By Ellen Wagner
Imagine you are a twenty-something newlywed with a full time job, busy making a life in a new city. A local Reform synagogue approaches you and your spouse with a plea for help.
“Please help! The Temple youth group is in desperate need of adult supervision. We’ve heard you’ve got some experience in this department. Won’t you consider giving up your Sunday mornings, several long weekends and even a few weeknights a month for our teens?!”
The average young couple might smile, offer a remorseful excuse about not wanting to make such a big commitment, and promise to consider it in a few years. Or, you might get lucky. One half of this young Jewish couple might have attended a URJ Camp as a child or may have participated in NFTY as a teenager. Perhaps they worked summers together at a URJ Camp, or maybe one spent time working as a synagogue youth program director between college and graduate school. If you get lucky, you might find a couple who had their own remarkable experiences with the URJ youth movement—remarkable enough to think about forgoing their personal time for a Temple youth group.
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