rabbijaffe

My Jewish youth group high school experience was absolutely amazing. Despite all the many changes I’ve made in my life, this is something I wil never deny, nor forget.

I have a tremendous amount a gratitude toward Judaism’s Reform  Movement for an endless list of wonderful things: Helping me survive the pains and difficulties of the high school years, giving me confidence to be the unique person I am, infusing within me a love of the Jewish people, and more.

So when I say I felt angry about what essentially felt to me like deception when fundamental knowledge about Judaism had, for all intents and purposes, been witheld from me, I do so with respect, and a heavy heart. After all, I believe such treatment is inherently immoral, and, frankly, reminds me a bit of what caused Catholocism to implode. There’s only so long that the top can hord information before the others want some too. Nevertheless, I believe it is a vital Jewish trait to show gratitude, therefore I am happy to shower thanks on the Reform Movement for the good that it has done for me. After all, if it wasn’t for it, it’s likely I wouldn’t be where I am today.

Now, a word about Judaism on the college campus. When people mention Judaism on the college campus the first word that pops into people’s minds is usually “Hillel”. The problem is, the sentence will usually in one way or the other also contain the word “lame”.

In my opinion, the downfall of Hillel comes from an attempt to please everyone. A noble endeavor, with unlikely results. How do you create substantive Jewish programming that pleases everyone? Easy… so long as you remove “substantive” from the question.

The fact is, the Jewish people are loaded with opinions and ideas they want to express freely. Take away that right, and you have empty programming. Well, college campuses have no shortage of empty programming. The problem is, the other ones are more fun than the Hillel ones. They are made by college students for the wants and needs of college students.

Enter the new world of Kesher, Koach, and Kedma. These are groups (reform, conservative, and orthodox, respectively) meant to attract Jews on campus for more demonination-specific programs. 

Two small problems:

#1: They don’t really attract new students. They attract kids Hillel would have attracted anyway. Basically, the kids now have Hillel and the side group, too.

#2: They are not meant for college kids. They are meant for a continuation of the fun and excitement that the different youth groups successfully captured in high school.

Once agan, I loved my youth group experience in high school. NFTY, USY, NCSY, they’re all great. They’re all fun. They very much appeal to the needs of high school studens.

But college students need to move on. College students need programming on a new level than what they just had for the past four years. If they don’t get that, they won’t be happy, and they’ll seek alternative ways to become happy. 

I had the incredible fortune of “accidentally” wandering into a Chabad House, the only people I truly believe fully understand my previous point. They provide the most amazing, age-appropriate, fulfilling experience for a Jewish college student.

That next week I went back to my normal reform service routine.

I sat in my place angry.

Angry because I felt like someone had lied to me. Angry because we were singing corny tunes, tunes for which I was already quite bored. Angry because I was surrounded by a room of people just trying to relive high school. There was no natural progression to college level activity. And I was DONE with high school.

The following week I decided to brave the Chabad House again.

That was in my freshman year of college, and it was thirteen years ago. I have not been to another reform service since.

The next chapter begins.

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