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Sometimes I get really mad at the Jewish nonprofit world. They are all about “engaging Jewish teens in meaningful Jewish experiences” when it’s creating shidducim and fun “latke making” and sing songy Shabbat services where half the stuff is not even prayers +
Just lean on me and wonderwall. And when Judaism is brought into the picture it’s all just #.tikkun-olam. Some of us don’t want this stuff. We want to learn about the Judaism that we were not fortunate enough to be raised with but the programs for this kind of thing are not there
Do you want teens to just sing Bim Bam in youth group and grow up and send their kids to do the same thing? Maybe. Fine. But some of us (teens) don’t want that. We want the real thing. There is no programs or etc for Teens who want to really deeply engage with Jewish practice +
Or become Baal Teshuva because you just asume we don’t want it. You assume that the teens won’t come. And maybe that’s a valid fear but I promise you some of us exist and we are here, ready to take it on. The 7th Lubavitcher Rebbe said “When you speak to the youth they do not
want the easy way out. Challenges do not scare them. The same is for Judaism - they want a sincere and true Judaism, just like everything else in life. Children and teenagers dislike insincerity. The American youth does not want a Judaism that is 50/50.”
I don’t even want to get started on Hebrew school and how much even those who love Judaism hate it or how you always want young people to come to shul but you had them during their most impresionable years and they still never came back. That’s for another time.
Anyway I don’t know if anyone will read this but ok
I’m about to piss of some people lol
I also want to add when these “real Judaism” programs do exist, they often cost a LOT more then youth groupy stuff which is highly subsidized. We need to fix our priorities.
And maybe you need the fun secular stuff to get people it should not always be that
And even if you like the current youth group stuff fine but give us a real Judaism one too because it’s not there
No kid should go through youth group and Hebrew school and not know what it looks like to live a Jewish life
