleck, [email protected].

“This research lays the groundwork for a project that will provide useful evidence for policy makers, practitioners, funders, and other stakeholders, and inform decisions about how the field can attract and retain greater numbers of qualified educators,” said Bob Sherman, a leading educator and member of the CASJE leadership group. “This is pioneering research in Jewish education, critical for understanding the types of training and support systems needed to sustain and retain personnel.”

In this first phase of inquiry, researchers relied on intensive interviews, literature reviews, and other data to explore what motivates people to commit to working as Jewish educators, how they grow professionally, and in what ways their workplace conditions, lived experiences, and professional journeys shape their professional choices. Ultimately the project will provide new understanding of the working conditions and professional development interventions that make a difference to job satisfaction, self-efficacy, and career commitment. These outcomes are typically associated with educator retention and growth, and in turn learner participation, motivation, and educational outcomes.

The study benefits from independent advice of a group of technical advisers with expertise in Jewish education, statistical methods, and teacher labor markets.

Key insights from this Working Paper include:

  • The need to adopt broadly inclusive definitions of who is a “Jewish educator;”
  • The importance of measuring educator characteristics such as tenure, satisfaction, sense of self-efficacy, and commitment in conjunction with program qualities and workplace;
  • Implications of differences in the effects of workplace culture as reported in case studies of Jewish educators and in the general literature of school professional culture; and
  • The importance of examining whether and how prior experience in youth movements and summer camp prepare people for professional work in both formal and experiential educational settings.

“On the Journey” is available for download here.

Source: “New Working Paper Provides Fresh Data About Experiences of Educators in Jewish Settings,” eJewishPhilanthropy, March 8, 2019

The iCenter: The Landing Page – An Educator’s Launch Kit

The United States, Russia, and China have all landed spacecrafts on the moon. Soon humanity will add a fourth country to that list: Israel.

On February 21, SpaceIL launched Beresheet, an unmanned spacecraft, onboard an American SpaceX rocket. It will be the first non-governmental spacecraft to land on the moon. As Beresheet launches into orbit, so does a new era of pride and wonder for the Jewish people and the world.

The iCenter—the North American educational partner of SpaceIL—released The Landing Page – An Educator’s Launch Kit to help people engage with this historic moment. The Launch Kit, designed for use by parents and educators, includes STEM activities, Hebrew materials, stories, videos, Moon Party Spotify playlists, and more. Join The iCenter for 30-minute webinars in March to become familiar with the resources and their potential uses. REGISTER HERE.

The story of SpaceIL is one that inspires. Meaningful Israel education is organic, exciting, and resonant. It emphasizes people and their interests. It is also global, setting Israel within a context of universal human narratives. Equally necessary are great stories and events that inspire and invite this generation to see themselves as part of the ongoing life of the land and people of Israel.

This achievement—8 years in the making—taps into our imagination, curiosity, and wonder—and blends STEM with Israel in a monumental way. And it does all of this in the context of an historic quest to reach for the stars.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLtWmF5RofQzMEr2YWpI-io5sFXG-lKiLQ&time_continue=48&v=_ECNZ_hBAHk

Are Jewish Grandparents a Forgotten Population?

Today’s Jewish grandparents are actively building relationships with their grandchildren. Yet, programming for this generation is lacking. Enter: Jewish Grandparents Network.

Long gone are the apron-clad bubbe who slaved over matzah ball soup and the pipe-smoking zayde who watched the evening news in his Barcalounger. Today’s Jewish grandparents are tech-savvy, active seniors who FaceTime on school nights and fly into town for a weekend with their grandchildren.

According to a report last year by the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of grandparents in the United States is growing. Its population reached 69.5 million in 2014, up from 65.1 million in 2009. Baby Boomers, the youngest of whom turned 50 in 2014, have a total population of 75.4 million.

That’s a lot of grandparents, and yet, the Jewish community is lacking programming and education for Baby Boomers. The problem is nationwide, but Atlanta offers little more than annual Grandparents’ Day at day schools.

Co-founders of Jewish Grandparents Network, David Raphael of Atlanta and Lee Hendler of Baltimore, Md., seek to rectify this oversight.

“The Jewish community has done a wonderful job of supporting young families, but there is a lack of attention given to grandparents,” Raphael said. “By sharing Jewish values and narratives, the most influential members of families are grandparents.”

Flanked by Ron Wolfson (left) and Marshall Duke (right), David Raphael says Jewish grandparents are often undervalued and overlooked.

JGN launched its first program, “Grandma, Grandpa Tell Me a Story,” at The Temple Oct. 28. Ron Wolfson of American Jewish University and Marshall Duke of Emory University shared their stories with about 40 grandparents, talking about the way oral tales play a role in sustaining Jewish traditions and strengthening families.

And on Nov. 5, JGN launched the first national study of Jewish grandparents. Ten Jewish communities, including Atlanta, and five national organizations are partners in the study. It is underwritten by the JGN with support from Hendler, the Jim Joseph Foundation, The Covenant Foundation and Mike Leven.

Engaging Millennials

Grandparents are the most reliable connection to Jewish life and experiences, especially for Millennials who don’t belong to Jewish organizations or necessarily observe many rituals, Hendler said.

David Raphael, co-founder of Jewish Grandparents Network, with his granddaughter, Bina.

She attended a conference on engaging Millennials a few years ago. Frustrated at the lack of attention to Boomers, Hendler recalled talking to organizers about Jewish grandparents. “They were going to write me off. I knew the look I was getting. Nothing was going to happen. The people at table dealing with Millennials could not connect the dots. And yet, I knew from conversations that grandparents are on front lines of the change in family life.”

“Where did they have a mixed-faith wedding? My backyard. Who did they talk to about which rabbi might officiate? Me. What does the Jewish world think is going on? When it comes to the baby’s bris, does it occur to them it will be in my home and they have asked me to help them pick a mohel?”

Study after study reinforces the findings of Raphael and Hendler: Grandchildren cite the relationship with their grandparents as a major reason they identify Jewishly.

For instance, the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University reported in a 2015 study (“Millennial Children of Intermarriage”): “Having close ties to Jewish grandparents had a direct effect on a variety of outcomes, including identifying as Jewish by religion, celebrating Jewish holidays, feeling a connection to Israel and the Jewish people, and wanting to marry someone Jewish.”

The Cohen Center survey also states: “For all childhood experiences, Jewish grandparents should be viewed as a critical resource, and programs should be designed to leverage their influence.”

Another study of 1,150 Jewish college students, conducted in 2014 by researchers Barry Kosmin and Ariela Keysar, discovered that when grandparents accompanied the students to synagogue and other Jewish settings, they were most likely to feel strong attachments to Israel and the Jewish people.

Additionally, surveys of Birthright Israel alumni reveal that connection to Jewish grandparents is an important predictor of a wide variety of positive Jewish attitudes and practices in adulthood.

That’s because Judaism is so valued by older Jews and they pass that connection on to their grandchildren. According to the Pew Research Center Global Religious Landscape Study of 2015, more than 70 percent of Jews ages 55 and older respond that religion is either very important or important to them.

Goals of Jewish Grandparents Network

Aimed at adults from age 55 to 80, JGN plans to engage those with grandchildren of Jewish and mixed-faith families.

The JGN case study – the basis for which the organization was founded and will be funded – states grandparents are “a living bridge to the past and essential keepers and sharers of family and Jewish narratives, traditions and values.”

JGN maintains that financial support and personal time, including paying for Jewish preschool and taking grandchildren to Tot Shabbat, is the role of today’s Jewish grandparent.

By navigating the “new Jewish family” which includes multifaith, divorced, single parent and LGBTQ families, Jewish grandparents deserve meaningful dialogue and learning opportunities.

JGN is working with a research firm to gather quantitative data on family demographics, beliefs, behaviors and needs of Jewish grandparents. A sample of the survey will be distributed nationally to 1,500 members of synagogues, Jewish community centers and other Jewish organizations.

Raphael, who lives in Sandy Springs, spent his 30-year career with Hillel International creating Jewish opportunities. He values listening, collaboration and building community. “That’s how we create a Jewish community of meaning,” he said.

To take the JGN survey, visit www.grandparents.2.vu/1. JGN also maintains an active Facebook page, ww.facebook.com/groups/JewishGrandparentsNetwork.

Source: “Are Jewish Grandparents a Forgotten Population?,” Atlanta Jewish Times, Logan C. Ritchie, November 7, 2018

Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Funder Collaborative

Teens today are impacted by monumental sociological forces and challenges. With this understanding, and powered by research and data, the Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Funder Collaborative develops, nurtures, and scales innovative new approaches to teen engagement. In this unprecedented collaboration of national and local funders, ten participating communities are united by a paradigm shift in the approach to this work that demands that teen educators and leaders now ask, “how can our work help this teen thrive as a human being in today’s complex and challenging world?”

The Funder Collaborative and its communities look to answer this question every day. They come together—virtually and in person—to share lessons learned with each other and to identify the most relevant lessons to share with others. Recently, 20 implementers and professional development professionals came together in Austin, TX for three days. They wanted to learn directly from that dynamic city, a hotbed of creativity and entrepreneurship. Participants had a private workshop with the founder of Storybar to learn what makes a great story and to learn how they can integrate storytelling into their work. The Collaborative also met with Shalom Austin to hear about Jewish life in Austin and to share highlights about the experiences of the ten communities, so that their learnings go beyond the Collaborative.

What I value most about the Implementer Convening’s is the opportunity to network with my fellow Implementers. The relationships, both personal and professional, we are forming because of the opportunities we are given to get together are crucial to the success of our work, in my opinion. Because of the convenings we are more than a group of implementers we are a community.  No matter the location, our time together always inspires and motivates me to take our learnings and try new strategies in San Diego. Out of all the learnings I took away from Austin, I am most excited to experiment with influencers and campaigns to drive traction and awareness to the awesome work we are doing!
– Rebecka Handler, Director of the San Diego Jewish Teen Initiative

While the communities each have unique characteristics and singular elements of their engagement efforts, certain trends are prevalent across all the initiatives and highlight their important work:

  1. Communities put teens in the driver’s seat of their own experiences because today’s teens are comfortable finding and using their voice to make change. Funder Collaborative community initiatives enable teens to architect their own journeys in a variety ways: by creating programming for their peers, in reaching out to their friends to make sure they’re aware of opportunities, and even making decisions about major grants for teen programming.
  2. Discovery is a critical part of engagement. Teens, parents and even Jewish professionals say it’s difficult to find out about local Jewish opportunities. By developing online portals and searchable digital databases, the communities are amplifying the marketing power of all local organizations who post their events, and creating genuine value for the community.
  3. Success means building and nurturing an ecosystem. The Funder Collaborative communities see first-hand that a dynamic ecosystem surrounds the teens themselves: community partners, supervisors, lay leaders, professionals and parents all directly and indirectly impact teen engagement. Especially in their the early teen years, parents require targeted marketing and outreach. Critically, the teen initiatives recognize that parents themselves often seek a supportive community to support their parenting, and many of the initiatives now offer workshops and community-building activities for parents.
  4. Creating lasting change requires skilled and capable educators. After uniting around a new paradigm of teen-centric engagement, the initiatives quickly understood that developing a cadre of knowledgeable and capable educators and youth professionals would be critical to achieving their desired outcomes.
  5. Wellness is fundamental to achieving positive outcomes for teens. Focusing on the whole teen, including their mental health and overall wellness, is emerging as foundational to effective Jewish teen education and engagement. Several communities offer workshops or conferences on adolescent development and family systems, deeper understanding of the social forces impacting teens today, and specialized training for educators in youth mental health first aid. By addressing and elevating teen wellness, Funder Collaborative communities are pioneering a new, holistic view of engagement work, with healthy, balanced and resilient teens at the center.

More than five years ago, the ten communities and funders came together to co-invest in teen engagement efforts that would be informed by up-to-the-minute research and data. As the initiatives evolve and continue to be informed by learnings, the landscape of teen engagement continues to grow—and the outcomes are increasingly positive.

Want to learn how your community can get involved? Contact Sara Allen, Collaborative Director, [email protected].

The Jim Joseph Foundation is one of many funders invested in the Collaborative. 

Avodah

Avodah is special because it is welcoming of people who have different levels of Jewish education and people with different levels of different experiences with social justice…by being in Avodah, I realized that not only do I belong in the Jewish community and that I have a right to be there, but that I can actually be a leader there and that has inspired me to be more of a leader following Avodah
– Ursula Wagner, Avodah Chicago Justice Fellowship ‘17.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3c-EM6-guA

Ursula Wagner is a clinical social worker and union leader at Heartland Alliance where she works with individuals experiencing homelessness. She is just one of many young adults engaging in Jewish community and learning through Avodah and their passion for social justice.

With a central tenet that justice is a Jewish value, Avodah trains and supports Jewish leaders so they have the skills to advance social justice and have a deep understanding about how their values connect to their Jewish identities.

Avodah’s training, tools, and the intellectual, spiritual and communal framework sustains the work of Jewish leaders and their  lifelong commitment to social justice. Through its national Jewish Service Corps and Justice Fellowship programs, Avodah provides the gateway for new generations of leaders to find meaning and inspiration in their Judaism to create a better world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRuc2CSiOFw

When I finished college, I really wanted to continue down my path of social justice and I also really wanted to re engage with Judaism as an adult. Avodah offered both of those things exactly
– Danny Brown Avodah Jewish Service Corps Member DC ‘18, Danny Brown is currently spending his Avodah year as a digital literacy instructor at Byte Back, a nonprofit in DC that offers computer and tech training to adults entering or reentering the workforce.

Through Avodah, young Jewish leaders learn to connect their Jewish values to the most pressing issues today.

The Jim Joseph Foundation supports Avodah’s service leadership programs.

 

Jewish Emergent Network Prepares for First-Ever Conference

The Jewish Emergent Network is comprised of the leaders of seven path‐breaking Jewish communities from across the country: IKAR in Los Angeles, Kavana in Seattle, The Kitchen in San Francisco, Mishkan in Chicago, Sixth & I in Washington, D.C., and Lab/Shul and Romemu in New York. They join in the spirit of collaboration to revitalize the field of Jewish engagement, with a commitment to both traditionally rooted and creative approaches that welcome people into rich and meaningful Jewish life.

Now the Network is preparing to gather with thought leaders from around North America June 1-3 for (RE)VISION: Experiments & Dreams From Emerging Jewish Communities, a dynamic, content-rich, Shabbat-based conference held at IKAR and co-hosted by the the Network organizations.

Registration for (RE)VISION is open to the public at at www.JewishEmergentNetwork.org.

The three full days of content will feature laboratories, galleries, interactive experiments, panels, guest speakers and other creative learning modules, with plenty of time built in for networking, davening, singing and creating community.

(RE)VISION will also be the official introduction of the Network’s second cohort of select, early career rabbinic fellows and the farewell sendoff for the first cohort. The goal of the Network’s hallmark Rabbinic Fellowship is to create the next generation of entrepreneurial, risk-taking change-makers, with the skills to initiate independent communities and who are valuable and valued inside existing Jewish institutions and synagogues.

Joining this incredible Fellowship of rabbis and innovators has been the best possible kickoff to my rabbinic career.
-Rabbi Lauren Henderson, currently the Network Fellow at Mishkan in Chicago

https://vimeo.com/223676104


These rabbis who founded these emergent communities are my Jewish superheroes. They are redefining what is Jewish practice and Jewish life, and what Jewish community can really feel like. It can feel deeply welcoming and open but also, they are offering a Judaism that demands a lot of the people who walk in.
-Keilah Lebell, incoming second cohort Network Fellow at IKAR

Along with the Jim Joseph Foundation, additional support for the Network is provided by the William Davidson Foundation, the Crown Family, the Charles H. Revson Foundation, Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah, and Natan. Network members are continuing to secure additional program funding over the next two years.

Boulder ECE Educators Take Part in National Program

Boulder and Denver early learning educators from our Jewish Early Childhood Education (ECE) centers are sharing their talents and increasing their knowledge through a new Cross Community Learning Exchange to elevate the importance of Jewish ECE. Ten local ECE educators are taking part in a peer learning cohort with ten ECE educators from the Greater Chicago area to strengthen their teaching skills. The group met in Boulder in early April and will meet in Chicago later this year. Monthly virtual meetings will take place in between.

Jewish ECE is a key program area of JEWISHcolorado, supporting its mission of engaging the next generation in Jewish life. Studies point to the first five years of a child’s life as the most important years for building cognition, character and identity. With these developmental milestones in mind, Boulder and Denver Jewish early childhood educators strive to engage families and weave Jewish values and culture into daily experiences at ECE centers through top quality teaching.

JEWISHcolorado’s Director of Early Childhood Education, Judi Morosohk, said local educators are thrilled with this national recognition and excited to share their efforts with other communities. “Collaboration with others always provides a path to new insights and learning and we look forward to the impact this learning exchange will have on both of our communities and the overall field of Jewish ECE.”

The Community Learning Exchange is made possible by grants from The Jim Joseph Foundation and Rose Community Foundation. Rose Community Foundation Senior Program Officer Lisa Farber Miller shares, “Jewish ECE centers play an influential, yet often unrecognized, role in introducing children and their families to Jewish life and provide a venue for lasting Jewish friendships.”

Boulder and Denver Jewish ECE currently involves 220 educators teaching 1,100 children in 11 schools. “These educators are working to build healthy, successful learners and provide current and future Jewish engagement for Colorado families,” said Morosohk.

Michele Weingarden is the Communications Manager for JEWISHcolorado. Founded in 1946 and formerly known as Allied Jewish Federation of Colorado, JEWISHcolorado is the umbrella community organization focused on stewarding and strengthening Jewish community in Colorado, Israel and the world. JEWISHcolorado is a member of the Jewish Federations of North America, which is among the top ten charities on the continent. JEWISHcolorado raises and distributes funds in support of a wide variety of programs and partner organizations both locally and globally. For more information, visit www.JEWISHcolorado.org

Source: Boulder Jewish News

Registration Open For (RE)VISION Conference in Los Angeles

From June 1 – 3, 2018 in Los Angeles, the Jewish Emergent Network will gather with thought leaders from around North America for (RE)VISION: Experiments & Dreams From Emerging Jewish Communities, a dynamic, content-rich, Shabbat-based conference held at IKAR and co-hosted by the Jewish Emergent Network organizations: IKAR in L.A., Kavana in Seattle, The Kitchen in San Francisco, Mishkanin Chicago, Sixth & I in Washington, D.C., and Lab/Shul and Romemu in New York.

“Conference participants can expect to encounter innovative approaches to ritual and prayer, experience a diverse spectrum of music, explore vibrant models of radically welcoming community engagement, develop strategies for navigating justice and moral leadership, and be immersed in the best practices of the Jewish Emergent Network communities and other pioneering Jewish organizations from around the country,” says Melissa Balaban, Chair of the Network and Executive Director of IKAR.

The three full days of content will feature laboratories, galleries, interactive experiments, panels, guest speakers and other creative learning modules, with plenty of time built in for networking, davening, singing and creating community. Registration is open to the public: rabbis, cantors, Jewish professionals, lay leaders, academics, philanthropists, activists and interested-folks-at-large are invited to nab the remaining spots at www.JewishEmergentNetwork.org.

(RE)VISION will also be the official introduction of the Network’s second cohort of select, early career rabbinic fellows and the farewell sendoff for the first cohort. The goal of the Network’s hallmark Rabbinic Fellowship is to create the next generation of entrepreneurial, risk-taking change-makers, with the skills to initiate independent communities and who are valuable and valued inside existing Jewish institutions and synagogues.

The second cohort will follow in the path of the first cohort to become steeped in the spirit and best practices of the Network organizations. Each will finish the two-year Fellowship poised to educate and serve an array of target populations, especially Jews not currently engaged in Jewish life, young adults and families with young children. While engrossed in the work of thriving Network communities, the Fellows will also receive in-depth training and immersive mentoring as part of a national cohort of creative, vision-driven rabbis eager to invest in the reanimation of North American Jewish life.

The just-hired cohort of Network Fellows includes: Keilah Lebell at IKAR in Los Angeles, Josh Weisman at Kavana in Seattle, Tarlan Rabizadeh at The Kitchen in San Francisco, Jeff Stombaugh at Mishkan in Chicago, Jesse Paikin at Sixth & I in Washington, D.C., and Emily Cohen at Lab/Shul in New York. (You can see their bios, here.) The outgoing cohort includes Rabbi Nate DeGroot (IKAR), Rabbi Sydney Danziger (Kavana), Rabbi Jonathan Bubis (The Kitchen), Rabbi Lauren Henderson (Mishkan), Rabbi Suzy Stone (Sixth & I), Rabbi Kerry Chaplin (Lab/Shul), and Rabbi Joshua Buchin (Romemu).

The communities in the Network do not represent any one denomination or set of religious practices. What they share is a devotion to revitalizing the field of Jewish engagement, a commitment to approaches both traditionally rooted and creative, and a demonstrated success in attracting unaffiliated and disengaged Jews to a rich and meaningful Jewish practice. While each community is different in form and organizational structure, all have taken an entrepreneurial approach to this shared vision, operating outside of conventional institutional models, rethinking basic assumptions about ritual and spiritual practice, membership models, staff structures, the religious/cultural divide and physical space.

Seed funding for the first four years of this program has been generously provided through a grant from the Jim Joseph Foundation. Additional support is provided by the William Davidson Foundation, the Crown Family, the Charles H. Revson Foundation, Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah, and Natan. Network members are continuing to secure additional program funding over the next two years.

Source: eJewishPhilanthropy