Educating and Engaging Jewish Teens: Research for Building a Field

Analysis of Youth Physical Activity Promotion in a Nationally Representative Sample of U.S. Synagogues

“…Physical activity associated with youth worship was mostly mentioned in conjunction with the Sabbath and primarily catered to younger children. This is logical, as (a) the Sabbath occurs weekly and most other observances occur only once annually, and (b) attendance by youths at synagogue worship services in the more liberal denominations of Judaism declines post-bar/bat mitzvah (i.e., during the teen years) (Bryfman 2016 ).…”

“…Most frequently, they operate under the aegis of a sponsoring synagogue, and they provide an assortment of educational, recreational, and social activities to bring Jewish school-age youths together. Youth group activities are highly valued by Jewish teens (Bryfman 2016 ; Levites and Sayfan 2019 )—who often take on a major role in organizing them—and thus may be the category in which synagogue youth and education directors should most focus future programming efforts.…”

“…Meanwhile, youth group participation, although acknowledged as enjoyable by Jewish teens, is thought of as falling “somewhere between the obligation of school and freely chosen ‘fun’ pastimes” (Woocher 2015 , p. 4). Subsequently, in order to engage American Jewish teens, it is recommended that synagogues (a) design activities that overflow with laughter, fun, and play; (b) welcome participants’ friends regardless of religion and synagogue affiliation; (c) encourage secular activities and not view them as competition; and (d) promote activities that best meet teens’ needs versus seeking a higher number of participants in the synagogues’ conventional programming (Bryfman 2016 ).…”

“…We also posit an alternative argument for framing our findings: If a synagogue, that has low salience to youth members, promotes activities they are not interested in, or that they regard as not what they go to synagogue for, they will not go (Bryfman 2016 ; Levites and Sayfan 2019 ). By contrast, a synagogue that has high salience to youth members can encourage them to try activities that they may not otherwise engage in, and many will go along with the new activities.…”

“…Synagogues that can seamlessly couple secular and religious components are more likely to resonate with Jewish youth. Jewish teens, in particular, value their free time activities (including sports), yet do not view Jewish activities as voluntary—even those they enjoy—and instead continue with those they feel relate to and reinforce their goals (i.e., value-added dimension) (Bryfman 2016 ).…”