Our time starts now

Source: AJN

TWELVE months ago, I wrote a column in The AJN about how excited I was to start off the year as chairperson of Australasian Union of Jewish Students (AUJS). I wrote about the strength of the organisation and how I believe that, at its core, AUJS’ mission is to bring Jewish students together and allow them to connect with, and celebrate, their Jewishness.

This is a progressively difficult task, and one that AUJS, along with almost every other communal organisation, is struggling with. Gen-Yers’ identities are fractured like few generations before – between our social lives, university, part and full-time work and volunteering, our time is split into seemingly endless pieces. Our priorities are also divided more and more between causes we care about, and what distresses some people is that Israel isn’t necessarily number one, or even on the radar at all. For young Jewish Australians who have their fingers on the global pulse, other causes around the world often take on a more important part in their lives.

Mystified community leaders often ask me why young Jews have “given up” on Israel and their Jewishness in favour of the newest chic cause. I don’t think the answer should come as much of a surprise, but it is in fact because of their Jewish identities – the ones mostly shaped by our Jewish day schools – that

Gen-Yers are taking off their Israel blinkers and looking farther and wider.

The Bialiks, Moriahs and Carmels of the world have contributed heavily to the situation we’re in – and I attribute it primarily to two elements. When I was at school, I couldn’t have thought of a worse use of my time than a few hours a week of Jewish studies; it was boring and disempowering. To their credit, Jewish studies departments have started to adapt, but there’s still a way to go.

It wasn’t that I didn’t want to learn about my people; it was that I didn’t want to be in class. Learning Jewish studies should be focused on the dynamism of the Jewish people, how our ancient moral code is as applicable today as it was centuries ago, and of all that we have achieved in Israel today. It’s difficult to capture that in four, 45-minute Jewish studies classes a week, and it was rarely done in my day.

The second element is that one of the few lessons most students take out of school is a strong self of responsibility over the world; that is, a drive to work on tikkun olam, repairing the world. Believe it or not, to the same extent that the Haskalah is boring, Sudanese refugees are exciting. That the schools work to give students such a strong world view so that this is the case is truly a tribute to them.

University is no different – being Jewish is only important in certain circumstances to students today, and fewer would label it as the key element in their identity. Over the past few years I have learnt that no single solution will work, and that a number of different and exciting initiatives are needed to draw Jewish students back into the fold.

One program we can learn from is the “Tribe Fest” event in Las Vegas this year. More than 1500 Jews aged 22-45 will spend four days engaging with Judaism on many different levels with speakers and sessions on the arts, culture, politics, religion and entertainment. (You can learn more about it at www.tribefest.org.) Now obviously such an event, on such a scale, is impossible in Australia; we simply don’t have the population to sustain it.

But a concerted effort by the community, with AUJS, to organise a cool, well-funded and affordable getaway for all Australian students with quality speakers would attract very high participation; something like a mix between Limmud-Oz and Maccabi Carnival. Indeed, the Limmud-Oz Fest organised last year in Sydney is certainly a great example of something similar that has already occurred successfully. Half of it aims to engage young Jews with Judaism, while the other half, just as important, aims to engage young Jews with each other.

As young Jewish Australians evolve, seemingly with each new Facebook status update, often becoming more distant from their Judaism, it becomes more and more important for them to remain connected, in whatever way possible, to their Judaism. Nothing should be off limits in pursuing that aim.

AUJS is at the forefront of that, experimenting, learning and shaping itself as it tries to face the mounting challenge. This past year as chairperson was easily the most challenging of my life – it seemed that no matter how many campaigns or events were run, there was never enough success.

The degree to which on-campus Jewish activism has changed in the past six decades is phenomenal; things that worked even five years ago do not work now, and what we are doing today will be irrelevant in five more.

One way we can ensure the future continuity and strength of our community is to deal with this issue head on, by listening to students, dedicating resources to young people and restoring the place of Judaism, Israel and our community to their ­identities.

Our time starts now.

This column originally appeared in the Australian Jewish News.

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