Focus on Young Adult Reform Jews
Jonathan Krasner, Ph.D.,
Associate Professor of the American
Jewish Experience, HUC-JIR/New York
G
iven the alarming portrait that Dr. Steven M. Cohen, Jack Ukeles, and Ron Miller
paint of the Reform and Conservative movements in a state of hemorrhage, their
proposed remedies are surprisingly modest. Although Jewish film festivals and social
mixers are culturally valuable and doubtless engender some happy Jewish couplings,
they are no match for 21st-century social networking. Group pages aside, companies
like Facebook ultimately make it their business to break down rather than uphold reli-
gious and ethnic boundaries. This is the world in which our Jewish digital natives reside.
On a broader level, the demographic trends so dramatically reflected in their recently
released study are unlikely to be reversed in the foreseeable future. Factors such as
delayed marriage and childbearing in non-Orthodox communities are obviously tied to
general societal trends and stand little chance of being reversed by Jewish communal
policy. Similarly, interfaith marriage is the inevitable price of living in an open and
hospitable society. These phenomena are here to stay.
Rather than focusing on social contrivances, the Movement should focus its attention
on the young adult Reform Jews who are abandoning Reform Judaism in droves for the
“
Just Jewish” label. Some may be leaving because they philosophically reject institutional
membership and denominational labels. Yet we must own up to the fact that many
Reform Jews are failing to retain their connection because their childhood homes were
bereft of meaningful Jewish culture and the religious schools and synagogues they expe-
rienced left them uninspired. The signal accomplishment of the Reform Movement in the
last thirty years has been its outreach. But being welcoming and inclusive is not enough.
Rabbi Alexander Schindler, the Reform leader who spearheaded the Movement’s out-
reach efforts, poignantly wondered aloud: “What [is the] purpose of outreach, pray tell,
if there is nothing within?”
Lowering barriers to inclusion need not and should not translate into an erasure of
Jewish boundaries. The Movement should proudly and boldly offer a liberal Judaism that
is more than a thin gruel. It must not be afraid to make demands on its congregants,
intensify its educational programs, and replace the intellectually appealing but impractical
slogan of “informed choice” with an ethic of religious obligation and social responsibility.
We must build communities of meaning based on a shared commitment to intensive
Jewish living. The New York survey and anecdotal evidence suggests that the Movement
has already begun to take baby steps in this direction. Reform camping is a bright spot
on the educational landscape, while initiatives like the Experiment in Congregational Ed-
ucation and Synagogue 3000 have had some success in revitalizing our synagogues.
But we need to do more.
The most profound challenge that we face is cultivating group loyalty in young people
who have been steeped in cosmopolitanism and concern for universal causes. Liberal
Judaism cannot offer a message indistinguishable from the aphorisms on a Starbucks
coffee cup. Yet neither can we lapse into a parochial, ethnocentric discourse. We might
instead heed the call of the United Kingdom’s Chief Rabbi, Lord Jonathan Sacks, who
champions a particularism that looks to God and tradition to sanctify universal values.
Such an approach bestows meaning and purpose on the mundane and frames the
pursuit of justice in the covenantal relationship. If Reform can present a vision of Judaism
that hallows the individual in pursuit of a universalistic mission, it will have found a
way to reach disaffected Jewish youth and young adults who are searching for spiritual
meaning. Far from being a departure from the past, such a vision would constitute an
effort by contemporary Reform to (re)capture some of the spirit that animated classical
Reformers like Rabbi Emil G. Hirsch.
Jewish social justice activist Ari Hart likes to speak about “embed[ing] universalistic
work inside a lifelong Jewish journey so that it is … not just another ‘experience.’”
We can become the facilitators and travel agents for such lifelong Jewish journeys.
In so doing we may very well be safeguarding the future of liberal Judaism.
New Approaches to Outreach and Conversion:
The Gerecht Family Institute at HUC-JIR
Rabbi Aaron Panken ‘91, Ph.D.,
Director, Gerecht Family Institute; Assistant Professor of Rabbinic
and Second Temple Literature, HUC-JIR/New York
Page 4
Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion
T
he genesis of the Gerecht Family Institute for
Outreach and Conversion at HUC-JIR came
about in a unique way. While serving as Dean of the
New York School in the mid-’90s, I was in Rockville,
MD, and had just completed a public lecture when
a distinguished gentleman approached me and
asked: “Does the College-Institute have a Professor
of Outreach?” After a subsequent meeting in
Washington, DC, Ash Gerecht agreed to create a
generous endowment, and the Gerecht Family In-
stitute was born.
Over the next decade, with the help of students,
faculty, alumni, such luminaries in the field as
Dru Greenwood and Kathy Kahn (who headed the
Union for Reform Judaism’s outreach programs),
and the cooperation of the directors of the rabbinical
programs on our stateside campuses, we created a
well-respected co-curricular educational program
that now trains all of our rabbinical and cantorial
students on key issues of conversion and outreach.
During the required three-day workshops, students
learn the textual background that undergirds the
Jewish ideals relating to outreach and conversion
across the many eras of Jewish history and the many
streams of contemporary Jewish life. They study
the psychology of conversion and the phases and
feelings converts experience when moving from one
faith to another. They hear from panels of those
who have converted to Judaism – and their spouses –
about their experiences, their challenges, and their
joys. They consider what steps are necessary to
create congregations that are welcoming to those
not yet part of Jewish life in a formal way. They
practice interviewing techniques and consider
conversion curricula. They discuss circumcision,
immersion, and
beit din
practices in Reform Judaism
and beyond, in North America, Israel, and elsewhere
abroad. They share best practices with extraordinary
HUC-JIR alumni in the field who offer their own
experiences and advice. Through constant review
and improvement, the program has consistently
garnered the most positive of responses, with
evaluations regularly calling it one of our students’
most valued experiences.
The staff and consultants of the Gerecht Institute
are now looking beyond these educational settings
to influence the Reform Movement and the greater
Jewish community through additional generous
support from the Gerecht family. We are develop-
ing online resources that will soon be available to
assist all HUC-JIR alumni with building effective
conversion programs, continuing their professional
learning in these areas, and building a deeper
culture of welcoming and accessibility within
congregational and organizational settings. This
past year, the Gerecht Institute held a very suc-
cessful first retreat for alumni, a program that
will recur every one to two years, with the goal
of helping alumni benefit from the program if
they graduated before it was in place.
As has been the case throughout Jewish history,
our community has benefitted greatly from the
addition of “fellow travelers” to our ranks. Through
the work of the Gerecht Institute, we hope to
continue to extend and enhance our efforts,
making Reform Judaism stronger, intellectually
deeper, more vibrant, and ever more welcoming.
