Have we failed?

By Audrey Lichter

My life could have been different. I grew up in a strong culturally Jewish home where our whole Brooklyn NY apartment building was almost exclusively Jewish. However, my Jewish education was minimal; hating religious school and knowing little about Jewish history, holidays or traditions (except for Chanukah and Passover). If it wasn’t that my father died when I was in college and my boyfriend told be about the Kaddish prayer that I could say weekly at Friday night in synagogue (about all I could muster) and then marrying the same boyfriend (who had gone to a orthodox yeshiva) and living in Kentucky where I became a Jewish ambassador since most people had never met a Jew – I would have stayed on a mostly secular trajectory. That was 50 years ago, and I have since dedicated most of my adult life to learning myself, teaching, and enabling others to grow Jewishly. 

All of this is to say that we have a generation of Jewish young people who seem to be in the same place I was, despite more opportunities for a better Jewish education: Birthright. PJ Library, generous stipends for learning, a robust internet where every possible learning activity is available on line, and  more. 

Yet, we bring young people together for a weekend in a Jewish retreat and give them color war and candle making (not even making a Havdalah candle to use). Israel is brutally attacked and antisemitism is on the rise, and there is  no discussion of the existential threat facing Israel and the mostly comfortable Jewish life we have thus far found in the free world. We indulge next gen with stipends as we beg them to engage. Have we failed generations of Jews by believing that we are no different than other aspiring groups that want to get ahead, make a good living and be good American citizens?  Have we not entertained the notion that maybe we as Jews have a higher purpose and that we have survived incredibly for over 3,000 years as a people for more than a Harvard admission and partner in a prestigious law firm? Has the American experience ultimately failed to create the kind of people that will have the guts and determination to continue growing the next generation of Jewish life?

Has the American experience ultimately failed to create the kind of people that will have the guts and determination to continue growing the next generation of Jewish life?

For those young families who take Jewish continuity seriously and send their children to Jewish day schools and summer camps, who join congregations and imbue their homes with Jewish rituals and celebrations, why do we bankrupt them for doing so? Summer camp can cost over $20,000 a summer and day schools can cost upwards of $35,000 per year per child. Not to mention the never ending pleas to support a myriad of Jewish causes once you are identified as someone who cares. Campuses are burning up with young Jews feeling threatened as other progressive young Jews, ignorant of their history,  support a terrorist organization that would be happy to throw them into the sea along with Israel. 

Despite all our efforts to provide a better and more meaningful Jewish experience than I had growing up, where are we? Look at the bravery and commitment of the young IDF soldiers… can we American Jews hold a candle to these young people? Have we failed?