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Commentary

A JVS Women to Work and David B. Hermelin
ORT Resource Center Program

400 004rommoi

Millennials Show A Rise
In Jewish Attachments

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he older generation
always thinks of the
younger generation as los-
ing its traditional values, wondering
"Why can't they be just like us?"
But in a time of
expanding globalism,
open social networking
and greater geographical
disbursement, a surpris-
ing finding of a recent
poll we conducted shows
that Jewish conscious-
ness among millennials
- young adults in college
and graduate school - is
rising, not falling.
As perhaps part of
a global trend toward
religion in general, we believe
the survey indicates that the
next generation of Jews may be
increasingly into being Jewish and
following Jewish traditions.
According to a new survey of
600 U.S. Jewish undergradu-
ates and graduate students con-
ducted by Penn Schoen & Berland
Associates, nearly half of all
Jewish college students partici-
pate in Hillel events - a 36 per-
cent increase from the last time
Penn Schoen & Berland did this
poll in 2005. More than half of
students said they would partici-
pate in a Hillel event in the next
month - up from only 36 percent
seven years ago. And nearly 75
percent of students said they
viewed Hillel and "Hillel people"
favorably, an increase of more
than 20 percent since 2005.
The next most important
Jewish institution on campus was
Chabad, which is also growing in
popularity with college students.
The rise in Jewish activism
also is tied to strong support for
Israel. Fully 78 percent of Jewish
students today say that support
for Israel is important to them -
virtually the same percentage that
says social justice (and having
a sense of responsibility for the
Jewish people) is important.
The success of Hillel is based
on a six-year effort that started
with the sophisticated deploy-
ment of early social networking
techniques. The idea was simple
- to use snowballing student

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26

September 6 2012

iN

• 777040

connections as the path to bring-
ing in more students. Hillel took
this insight from virtual to real
- training and employing nearly
1,000 Jewish students to engage
35,000 uninvolved Jewish peers
on 70 campuses across the globe.
It turns out that peers
not only can reach stu-
dents in ways that insti-
tutions can't, but they
also can do it creatively
and with lasting effect.
Second, Hillel hypoth-
esized that in addition
to going broader, it also
could go deeper. On
10 pilot campuses, it
placed Jewish educa-
tors and rabbis trained
to engage students in
study and conversation, encourag-
ing them to ask the big questions
that make college such a potent
place for development and growth.
As students progress in their
education, they are more likely
to participate in Jewish events
on campuses; such participation
reaches its zenith among graduate
students. This increase in interest
is across Reform, Conservative
and Orthodox students as well
as those self-defined as "just
Jewish."
The greater success of Jewish-
based organizations on campus is
no doubt the result of innovative
work by those organizations, but
it also signals some real changes
going on underneath. Social net-
working makes it easier for groups
to come together and find their
commonality; threats to Israel and
the potential growth of nuclear
weapons in the region give urgen-
cy to that connection. Birthright
Israel is also giving many an up-
close and personal experience.
So just when we all thought
young people were most likely to
blend in even further and abandon
purely Jewish institutions, we are
seeing them reassert their Jewish
identity, their support for Israel
and, perhaps most important, seek
out connections with one another
to feel part of a larger community
they can call their own.

Wayne Firestone is president and CEO,

of Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish

Campus Life.