Jennifer (a pseudonym) is a 23-year-old American Jew who grew up in a home that equated Zionism with racism. Like many secular, progressive young Americans, she spent her college years immersed in a campus culture that, at best, questioned the current policies of the State of Israel and, at worst, demonized the country as a pariah state with a dubious right to exist. It would be reasonable to count her among the 20 percent of young American Jews categorized as “Israel-alienated” in the most recent Pew study. These are the young adults who express negative sentiments regarding the Jewish state.
So what is she doing in Israel?
Jennifer is a participant in a long-term Israel experience run by Yahel, a 5-year-old organization that brings Jewish young adults from the diaspora (mostly North America) to Israel for an intense year of service. Together with eight other participants, Jennifer is living and working in the economically struggling neighborhood of Ramat Eliyahu in Rishon LeTzion. Together, they spend their days tutoring elementary school students in English, helping with homework, running afterschool activities and caring for the community garden. This is not a quick tourist visit; it is an extended experience grappling with some of Israel’s most enduring social challenges.
Many in the organized Jewish community would quickly write Jennifer off. She was not a likely candidate for a Birthright Israel trip. She wasn’t involved in Hillel, and you wouldn’t have found her at any AIPAC conferences. But there was a path that led her to Israel, and that path was service.
Jennifer came to Israel because she wants to foster positive social change. Like many of her peers, she may believe that government, business and other major Western institutions cannot be trusted, but she believes that individuals can make a difference by stepping up to work on the front lines of creating change. It’s a belief that in recent years has motivated more than 500,000 young people to apply for fewer than 90,000 AmeriCorps slots annually. This is a generation that would not dream of pursuing social justice by merely writing checks. They want to be part of the communities they aspire to strengthen and support.
Although it was a passion for service that got her on the plane, now that she is in Israel Jennifer is challenged on a daily basis to confront the complexity of Israeli society. Through her service, she is encountering issues of race, gender, economic justice, immigration and — of course — the conflict with Palestinians. Equally important, she is meeting many committed Israeli activists who take on these challenges.
It’s an experience that provides a realistic, complex and nuanced understanding of a country that is talked about largely in the abstract during polarized debates back on college campuses in the States. And along with that nuanced and complex understanding emerges a genuine sense of connection.
At this complex moment in Israel-diaspora relations, service is an approach that deserves focused attention. Unprecedented numbers of young Jews are coming of age with deep questions about Israel, and many of them are unlikely to walk through the doors of any institutions in our existing communal infrastructure, like Hillels, AIPAC or Jewish federations. However, if we provide this generation with ways to come to Israel to live out their values, we may be able to connect them to their Jewish identity in a different way. These young Jews strongly identify as global citizens. Thousands of them travel all over the developing world with emerging new programs that give them a chance to help at-risk populations. It is critical that we provide such opportunities in Israel as well, and Yahel was created to do just that.
Much work needs to be done to bring these young Jews to Israel. We need to develop new approaches to marketing and recruitment, as those most likely to be interested in these experiences are unlikely to be reached by existing channels. And we cannot sacrifice quality: Programming that is not grounded in partnership with local communities will turn off the very individuals we seek to turn on.
Long-term service programs can be a way back in for progressive young Jews like Jennifer who are on their way out. They address the Jewish community’s greatest demographic challenges, and it’s time we give them the attention they deserve.
Max Klau and Rabbi Sid Schwarz are board members of Yahel: Israel Service Learning. Klau is a leadership scholar and consultant. Schwarz is a senior fellow at Clal and the founding president of Panim: The Institute for Jewish Leadership and Values. Reprinted with permission from eJewishPhilanthropy.com.