Jewish teens are searching for Jewish connections and new experiences. They are also looking to be taken seriously as thinkers, learners, and leaders. They want to meet and engage with the wider Jewish world, with Jewish thinkers and leaders and with other teens like them. They need more opportunities to do this. Today, against the backdrop of the Oct. 7 terror attacks, Israel’s multifront war and rising antisemitism around the world, Jewish teens are asking hard questions, and they need more spaces to explore answers.

Three years ago, the Shalom Hartman Institute made “a big bet on teens” with the launch of the Hartman Teen Fellowship. The premise of our program is that we take teens seriously; we give them tools to develop their own thinking; we enlarge and enrich their worlds and worldviews; and we partner with them in grappling with their Judaism, Jewish identities and relationships to Israel. In short, we are committed to what Yehuda Kurtzer, president of the Shalom Hartman Institute, has described as “setting a high bar and inviting people who want to clear that bar to be part of our community.” We see teens responding to that high bar with excitement, engagement and appreciation: the program has doubled in size each year, with 330 Hartman teen fellows currently participating — and a new cohort accepting applications now.

Courtesy/Hartman Institute

Members of the third cohort of the Hartman Teen Fellowship at a Shabbaton.

Here is what we have learned from our teen fellows:

Hartman teen fellows take us as seriously as we take them. Teens notice when they are taken seriously, and they reciprocate by taking the material, their fellow students and their teachers seriously. We are teaching the Hartman teen fellows the same ideas, using the same core texts as we teach any other audience, and they are showing up to learn at Shabbatonim (weekend retreats), in person and on Zoom. As a fellow from Seattle wrote, “I was able to meet hundreds of new and interesting Jewish peers, learn from a diverse group of faculty and staff, and have deep and meaningful discussions — both during sessions, but also long after classes ended. I left the Shabbaton thinking so much — from little questions about source materials, to big debates about what it means to be an American Jew today. I feel so grateful to have been a part of this weekend… My first [distance learning class] starts on Wednesday and I truly cannot wait.” 

Hartman teen fellows have complex questions, and they are looking for tools and values to help them develop answers for themselves. Hartman teen fellows know the world is messy, and we give them access to world-class faculty, who help them engage with and respond to the big questions of our time. This access to faculty extends beyond the classroom with personalized follow-up and mentorship tailored to the fellows’ interests. 

Hartman teen fellows know the limitations and dangers of echo chambers and relish the opportunity to encounter and build friendships with Jewish peers who have had different experiences. Our fellows come from a wide variety of Jewish backgrounds and communities. Some go to Jewish day school or Jewish camp or participate in Jewish youth groups, while for others, the fellowship community is their primary Jewish community. Hartman teen fellows relish being surrounded by equally committed Jewish peers, and they learn from one another’s experiences. One fellow summarized their experience by saying, “Participating in the Hartman Teen Fellowship this year exposed me to the biggest Jewish peer group I’ve ever been part of, not to mention the most interested, excited-to-learn, and knowledgeable Jewish teens I’ve met.” This feedback was consistent across all demographics, including both day school students and public-school students. A first-year Fellow left the opening Shabbaton “feeling the most connected to teenage Judaism then I’ve ever felt in my entire life. I didn’t realize how much I was longing for other Jewish teens that appreciate their Judaism like I do.”

Hartman teen fellows are deeply curious about and deeply committed to Judaism, the Jewish people and Israel. Exploration is an important aspect of adolescent identity development, as young people figure out who they want to be in the world. Hartman teen fellows ask: How do I engage with and understand these texts? How does your Jewish practice inform and challenge my own? How can we bridge our differences? Fellows also share curiosity, concern, and excitement about Israel’s past, present, and future and their own place in the conversation.

The Shalom Hartman Institute believes that great ideas, and the leaders who embody them, are the way to a better Jewish future. Three years of the Hartman Teen Fellowship have shown us that teens are eager for big ideas, tools to sharpen their own thinking and teachers and peers who will challenge them to think even bigger. Our “big bet on teens” is already paying off, and we are eager to see the Jewish future our fellows are already building.

Daniel Braunfeld is the outgoing director of teen initiatives at the Shalom Hartman Institute. Jessica Fisher is the director of teen and educational initiatives at the Shalom Hartman Institute.