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For a young Jew living in western society, a Jewish identity is one choice on the identity smorgasbord. We can choose to define ourselves by where we live, our profession, our cultural and recreational interests, our political views, our religious beliefs, our sexuality and more. Unrestricted by antisemitism, often affluent third generation residents of our country, we are free to opt-out of the Jewish community into which we are born. Perhaps more than ever before we are living in an age of unlimited choice.
Much communal focus is given to intermarriage rates, estimated at around 30%, but in some ways intermarriage is symptomatic of a deeper issue rather than the core concern in and of itself. To the extent that young Jews have strong Jewish identities, participate actively in the community, invest in Jewish literacy, commit to Jewish values and have quality opportunities to meet a compatible Jewish partner, then “marrying-in” becomes a relatively inevitable consequence. The question therefore becomes, not how does the community prevent inter-marriage, but rather what can we do to facilitate strong Jewish identities and communal engagement?
Research Findings
Under the sponsorship of the NSW Jewish Communal Appeal and The Shalom Institute, there has been extensive analysis and research conducted around the issue of young adult engagement. Some of the key findings are as follows:
1) Strong Jewish identities but weak affiliation to communal institutions: Young Jews will often have Jewish friends and a private Jewish identity, but often this is not directed towards communal affiliation. One of the ironies and strategic challenges for a community trying to engage young adults in a coordinated and structured way is that young adults are frequently looking for the exact opposite – unbranded, organic, spontaneous ways of expressing themselves and affiliating.
2) A busy life is the key obstacle to participation: Market research shows the dominant obstacle to attending communal activities is that young adults are time poor. Getting good marks, establishing a career and financing a home doesn’t leave a lot of time for community.
3) Desire for communal engagement varies across life stage: A university student may be focused on studying, socialising and sex. An early career professional may be focused on career development and meeting a partner. A more established young adult might be focused on starting a family and servicing a mortgage. The opportunities for communal engagement need to evolve with life stage.
4) Bigger is not necessarily better: It is tempting to measure success by attendance numbers, but a lot of the research indicates that smaller, more intimate events can have greater appeal. Focus groups also found that large communal fundraising events can be off-putting, particularly for those less affiliated who can perceive ‘insiders’ as cliquey.
5) Branding and communications are important, but personal relationships are more important: Events need to be well branded and positively marketed. It can be off-putting, for example, when something is overtly branded as a “singles event.” Research showed that “not having someone to go with” was a major obstacle to participation. Therefore, organisers need to build teams of promoters and connectors to hook participants through personal relationships.
6) Common interests are a strong pull: While young Jews have varied interests, often they would like to pursue them in the company of other young Jews. I call this the “Jewish-hyphen.” Select examples include Jewish-salsa dancing, Jewish-book clubs, and Jewish-cooking classes. It’s not enough to offer these activities in a Jewish framework, there needs to be a quality product that is competitive with alternatives available in the wider community. Imagination and quality of execution are the only limits to the Jewish-hyphen.
Volunteer Driven Initiatives
A community is only sustainable when a critical mass of its members decide to give something back. Therefore, the best model for communal engagement will always be volunteer led.
Volunteer driven initiatives can achieve things that are often beyond the reach of an institutional framework. They are unbranded, innovative, small scale and organic. They have a personal touch, appeal to common interests and don’t need to necessarily be kosher. They leverage personal networks are highly engaging for the organisers and often operate below the radar of the mainstream community. Sometimes these initiatives run their course and are not sustained, while in other instances they give birth to bigger, more permanent fixtures.
Paid professional service delivery in our community will always be funding constrained, but there is no limit to what can be achieved by volunteers acting upon their own passion and initiative.
Taking it a Step Further: Diversity
It is axiomatic that there is no single strategy for engaging all the young adults in our community. Different people will connect to different things. An engaged young adult community requires a diversity of offerings including social justice initiatives, cultural events, targeted media content, professional development, education, young family activities and mothers groups, political activism, sport and shabbat hospitality.
The NETWORK Model
One model that has been delivering demonstrable results is NETWORK, an organisation based within The Shalom Institute that produces innovative cutting edge events for Jewish young adults in Sydney. NETWORK events are diverse in variety ranging from cooking classes to evening drinks targeting young professionals to educational city lunches to wine and art appreciation, music, films and beyond. NETWORK events are well branded, well promoted, well organised and well attended.
NETWORK is also a powerful platform for communicating with young adults. A monthly email to a database of over 5,000 young adults typically achieves over 25% click-throughs. The NETWORK website achieves up to 4,500 unique visitors in a month. NETWORK also provides relevant online classifieds such as share accommodation listings and hosts the 2 OF A KIND website which provides online matchmaking services.
NETWORK openly cooperates with other organisations. Since January 2008, NETWORK has co-sponsored 17 events with other communal organisations and promotes over 80 different organisations on its website.
NETWORK is also an innovator. Recently launched initiatives include SHALOM BABY targeting young mothers, HEEB magazine launches for a more alternative and creative crowd, and SCHOLAR IN THE CITY a city based educational offering.
All of this has been achieved with only two creative and energetic full time employees. NETWORK is a unique and effective model that other cities have sought to emulate. It is also a model which Sydney should be seeking to leverage and expand.
Getting Involved
NETWORK is a proven model that is punching well above its weight for only two staff members. However, it can never be all things to all people and capacity constrains its ability to deliver all the offerings that a vibrant young Jewish community deserves. JCA recognises this and has provided funding through NETWORK to help seed and incubate independent initiatives.
If you are a young member of the Sydney community with a certain passion or skill, then NETWORK can help you get involved. You might have a passion for social justice, art, music or film that you would like to express in a Jewish context. You might have skills in writing, event management or web design that you would like to draw upon to make a communal contribution. You might have a simple elegant idea that you would like to see happen.
NETWORK can help by:
a) providing seed funding for new ideas;
b) leveraging NETWORK’s core skills in event management, design, promotion and database management to assist third party initiatives;
c) cooperating with other community organisations to help promote and execute events;
d) introducing like minded volunteers and professionals to help drive an initiative.
An engaged young adult community is achievable, but it relies by definition on young adults engaging. Please contact the NETWORK office if you would like to get involved.
Mark Lewkovitz is a 30 year old investment banker. He previously sat on JCA’s Young Adult Advisory Board and currently sits on the Board of The Shalom Institute where he is Chairman of the NETWORK Committee.
Published in the Australian Jewish News |