Our communities\’ leadership has to absorb the reality that the next generation of open-minded young people sees diversity as a plus, not as a burden to be overcome.
Many college-bound high school graduates are packing up their inflatable sofas and plan to stay abreast Middle East news using wireless laptops. But some of their peers will get a real-time glimpse of current events as they prepare for a year of study in Israel.
The last few months have seen a flood of studies of Gen-Y Jews — all trying to map their sense of Jewish identity, affiliation patterns, needs, hopes, beliefs and behaviors.
\”Looking at what\’s happening locally and nationally, we\’ve found that fewer teen boys enroll in informal Jewish activities than they did in previous years,\” said Lori Harrison Port, senior associate director for planning and allocations at The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles.
Even in relatively tolerant and officially secular America, Jews long have had to do a dance around the holidays of the majority population. There\’s a national party going on and, let\’s face it, we are not invited.
\”We didn\’t have the resources and knowledge of how Israel has been changing according to the international arena,\” said Jewish-day-school teacher Ziva London on a break between sessions at an Israel teacher education workshop at the University of Judaism (UJ).
These are tense days for the Los Angeles parents of Jewish students studying at Israeli universities and yeshivas. Their sons and daughters are among some 4,000 Americans studying in Israel this year in a wide range of programs. Major universities, yeshivas, kibbutzim, the Israel Defense Force are just a few of the institutions that offer American students programs in Israel. According to the Israel Aliyah Center, there are l00 students from Los Angeles currently studying in Israel.
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