There’s a lot of discussion in Jewish circles about how to attract and engage youth. Synagogue leaders implore, please don’t have a b’nei mitzvah and take off – stick around and be a part of organized Jewish life.
Andrew Keene, a graduate of Nicolet High School on Milwaukee’s north shore, has an opinion on the matter and he’s arguably an expert.
He’s on the board of the Union for Reform Judaism. He’s on the board of the World Union for Progressive Judaism. He’s former national president of the North American Federation of Temple Youth (NFTY), the Reform Jewish youth movement. He’s planned youth events. He’s participated in youth events. He’s 20.
The answer for him is tikkun olam, the Jewish inclination to “repair the world.”
“I think social action and tikkun olam as a whole needs to be a focus for institutions that want to matter to young people,” said Keene, an entrepreneurship student at Drexel University in Philadelphia. “It pulls people into the Jewish community and it answers the question, so what?”
So what? Why be Jewish? Does Judaism exist for us just to pass along tradition? That can’t be the answer, says Keene, who estimates he’s been to about 50 Jewish youth conferences. For Keene, social action is important both because it’s right and because it’s a powerful attractor for the young. They want to believe.
The drive behind activism, he says, can be Jewish in character, even if the results are for the secular world. “We really need to root ourselves in Jewish values when we go out to work in communities,” Keene said.
“There’s so many studies now – millennials want to give them time rather than money,” he added. “We’re not waiting for anyone to step in and repair the world for us.”
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