Editor's Letter

This Linkage Is A Keeper

A

cculturation, intermarriage and apathy constitute
the Big Three of threats to the religious identity of
Jews ages 18-39 in America. Over the next 10 years,
these factors will more deeply influence the collective soul of
this pivotal age group of 1.5-million Jews — nearly a third of
the 5.1-million Jews in the United States.
While this age group comprises just
14 percent of Jewish Detroit, it will still
have an impact on who leads our corn-
munity in the future.
We know the importance of strong
Jewish learning and camping experi-
ences for teens and younger kids. We
know how beneficial educational and
socializing opportunities are for Jews
age 40 and beyond. What we don't
know is how best to motivate and
inspire our young adults. It's the sub-
ject of great dismay and debate.
American Jewry is made up of 850,000 18- to 29-year-olds
and 600,000 thirty-somethings. Because they represent the
physical link to our generational unity as a people,
the rest of us must be both curious and anxious
about the quality of that linkage.
Will the time-honored religious beliefs and val-
ues of this age group's parents and grandparents
diminish in the crucible of an increasingly secular
society? As a new, important American Jewish
Committee report attests, "We hope that the values
and institutions that we older generations have created will be
carried on, evolve, and become something new and exciting."
The report, by Ukeles Associates Inc., confirms what the
American Jewish community suspected: This generation is
distinctive from preceding "emerging adulthood" generations
in how the Jewish lifecycle is embraced and how Jewish con-
nections are formed.

cerned given our emphasis on couples and families. Whether
and whom these young adults will marry are vital questions
in light of our declining birth rate, something we can't ignore
with Islamic radicals bent on out-populating the rest of the
world. While marrying later as a general trend means fewer
Jews, Orthodox Jews continue to marry at a younger age and
have bigger families; thus the birth rate drop isn't so steep.

Shifting Tides
It's no surprise the AJC report discovered that programs with
a personal and informal texture like salons, which may meet
at coffeehouses, and chavurot, which may meet in homes,
attract young adults. Such grassroots initiatives are seen as
less-limiting avenues to being Jewish. In a sharp break, these
boundless, organic patterns of association are built around
common interests and shared experiences, not institutions
and organizations. To avoid being frozen out, many local syn-
agogues and organizations have responded with young adult
appeals rooted in innovative programming.
On the intermarriage front, the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit's 2005 population survey determined a

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The values and attitudes of our young
adults — and their definitions of vibrant
and compelling — must matter.

A Closer Look

Some of those distinctions are acute: Young adults are marry-
ing and having children later as well as mingling more with
non-Jews by way of living and business arrangements.
Findings also affirm substantially higher Jewish identity
and involvement among young adults who are Orthodox.
With 9 percent of the 30- to 39-year-olds Orthodox and 16
percent of those ages 20-29, the forecast is clear: We'll see an
increasing Orthodox community even as we see young Jews
assimilating more.
With the most-engaged young adults being Orthodox fol-
lowed by non-Orthodox in-married couples with children, it's
easy to deduce that the most-observant Jews as well as Jewish
couples with kids enjoy the richest Jewish lives. Notably,
growth in the Orthodox and Reform streams of Judaism has
come at the expense of the center, which explains why the
Conservative movement is grappling to reinvent and reposi-
tion itself.
I must stress: Nothing good comes from inter-stream
infighting. A Jewish community devoid of dialogue, respect,
understanding and interaction lacks the essential pillars to
prosper. However, Jewish life requires at least a baseline obli-
gation to learning, mitzvot, tzedakah and Israel.
Against that daunting backdrop, I was struck that half of all
Jews younger than 40 aren't married. That's cause to be con-

relatively low rate of 16 percent. That's in contrast to a nation-
al rate above 40 percent. So Jewish America does have reason
to encourage in-marriage and child bearing. The AJC report
underscores the importance of not writing off Jews with non-
Jewish spouses; 1 in 3 say being Jewish remains "very impor-
tant." I hope that translates into raising the kids Jewish.
The report further says the organized Jewish community
must work harder to tell Israel's story to younger Jews and
help them visit the Jewish state. And it challenges Jewish
organizational leadership to shed stodginess by focusing
more on projects and a range of interests and less on commit-
tees and hierarchal structures (a resounding amen to both!).
At its most provocative level, the AJC study implores the
Jewish community to accept change, to become more plural-
istic, and to stress paths toward personal enrichment rather
than obligation. This strategy is open, inclusive and worthy.
The values and attitudes of our young adults — and their
definitions of vibrant and compelling — must matter. To be
daring isn't irresponsible. At stake is a withered versus sus-
tainable Jewish community.
The wisest among our core leaders soon will realize that a
calculated departure from what they have traditionally sup-
ported, however unnerving that may seem, boasts high odds
of fortifying the Jewish experience against the relentless tugs
of societal assimilation and spiritual diversity in this plentiful
land of ours. ❑

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Is Detroit Jewry doing enough to engage
this age group?

How else might we reach out to 18- to
39-year-olds?

NINA RICCI

FOR

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November 2 2006 5

