ple because that's when they needed
community," he said, adding that in
each of the last four years, there has
been an increase in the number of
donors to Federation, many of them
young adults.
Federation's NEXTGen division has
helped engage younger Jews in vari-
ous community-based projects that
may or may not have a Jewish flavor.
"They are one of the major com-
ponents of an increased donor base,"
Neistein said.

How Do We Behave?
As in the 2000 national survey, the
younger the Jew, the less likely he is
to belong to a synagogue and to give
to Jewish causes. And, the likelier it
is for him or her to marry outside of
the faith.
Still, that doesn't mean the tide
can't be turned.
Saxe, SSRI report co-author, said
the Jewish com-
munity needs to
"focus on this gap
between people
who identify with
[Judaism], consider
themselves Jewish
and those people
who
participate in
Leonard Saxe
the community."
One way of
engaging young Jews who haven't
gone to Hebrew or Sunday schools
is to introduce them to Birthright,
a program that has taken 250,000
North American teens and young

adults to Israel free of charge.
Longitudinal studies of partici-
pants show that they are likelier to
marry other Jews, Saxe said, and
"there's a near universal rate of rais-
ing Jewish children."
In Michigan, where the Jewish
population continues to decline, the
organized Jewish community needs
to attract and retain Jews who don't
walk a traditional path.
"Our feeling is there's much that
has been done and needs to be
done," Neistein said. "I think that
younger people think about affili-
ation in different ways than their
grandparents and parents did, that
their relationship to institutions is
different. We have to think differ-
ently about how we engage people
in the community. We can make a
strong case that their involvement
is welcome and open, and they can
make a big difference here."
Saxe concurred.
Even if young Jews aren't engaged
in their synagogues and federations,
"You could say that's really terrible,
or you could say we have an oppor-
tunity to increase the value and
meaning we provide through these
institutions. If you create meaningful
opportunities, people will engage,"
he said. ❑

Go to ajpp.brandeis.edu to see the full
SSRI/Brandeis study and to http://
bit.ly/18IeMjg for the Pew study. The
Forward and JNS.org contributed to this
story.

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11)

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JEWISH SENIOR LIFE

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OF METROPOLITAN DETROIT

1868230

October 10 • 2013

15

