Nothing to say, yet
Transcription
Organizations that focus solely on one age demographic have advantages such as strong connection and coherence in their offerings. However, it may not capture the holistic community-making that comes from relationships between different age groups. It's a question of whether these organizations are just touch points or if they reduce the essence of Jewish community to a specific age group. There are mixed opinions on this, with some believing that both approaches have value in reaching different audiences. Additionally, the lack of programs for young adults in certain areas has led to a desire for organizations like the Mission Minion to serve this demographic. So, I'm choosing to focus on the question that you posed, what is gained and what is lost when an organization focuses solely on one age demographic, like in the case of Six and I. And I think about this a lot because I have facilitated groups for young professionals, for Jewish young professionals, and I've facilitated groups for parents of Tots, for like Tots Shabbat spaces, and we've also run programming for high school students before, so like had these opportunities to facilitate connection in these really specific target of age groups. And I feel like there are some really significant advantages to having a focused approach to one demographic and some very serious disadvantages. And, you know, the advantages I think are just the strong sense of connection and relevance. You know, everything that we're doing is tailored for this life stage and it can build a really strong, positive sense of community and identification. I mean, you need look no further than Chabad to know that, on college campuses, to know that this is a successful model. But on the other hand, and you know, sort of another benefit is just coherence in what the organization is offering. It can be really focused. It doesn't have to split itself nine ways, like a synagogue trying to meet elders' needs and meet young families' needs and meet young professionals' needs. It can just do the things that group is needing. But what I've always struggled about this, particularly within the Jewish context, is that it feels like this snapshot that isn't about holistic community making. You know, so many of the life cycle events that we experience, when we're the one getting married or having a bat mitzvah or whatever, we feel like, oh, this is about us. But when we're a participant for anyone else, you know, every time I go to a wedding now, I am held in my own marriage by witnessing these other people at a different point in their relationship, making commitments. And I watch the elders in our shul, watch the children become bat mitzvah, and it does something for the elders, and the elders do something for the kids. So it feels like so much of what Jewish life is about is relationship between different demographic groups and different ages, and that all of us coming together is so much a part of what really makes Jewish life. And I think what I'm wrestling with is, is it okay if organizations are really just like touch points, and they're just trying to give people a deep sense that Judaism is meaningful, and that there's meaning here for you, and here's just this one moment that is special and important, that will excite you about weaving that tapestry of more deeply communitied Jewish life at another point in your life, or if it's really like, redactive or reductive, I don't know, to take, to try to distill what being a Jewish community is, or reduce what being a Jewish community is, to just being like a fun event for 30s and 20s. So I'm, my husband is here sitting with me as I'm rambling about this, and he used to lead birthright trips for young people, for teens and also young 20s, and I'm just curious what you think, Jacob, about this question, like, do you think that, do you think that there's more to be gained or more to be lost by an organization only focusing on one age group? Yeah, it's a great question. I mean, I think the initial answer would be yes, or both and, right? Is it an incubator, or is it a community? Looking at birthright trips, for example, I mean, a lot of what they're working on is Kiru, right? They're trying to reach the unaffiliated or the under-affiliated. I remember when I was hanging out with folks at the Mission Minion in San Francisco, there was a lot of 20s and 30s, and once you start bringing in people in their 40s, the people in their 20s don't want to show up. It's like, once kids are there, then you're not going to be having, like, late-night hangouts with alcohol. I remember a lot of people from my 20s and 30s who would say things like, yeah, I'll get involved with the synagogue when I have kids, or yeah, I'll do that when I'm older. Like, they had no interest in Jewish community life other than as a place to kind of raise a family, because that's kind of how they had grown up, and then they had bailed out as soon as possible. So, I mean, let's look at summer camps, right? I mean, a summer camp, you could argue is a Jewish community, and you could also argue it's not a community. If you're there for five years, that could incredibly shape your self-identity and your Jewish identity, your connection to Judaism, but if you're not there ten years later, was it a community? I mean, we could just look at, like, Hillel on campus, right? They have a really strong mission. They have a really strong mission statement, and hopefully you're not hanging around ten years later. It's kind of served its purpose, and you have a different role, and when we look at Chabad, a lot of the Chabad communities have their college campus rabbis, and then they have their family rabbis, and they're often different. Like, we're not going to a lot of events with college students. Right, so both can maybe play a role if you're trying to catch people at a moment when they otherwise wouldn't affiliate, but maybe it's not a vision for the whole picture of Jewish community. Yeah, and also I think that, like, I remember in my 20s and 30s living in Boston, just like, my friends and I complained because there was nothing like the Mission Minion. There was nothing for us, and I was around before Moeshe House, and there was nothing for young adults, and that's what we really wished for, and nobody was serving us, and we couldn't really facilitate ourselves because we were all in grad school, and we were transient and itinerant and moving city every couple of years, so I think it's a cool thing that this is here for people.
