RJ Blog

by Rachel Kasten Within an hour of the official kick-off of the Youth Engagement Conference, I was already inspired. Rabbi Bradley Solmsen, the URJ’s Director of Youth Engagement, informed us that each of our presenters were asked to give a talk they had never given before, in order to model the conference’s goals of thinking new thoughts and taking risks. Our first speaker, Allison Fine, an author, blogger, and speaker, recounted a story that she said has stuck with her for some time. It is now stuck with me, too. A young Jewish adult attended services at the local Chabad [...]

The time has come! Today marks the start of the 2013 Youth Engagement Conference, and 130 participants – Reform Jewish professionals and lay leaders invested in youth work – have arrived in Los Angeles to kick off four and a half days of learning, teaching, experimenting, and relationship-building. We at the URJ view this conference as a laboratory for developing the field of youth engagement and a unique opportunity for dialogue, development, and networking. So what’s different about this year’s Youth Engagement Conference? Our staff imagined and crafted this year’s gathering to be, above all else, an opportunity for experimentation, [...]

by Rachel Kasten In a few hours, we’ll be hopping off a plane at LAX with a dream and a cardigan, but right now we’re a youth professional and an involved teen getting excited about attending the Youth Engagement Conference and NFTY Convention, respectively. I’m the Assistant Director of Education & Youth Programs at Isaac M. Wise Temple in Cincinnati, OH, attending the Youth Engagement Conference while Alyssa Weisman, a NFTY-Ohio Valley Regional Board member and a madricha at Wise Temple’s Religious School, attends NFTY Convention. This is my third time attending NFTY Convention – once as a student, and [...]

The teenage girl puts her arm around the fourth grader. They both smile. The younger child feels warmth, love and a sense of “I matter” from her protector, a cool positive Jewish role model. The teen feels a sense of purpose, of meaning and a sense of “I matter” from a child who looks up to her as a positive Jewish role model. For which child’s benefit did my congregation, Congregation Or Ami, organize this three-day retreat? Ostensibly, for the younger child, as this weekend was designated a 4th- through 6th-grade retreat. Yet anyone who has witnessed the powerful effects [...]

by Samantha Pohl There have been no greater influences on my life than my temple youth group, NFTY-GER, Urban Mitzvah Corps, and NFTY in Israel. My participation in these programs as a teenager led me, as an adult, to become a Jewish professional and an active participant in the New York City Jewish community. While a student HUC-JIR’s School of Jewish Communal Service (now Jewish Nonprofit Management), I had the opportunity to explore how the top teen leaders of the Reform Movement connect—as volunteer leaders and in professional capacities— to Jewish life today, several years after their teen involvement.  In [...]

In a controversial blog post on Kveller.com that’s making waves within the Jewish community, rabbinical student Patrick Aleph proposed yesterday that the Jewish community dramatically rethink b’nai mitzvah, which he says are “not really worth anyone’s time or money.” Aleph, who studies at the Rabbinical Seminary International in New York City (and is not affiliated with any movement), says we should instead replace the bar mitzvah with a “a new type of [b’nai] mitzvah system where the entire family learns the curricula for the bar or bat mitzvah ceremony, and passes it on to the child through in-home learning, as opposed to [...]

I recently returned from the National Association of Temple Educators (NATE) conference. The theme of the conference was Project-Based Learning, a methodology in which participants go through a process of inquiry in response to a complex real-world question, problem, or challenge. Ron Berger, an expert on Project-Based Learning and keynote speaker, shared an example from his practice. His community discovered that some of their well water was contaminated. Instead of bringing in an outside testing service, Berger trained elementary students to do the testing themselves. Many issues emerged at the conference that have implications for the work of engaging youth, [...]

The Reform Movement’s B’nai Mitzvah Revolution is the widest reaching initiative ever, launched by the Movement to radically transform the entire B’nai Mitzvah experience. Earlier this month, the first set of pilot congregations participated in a weekend-long workshop with 65 professionals and lay leaders from 14 congregations including faculty and staff from Hebrew Union College’s Experiment in Congregational Education (ECE) and the Union for Reform Judaism’s Campaign for Youth Engagement (CYE). The goal of the workshop was to support the congregational teams in radically rethinking their approaches to the preparation for, and celebration of, bar and bat mitzvah.

The Union for Reform Judaism is thrilled to announce the launch of three URJ Communities of Practice. Jewish tradition places great emphasis on learning and what it brings to both individuals and the community-at-large. With that in mind, the URJ’s soon-to-be launched Communities of Practice will provide opportunities for congregations with shared concerns and interests in a particular area to study and advance their current strategies. Through participation, congregations will be emboldened to experiment “at home,” pushing the boundaries of their previous efforts while receiving peer support and guidance along the way. Although most communities of practice will learn, experiment [...]

In preparation for the Campaign for Youth Engagement‘s launch at Biennial 2011, over 1,000 teens, educators, rabbis, youth workers, cantors, administrators, and lay leaders were involved in grassroots conversations about what engages teens and what does not. One theme clearly stood out: building meaningful relationships and a dynamic and engaged Jewish community is essential for youth and their families to commit to Jewish life. Rabbi Rachel Ackerman, posted on Facebook about an experience at her congregation that exemplifies the value of meaningful relationships and community. Rabbi Ackerman described the Temple Shalom teen community’s remarkable reaction to the tragic loss of [...]

The Perks of Being a Wallflower, this season’s teen angst movie, illuminates the very real pressures of being a teenager. The teenage search for identity is interwoven so poignantly with the dislocation created by individual brokenness. Ironically, the scene of audience participation in a costumed presentation of the cult classic Rocky Horror Picture Show seems tame by comparison. A must-see movie for parents, teachers and others who interact with teens, Perks of Being a Wallflower reminds us that when it comes to kids, if we master the relationships, we motivate the teens. I felt that twice this past Sunday with [...]

I was on the phone a few months ago with Marshall Einhorn, executive director of Brown-RISD Hillel, discussing a talk I was asked to give at Brown, where my younger son is currently a junior and of which my older son is an alumnus. As an aside, I asked Marshall who would be leading the campus Reform services for the High Holy Days. When he said he had asked a number of people but without success, I offered to help. “That would be great!” Marshall said. “Let me know if your networks surface someone interested.” “No,” I told him. “Maybe [...]

The Jewish month of Elul is the perfect time for this symposium, and not just because  synagogues are opening of their religious school doors to young people and their parents for another year of Jewish learning. Elul is the very season of return. This month, in anticipation of the new year, we pause to recommit ourselves, communally and individually, to the enterprise of Jewish life and learning. So it’s the perfect time not only to imagine the future, but also to examine ways to inspire the next generation to discover joy in Jewish learning. Dr. Charles Edelsberg’s recent essay, characteristically, is [...]

Throughout Jewish life there are many benchmarks. Some are optional, and some come with tradition. The path I have taken has definitely been one of structure.