Home
News
Opinion
About
Archive
Jewish Insider
Subscribe
Facebook
Twitter
News Opinion Your Daily Phil
Facebook
Twitter
Subscribe
Search

Engaging Jewish Young Adults

June 22, 2016
Share
Facebook
Twitter
Email
Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Moishe House group hug[This essay is from The Peoplehood Papers, volume 17 – Engaging Millennials with Jewish Peoplehood What Does It Take? – published by the Center for Jewish Peoplehood Education.]

By Alejandro Okret

I am not worried. I am almost certain I am not worried.

In reading about sustainability and how we humans react to the term and relate to it pragmatically, I started to think about the Jewish community. To make a long story short, I’ll cut to the chase and focus on young adults, fashionably called “Millennials.”

Through my job at Moishe House, out of the London office, I am very lucky to interact on a daily basis with Jewish young adults as close as Argentina and as far as New Zealand. I learn from them, adapt and update my weltanschauung. A Pew Research Center report from 2012 titled, “Nones on the rise,” highlighted how Millennials are less religiously affiliated than ever before; however, in my opinion, this in no way means less communally engaged. A revaluation of beliefs and practices is central to emerging adulthood. The traditions and communal customs used by previous generations have certainly morphed, but not the eagerness to participate and activate.

The lack of a communal space that positively engages young adults has meant that this cohort has looked elsewhere, as described in a recent publication from the Harvard Business Review, “How we gather.” That ‘elsewhere’ has often been with their peers in informal settings. Young adults in the Jewish community are increasingly resorting to peer-built communities. This is their time to experiment, and most importantly, to fail. Failure carries a huge burden, but it embodies great potential for success and empowerment. I want to see young adults assume responsibilities and show us the way. At the end of the day, they are the next generation of communal leaders and it is now when they need to be given the opportunity to earn the trust from the Jewish community. However, is the Jewish community ready to give them that trust?

At Moishe House, we pride ourselves for acknowledging that our residents, the Jewish young adults creating meaningful Jewish programming for their peers across the world, are the real specialists. We are there to support and help them, but they are the doers and innovators.

In Europe, where I am based, anti-Semitism is growing and the sense of building resilient communities is increasingly urgent. I could not imagine partnering with a better core of individuals. Young adults are flocking in by the tens of thousands to participate, create vibrant and invigorating communities, and assume their role in their Jewish communities. All we need to do is adapt our mindset and learn to meet them at their junctions, where they know what works for them and not what adults tell them will work for them.

I am not worried. As long as we keep investing in Jewish young adults and let them lead, I am not worried.

Alejandro Okret is Moishe House Chief Global Officer and a member of the ROI community.

Your Daily Phil

Participants march during the annual Pride Parade in Tel Aviv on June 10, 2022.

July 1, 2022

Your Daily Phil: A new funding model for Israel + A Holocaust lawsuit in Arizona

News

Participants march during the annual Pride Parade in Tel Aviv on June 10, 2022.

across the spectrum

A new model for funding Israel emphasizes diversity

Business graph with arrows tending downwards

this economy

How supply chain troubles, inflation and stock market woes are impacting Jewish nonprofits

symposium on the slopes

Aspen Ideas Festival convenes again, with philanthropy on the agenda

Activists sit amid tents on Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv on June 21, 2022.

ROTHSCHILD REDUX

As cost of living rises, Israel’s latest tent protests fizzle out amid political chaos

A protest in Salt Lake City, Utah, last month on behalf of abortion rights.

in response

How Jewish federations in states that now ban abortion are reacting

Protesters outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on June 24, 2022.

how they're reacting

These Jewish nonprofits are planning to fund employees’ out-of-state abortions

Attendees at a Holocaust Survivor Day event at the the Ghetto Fighters' House Museum in northern Israel on Sunday.

day of gratitude

Second annual Holocaust Survivor Day aims to show appreciation for a dwindling population

Opinion

Going to court

Challenging Arizona’s use of Zyklon B

congregation beth israel in colleyville

Rising anti-zionism

Defending ourselves

Religious values

The repeal of Roe v. Wade is an attack on my Jewish freedom

family of peoples

The challenges of Peoplehood 4.0

Ahavat Yisrael

A message to our movements

Reaching out

Why LGBTQ Pride belongs in the synagogue

Navigation
Home
News
Opinion
Archive
About
Social
Facebook
Twitter
Subscribe

Copyright © 2021 · eJewish Philanthropy · All Rights Reserved

Subscribe now to
Your Daily Phil

The philanthropy news you need to stay up to date, delivered daily in a must-read newsletter.