NYC's View of The World

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Rabbi Elie Kaunfer contributed an excellent essay on Adult Jewish education entitled "Toward Adult Jewish Literacy" in the recent Growing Adult Jewish Education in Challenging Times essay collection I have been discussing here.  Elie, who is one of the most innovative rabbis in the New York area in creating community for post-college young adult Jews through his wonderful congregation and study center, Mechon Hadar, posits a number of common-sense circumstances that help bring adults back in to Jewish study:

• The current 22-35 age cohort is already culturally open to exploration in many areas including intellectual searching.
• Immersion experiences has been shown to be especially effective with this age group.
• In the internet age, adults seek out information to become their own experts rather than rely on one, like a rabbi, to interpret information for them.
• In an age cohort where 90% or more of the members have a college education and many have taken at least one class in Judaic studies on campus, there is an expectation of high-quality Jewish educational experiences when they do engage in it.
• We live in a polyglot culture today where acquiring a second language, like Hebrew, is not only normal but encouraged.

Elie points out that this new reality is leading us to a theoretical shift in our assumptions about adult Jewish education.  He presents three which I quote here:

Literacy is not for the elite. We can’t shy away from acknowledging how far we are from a literate Jewish society. We would never accept a similar status quo for knowledge of secular studies. But efforts to push Jewish literacy further are often pegged as elitist. Why is it deemed elitist to know Torah, but not elitist to know calculus and Shakespeare? There is a shame in illiteracy, and we must be aware of the difficulties in overcoming that. But we must make no apologies for demanding a much higher level for our community.

Literacy efforts cannot only focus on children.  Education for children is critical for a literate society, but it is not enough. General society has embraced a model of intensive education through age 21 (not to mention grad school). In order to create a literate society, we can’t be satisfied at efforts that end with 8th grade or even high school.  Adult Jewish education has often focused on a tour of Jewish concepts, not a serious engagement with Jewish texts and tradition. But Jewish adults are poised to learn to read and engage directly with our heritage. We must offer them that opportunity.

Stop telling people who study Jewish texts: "You should be a rabbi." Non-Orthodox culture in American society gives very clear message to those interested in Jewish text study: become a rabbi. But a true culture of literacy must normalize facility with Jewish texts and concepts without devoting one’s career to becoming a rabbi. We must create pathways for people to seriously explore Jewish texts without becoming professional Jews.

Elie goes on to suggest three goals for improving post-college Adult Jewish Literacy:

1. 25% of this age cohort each year participates in an  immersive educational experience of some kind. "The immersion experience would aim to open up the magic and wonder of Jewish text study and offer tools to allow participants a path toward self-directed study and engagement."
2. 10% of this age cohort dedicate two years to a full-time Jewish educational service experience.  "The first year would focus on immersion-learning, giving participants skills and confidence to engage first-hand in Jewish texts. The second year would offer a framework to put that learning into action: in synagogues, schools, camps or communal organizations."
3. Bring our Jewish communal professionals up to speed as literate Jews too.   "50% of Jewish professionals and top federation/family foundation laypeople spend one month in immersive Jewish learning, a new form of 'professional development....' Ironically, the people who set communal policy and funding priorities also struggle with literacy. Even the professionals in Jewish organizations are often disconnected from Jewish wisdom and heritage. Offer these leaders an opportunity to delve into texts first-hand."

When I read Elie's essay, I was thrilled by it.  I came to this position from over a decade of primarily working with 18-26 year olds though so Elie's theoretical shifts are perfectly in sync with my practical experience and my PhD studies.   I think he is making some great proposals too but they are hampered a bit by what I call "Manhattan Syndrome," namely that what works for the Jews in Manhattan is easily translatable to the Jews in the rest of the country.  Remember that great New Yorker cover on the view of the world from NYC?  That is Manhattan Syndrome. 

I'm struggling with two of his three goals from the viewpoint of beyond the Hudson river. 

First, I don't see Jews of this age cohort flocking to immersive experiences away from their careers, graduate programs and intimate relationships.  There are too few good jobs out there right now and too many student loan payments to be made for most post-college adults to feel secure enough to do anything like this for a significant period of time by which I mean at least a full week.  When I was the Director of the Brandeis Collegiate Institute, our most impacted participants in this month-long summer experience in Jewish education and growth were recent college graduates not yet in the work force or their graduate programs.  They were at a golden moment where they could take a month to learn and grow as adult Jews and increase their Jewish knowledge base.  Beyond that golden moment though, the only others post-college who could really take advantage of this significant immersion experience were school teachers (with summers off) and Jewish communal professionals whose employers saw the value of the experience enough to not dun them vacation time.  Locally, our J'Burgh program for this age group here in Pittsburgh has had limited success getting their participants interested in Jewish education for themselves so far.  They have had more luck with a current trip to Israel that is underway under their auspices, but the trip has the component of a vacation experience designed to grow them holistically and not primarily intellectually.  Those with limited time and resources see this as a good compromise for their vacation, but most would probably not give up any sense of vacation for an intensive intellectual experience.  Don't misunderstand me - Elie is right on target about the life-changing growth and development that comes from such an extended intellectual experience.  I am just skeptical that it is practical for most young adults who have not already embraced Jewish learning or who are not of a rather affluent economic means to afford to take such time away from their work and career.

I'm also skeptical of Elie's two-year Jewish educational service corps idea, but this is from the perspective of being an educator.  If someone is presented to me who has a full-time year of Jewish education under their belt, I see someone who is a content expert but not necessarily trained to be an educator in any venue.  This idea on the surface is similar to Teach For America, but participants in those types of educational service programs already have the content knowledge they need for the classroom and primarily spend their training becoming effective teachers.  I would personally be hesitant to hire someone on the basis of their content knowledge alone, and our congregational schools for example are already replete with well-intentioned but poorly-trained teachers.  The Orthodox community does this for yeshiva students in different communities where they study by day and teach at night, but how will someone in this program live if their primary work is with non-Orthodox congregational schools or summer camps?  Does this mean the idea is without merit?  Of course not and with some adjustments for reality,  I could see versions of it working like Avodah or Otzma does now for immediate post-college graduates or the old Hillel Jewish Campus Service Corps should have worked for them too.   I just don't see most students taking two full years off like this to study and then work in Jewish education. 

Elie is right on target with his goal of 50% of all Jewish communal professionals engaged in improving their own Jewish literacy though.  The challenge is how to do it.  If you are in NYC, you can easily partner with literally dozens of quality education institutions and bring knowledge right to the office of the communal worker.  In small communities though, with limited quality teaching resources, it is more challenging to make it happen much less convince employers in a work and economic environment where there are less people than ever to do the existing work that it is worth sparing the time and funds.  Here in Pittsburgh, we have successfully run Florence Melton Adult Mini-School courses for communal professionals, and we are participating in an exciting program through Spertus College in Chicago that allows thirteen of our communal professionals to study for a Masters of Arts in Jewish Professional Studies thanks to support from our local federation and several donors who see the practical value to more literate communal workers.  If there is a commitment to innovation in just this area of adult Jewish education alone, it would change the culture within the Jewish communal field in any given community which would ripple in to increased emphasis and innovation in adult Jewish literacy overall.