A few months ago, I was sitting with three college students – Anna Weiss, Sami Jinich and Yadid Orlow – who would become the hosts of “Future Tense,” a new podcast from the Shalom Hartman Institute. We were talking about the campus climate in an age of rising antisemitism and increasingly divisive Israel politics when Anna said something that has been running through my head ever since. 

Adults kept asking her about the situation on campus, she said. “They ask — but then they still don’t listen.”

Daniel Goodman

Deborah Barer on the set of Future Tense with hosts (from left) Sami Jinich, Anna Weiss and Yadid Orlow.

As an educator who has spent most of my career working with young adults, I understand the concerns that so many of us have for this generation of students and the impulse we have to want to protect them. In addition to the challenges of being Jewish on campus in this moment, students are navigating the impacts of growing up during a global pandemic, the ways that smartphones are changing the social fabric of adolescence and the ways that artificial intelligence is transforming the experience of education (to name only a few factors). They are living in difficult times, but too often our response has been to assume that our young people are unable to meet the challenges that they face — even when they are telling us otherwise.  

In this time of incredibly heated conversations about Jewish life, we at the Shalom Hartman Institute noticed that the voices of our young leaders were conspicuously absent. To remedy this, we created the podcast “Future Tense” to elevate these leaders’ voices and to provide them with the space they need to wrestle with their biggest questions about Judaism, Israel and their own Jewish futures in conversation with Hartman faculty. As the faculty advisor on this project, my experience not only renewed my optimism about the Jewish future but also helped me understand my work as a Jewish educator in a new light. 

Allowing for mistakes

An important element of our work on “Future Tense” was giving the hosts a real sense of ownership over the show. The topics and questions we explored all came from them, and the conversations we recorded were driven by them. But giving the students this kind of control over what we produced also meant that we had to allow them to make mistakes. As educators, when our students struggle or make mistakes, it can be hard not to see that as a sign of our own failures. In fact, it is a sign of success. 

“Future Tense” offered ample opportunities for failure. I had never made a podcast before, and neither had any of the hosts. While we got amazing help from the audio production team at Hartman, there was a steep learning curve. The missteps throughout the process became the moments when the hosts began to drive the conversation more fully. For example, each episode begins with a conversation between Anna, Sami and Yadid before they invite a guest scholar onto the show. We would usually try a practice run of that opening conversation before recording to make sure the hosts had a clear idea of the main ideas they wanted to cover. At the beginning, I would structure our meetings and listen to their run throughs. When the hosts insisted on meeting independently to prepare, I decided it was time to step back and let them have the freedom they wanted. 

And then, to my surprise, during one of our recordings, we went into the studio and the conversation fell flat. I had a moment of panic. Ultimately, wasn’t I responsible for the show’s dynamism and depth? Should I have insisted on directing their preparation more fully? Unsure of what to do, I decided – perhaps counterintuitively – to step back further. Instead of offering my own assessment when the recording ended, I asked for theirs. Immediately, all three hosts offered their own critiques and asked if they could try recording again.  

For me, this moment was one of the greatest successes of the show, before it had even aired. Instead of relying on my evaluation, the hosts had their own standards and expectations of themselves. What mattered was not my approval or assessment, but their own. I am still struck by how different this moment was from my years as a college professor, grading student papers and then inevitably fighting with students over those grades. Anna, Sami and Yadid knew they could do better, and they did when we returned to the studio for the re-record.

Embracing risk

There were several risky moments in our work on “Future Tense.” There were risks for Anna, Sami and Yadid in voicing their ideas about controversial issues publicly. In our current media environment, it takes bravery both to stake a position and to admit to not knowing, and they rose to the challenge admirably. But offering a public platform to these students also carried risks for our organization. While we were always clear with the hosts that their only job was to speak for themselves, “Future Tense” is a product of the Shalom Hartman Institute. How much did we need to ensure that their ideas reflected the tenor and mission of our organization? Would this be possible without silencing aspects of what they wanted to say?

Listen to “Future Tense” and you will hear Anna, Sami and Yadid bantering as college students, not talking heads. At moments in their conversations, you can hear them working through new ideas out loud. At others, they take extreme positions and then walk them back immediately. They sound exactly as people do when they are testing out new ideas before they have reached a settled conclusion. In elevating their voices as leaders who are still in formation, “Future Tense” models one of the Hartman Institute’s educational commitments: our students do not have to have all of the answers in order to have a seat at the table. Providing this platform allows our students to contribute meaningfully to conversations about the pressing challenges that face the Jewish community, even before they — or we — have all the answers. 

Not having all the answers

In our current media environment, there is intense pressure to quickly assess extremely complex issues, take a clear stand on them, and then hold to that position forever. There are so few platforms that elevate the process of working through ideas, inviting us to admit what we do not know or allowing us to change our minds later. And yet, it is precisely this process of testing and exploration that helps us gain the clarity we need both to act and to lead. 

The first episode of “Future Tense” explores what it takes to build a pluralistic Jewish community. In preparing to record, I talked with Anna, Sami and Yadid about their ideas and experiences related to this question and its challenges. It quickly became clear that we each understood the definition of pluralism differently. My immediate impulse was to correct them – to provide them with the “right” definition, as if they were preparing for a test and I wanted them to ace it. Instead, I pushed them to articulate their own definitions of pluralism more clearly. When the time came to record, the conversation was rich precisely because of their competing understandings of what pluralism is. These disagreements prompted them to surface different kinds of experiences and challenges around building diverse Jewish communities. The conversation never got to the “right” answer, but the students articulated a powerful set of questions. As a result, Sami, Anna and Yadid each got to a clearer understanding of what mattered to them – something that could not have happened if I had insisted on inserting my definition of pluralism instead of allowing them to debate their understandings. 

Anna, Sami and Yadid showed me the importance of embracing our role as educators in helping young people, whose identities and ideologies are still in formation, transition to adulthood. We can do this by welcoming them into the conversation, and by taking their ideas seriously even as we recognize that they are still in development. And we can provide them with a sense of ownership and independence by entrusting them with responsibilities while also allowing them to make mistakes.

I still have a lot to learn about podcasting and about teaching. But if I have learned anything, it is the immense value of inviting our young leaders to sit at the table with us. While we may worry about all the challenges facing this next generation, Anna, Sami and Yadid consistently impressed me with their bravery and willingness not only to engage with hard questions, but to share that process publicly. Now all that remains is to heed Anna’s call and listen to what they have to say.

Deborah Barer is senior faculty at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America and faculty advisor for “Future Tense,” a new podcast that puts today’s biggest Jewish questions in the hands of the leaders of tomorrow.