Weaving Magic

Jerry Zolynsky

Teen engagement
initiative aims to
nurture the
community’s next
generation.

Stacy Gittleman
Contributing Writer

J

Jake Provizer
of Farmington
Hills, an active,
committed
teen, at Camp
George in
Canada during a
Shabbat service

ake Provizer of Farmington Hills
remembers being “anti” Hebrew
school. After his bar mitzvah
at Temple Israel, the incoming
Michigan State University fresh-
man begrudgingly attended Monday
night school. It was not until he found
himself encircled by his newest friends
during Havdalah at his first NFTY
convention in Chicago
that he felt his Jewish
identity taking hold.
“I was in the eighth
grade, and it was
my first youth group
experience,” recalled
Provizer over a phone
interview from Camp
George in Canada,
where he is spending
his second summer
as a counselor. “Then
and there, I realized
there was no place
I would rather be. I
went to every NFTY
event all through high
school. Involvement
with Jewish youth is
the best way to build
your Jewish identity
while you pick up the skills to become
an independent adult.”
There are about 4,400 Jewish teenag-
ers in Metro Detroit, but only about
1,000 — or 25 percent — think like
Provizer and are active in Jewish living.
The rest of this age group, though they
value things like Jewish holidays and
being with Jewish friends, are pulled in
different directions in a post-religious
society that values secular pursuits as
they look to build their college applica-
tion portfolio.
As teen free time dwindles, Jewish

15-year-old Tania Miller of Farmington Hills laughs at a burnt marshmallow that 13-year-old Hanna Lupovitch of West
Bloomfield made. It also caught the attention of Teen Network Weaver Jacki Honig, who works with Conservative teens.

youth programming needs to be more
meaningful to fulfill the teens’ social
action desires as well as their need to
socialize in a realm outside of social
media.
The above findings are from a
2014 study conducted by the Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan Detroit’s
Task Force on Jewish Engagement.
Recognizing that a robust Jewish com-
munity can only continue by nurturing
the next generation, Detroit is leading
the nation in financial commitment to
Jewish teen engagement with its Teen
Network Weavers (TNW) initiative.
The TNW term was coined by Rabbis
Jen Lader and Josh Bennett of Temple
Israel.
“It is crucial that
we re-invest in
our teens to con-
nect them to their
rich heritage that
can offer so much
guidance as they
navigate their way
through the many
Jeff Lasday
modern challenges
they face,” said
Jeffrey Lasday of
Federation’s Education Department.
“Success to us at the end of this sec-
ond year will look like 90 percent of

Detroit’s Jewish teens participating in at
least one Jewish youth program.”
TNW funding is provided by a
$150,000 grant from the Hermlin-
Davidson Center for Congregational
Excellence. The grant is then split and
matched three ways between Temple
Israel of West Bloomfield, Temple
Beth El of Bloomfield Township and
a consortium of local Conservative
synagogues. The match calls for con-
gregations and Federation to split the
cost of each weaver, an administrator
and some programming costs. Each
weaver is hired on a two-year rolling
grant basis.
The pioneering initiative is unique
compared to how other Jewish com-
munities in major metropolitan areas
attempt to keep teens involved Jewishly,
according to Lasday.
The three weavers function at the
highest community level instead of the
individual congregation level as they
are guided by a Teen Network Weaver
administrator on Federation’s staff. The
initiative strives to keep Jewish teens in
the fold by meeting them where they
are — both literally and spiritually.
The weavers’ jobs demand a much
more proactive expertise than their
part-time counterparts of previous gen-
erations. TNWs have backgrounds in

social work and teen
crisis management
as well as a depth
of knowledge of
Judaism.
Heading up the
TNW team is Barrett
Harr, Federation’s
Barrett Harr
coordinator of
Jewish teen engage-
ment. Harr moved
here from Texas after 15 years of con-
gregational Jewish youth fieldwork and
this spring completed the Executive
M.A. Program in Jewish Education at
Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute
of Religion.
“Somewhere along the line, society
has lost that village where every adult
in the neighborhood looked out for
one another’s children,” Harr said. “The
Federation is determined to nurture
more Jewish teens and we, as Jewish
youth professionals, are blessed to have
such a financial commitment from this
community.”

JEWISH JOURNEYS
Shortly after she graduated college,
Jacki Honing, 26, found herself at a din-
ner meeting with a potential employer
on a Friday night.
“As a 20-something, I realized I had

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32 August 25 • 2016