A Pew research study from 2016 showed that millennials not only view religious organizations less favorably than their elders, but they also are less likely to be religious in general. 

This is a big challenge for the Jewish community, where the synagogue has typically been the center of Jewish life. For Alevy Family Rabbi in Community Outreach Rabbi Yonah Bookstein, who is based in Pico-Robertson, it’s actually a welcome opportunity. 

“Younger Jews have fewer attachments to Jewish institutions, but they connect with friends, colleagues and affinity groups,” he said. “It doesn’t mean they are unaffiliated from their Jewish friends.”

Instead of living in the past and sticking to how things used to be done, especially pre-COVID, Bookstein connects with younger Jews in ways that are meaningful to them. For example, he goes to music festivals like Coachella, Rainbow Gathering and High Sierra and hosts Jews in his Shabbat tent, which offers services, Friday night dinner and a lunch on Saturday afternoon. There are also open jam sessions in the tent after Shabbat is over.

Another program he runs, Camp Neshama, is a retreat for Jews in their 20s and 30s in the San Bernardino Mountains that features Shabbat services, live performances, yoga classes and ziplining. 

Since the pandemic started, Bookstein and his wife Rachel, who works with him on all his programming, have been hosting events online like daily Torah classes and weekly musical havdalah services. 

“We’re giving Jewish millennials, singles and young families the opportunity to connect Jewishly,” he said. “The tone of the programming is as important as the content of it. You have to know who you are working with. It’s been shown that when Jews have positive Jewish experiences, whether it’s at a Jewish summer camp or a Shabbat dinner table, it’s transformative. They can transform our connection with ourselves and our creator and help us in our Jewish journeys.”

Bookstein has been working on building Jewish communities for 25 years, starting when he and Rachel were stationed in Poland for four years and created a community center and youth clubs, offered adult education, and oversaw a preschool and day school. 

“It was very rewarding work,” the rabbi, whose ancestors came from Poland, said. 

This was before Bookstein became a rabbi. When he was an undergraduate, the rabbi from Hillel and a local rabbi from a synagogue both told him he should become a rabbi as well. It wasn’t until a decade later, after he’d gone to school at Oxford University and worked in Poland, that he got ordained. 

In 2004, he and Rachel moved to Long Beach, California, where she was a Hillel director and he served as a campus rabbi for students at colleges in Long Beach and Orange County. While there, he founded the only Jewish student and youth festival in the U.S., Jewlicious, which was a three-day festival with live performances from musicians and comedians, Israeli folk dancing, challah baking and nature hikes.

“I love my office and my sanctuary, but I also love being out in a field with thousands of people and opening our tent to everybody and welcoming them.”

“I’m an Orthodox rabbi and I’m also very much committed to engaging with Jews wherever they are,” he said. “Some rabbis might just feel comfortable in their offices or their synagogues. I love my office and my sanctuary, but I also love being out in a field with thousands of people and opening our tent to everybody and welcoming them.”

Over the pandemic, the Booksteins shuttered the physical location for Pico Shul, their synagogue for young professionals, where they hosted services and meals every Shabbat since 2013. They’ve transitioned into holding High Holiday events and some outdoor services, and are now focusing on the future to see how they can continue to serve their community in unique ways.

“We kind of felt it’s all bashert,” he said. “We see this is the new landscape of the world and there’s a lot to do. Rather than look backwards, as a community, we have to look forward and not try to do things the way they were done, but do things the way they need to be done to ensure a thriving Jewish future. That requires change, which is not easy. People don’t like change. But we all know change is healthy and good and ultimately for the best.” 

Along with looking into new ways to connect with groups of younger Jews, Bookstein believes it’s just as important to help people on an individual basis. Just recently, a young man came to California for drug and alcohol addiction treatment. He texted the rabbi and asked if he could help him find a job as a math tutor. Bookstein knew another young man who runs a tutoring company, and, as it turned out, was looking to fill a position for a math tutor, so he put the two of them in touch.  

“The Piasetzna Rebbe, Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, said the greatest thing in the world is to do someone else a favor,” said Bookstein. “This is so important, this kind of work. You change people’s lives, you change the world. That’s really what it’s all about.”

Fast Takes With Yonah Bookstein

Jewish Journal: How long have you been playing the guitar?

Yonah Bookstein: Since I was 13, which is 39 years.

JJ: Who is your favorite band? 

YB: The Beatles.

JJ: What do you do when you have a day off?

YB: A what? I like going for either a walk or a run by the beach or in the forest.

JJ: What’s your favorite Jewish food? 

YB: Schmaltz herring with whisky or vodka. For whisky, Laphroaig. For vodka, the best with schmaltz herring in my opinion is ice cold Luksusowa, but it’s very hard to find in L.A. So I go with Monopolowa, which is made in Austria, or Belvedere, which is made in the town my grandfather was born in, Zyrardów. 

JJ: What beard upkeep tips do you have for your fellow bearded men?

YB: Condition, condition, condition. Any type of conditioner. I don’t discriminate.