The Jack E. and Rachel Gindi Jewish Student Union (JSU) has received a grant of $1.476 million from the Jim Joseph Foundation to replicate a pilot project in Chicago public high schools with similar projects featuring expanded programming in suburban New York’s Westchester County, the adjoining territory of Southern Connecticut, as well as South Florida. The grant has been matched by funds from the Wolfson Family of New York.
In the first year of the grants it is anticipated that clubs will be established in public high schools in areas of Westchester County, such as White Plains, New Rochelle, Scarsdale, Mt. Kisco and Armonk, and in nearby areas of Connecticut, such as Stamford and Greenwich.
JSU South Florida will begin with a focus on Boca Raton and parts of Broward County.
By establishing Jewish clubs in the public high schools, JSU provides dynamic content and personable educators to help combat Jewish apathy and lack of knowledge about Israel. While many other youth programs center around the synagogue structure, JSU seeks to connect with the large percentage of the teen population that is not serviced by the traditional system. But where to find these uncommitted Jewish youth? Even though many teens may rarely set foot in a synagogue, they all go to the same place between 8 AM and 3 PM: public school. Enter: JSU.
With its motto of “Serve them pizza and they will come,” JSU was founded in Los Angeles in 2002. Beginning with a group of student “culture” clubs, JSU has expanded throughout North America to more than 220 public high schools across the United States and Canada and reaching over 20,000 students, offering innovative programs presented by skilled educator-advisors with a special competence in working with teens. Meetings of these clubs occur only during non-instruction time such as lunch period or after school. In many cases, these clubs provide the only Jewish experiences for their members. JSU has quietly become one of the world’s largest and most effective youth organizations.
The Jim Joseph grant is based on a pilot JSU program which was established in Chicago four years ago to provide intensified education and activities for the teens. During that period, Chicago went from five to 15 clubs and from 230 students overall per year to more than 750 students overall per year in 2008-9.
The Jim Joseph Foundation grant includes more than $100,000 to hire an independent evaluator to assess the efficacy of adapting the Chicago successes. JSU hopes that the results will demonstrate that the new pilot communities are effectively engaging Jewish teens and that there is interest within the local communities to support these efforts through partnerships and continued funding.
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This article and its headline in particular is disturbing because a) it does not do justice to the great work that JSU does and b) because it makes Jewish teenagers seem like the only reason they will attend a Jewish activity is because of free food (specifically Pizza).
My unsolicited advice to JSU is do not sell yourself short and get rid of that ridiculous motto- “Serve them pizza and they will come.”
My advice, based on my research into this population, to other Jewish organizations trying to engage Jewish teenagers is the following. If you want Jewish teens to turn up to events – then it might be true – offer them Pizza and they might come. In the same vein you could offer them “guaranteed hook-ups,” cash incentives, and even free alcohol – for sure they will come – after all we would be servicing the base needs of the teenage population.
And the truth is the teens would come the first time. And maybe the second time, and even a third. But shortly after our smart, discerning teens, whose lives are filled with endless choices will stop turning up. they will ultimately be asking the question of why is this activity more valuable to me than anything else that I could choose to participate in. what is the added value of participating in this activity? will it help me become a better person? Will it add to my resume of life? yes – will it help me get into college? Will it help me to be a more well rounded individual? Will it help me to become a more committed Jew? Develop a sense of belonging with my people? etc etc
Our task is not simply to get Jewish teens together to eat pizza. Believe me – if that was our job it would be easy. One click, one tweet, one Facebook message – could all draw the attention of thousands of Jewish teens in a split second. Our task is more complicated,more meaningful and more holy – if we think its all about the pizza then we have lost our direction even before the journey has begun.
Hi David –
Thanks for your thoughtful response. I would simply say that the headline was not a decision of JSU’s – it did not come from us.
We’re confident that if you asked any of the teens we work with on a consistent basis about why they participate in clubs, pizza wouldn’t enter the conversation.
We are grateful to the Jim Joseph Foundation and our growing number of supporters across the country for realizing the importance of public school engagement.
As the author of the title, I’ll weigh in. Titles are written with many purposes – to be informative, certainly. But more important, is to create interest. Bring readers in to read what is written in the post. In this case, the first draft had as the title, Jack and Rachel Gindi Jewish Student Union Receives $1.476m Grant. Informative, yes. But frankly dull – and our feeling was the Jack and Rachel Gindi Jewish Student Union was not a household name. So, we went with the organization’s self-promoted motto – and it worked. While we never have the luxury of an a/b test on a title, I suspect more people read the post with the catchy title than would have the other way. And that’s a win for JSU.
For what it’s worth, this article was great and highlighted a major accomplishment for the JSU program.
As a former staff memeber for a similar program that was running in the NYC area in the 1990s, any funding for JSU is a major win in helping teens understand Judaism and it’s really funds that are going to an imporant and groundbreaking cause.