JEWISHLIFEYOUTH ENGAGEMENT
Launching the B’nai Mitzvah Revolution Interview with Isa Aron and Bradley Solmsen
Q
driving force of the religious school curriculum.
A recent national census of religious schools shows dropout rates after bar/bat mitzvah ranging from 35% in 8th grade to 85% by 12th grade. What is the significance of this finding for the URJ’s Campaign for Youth Engagement (CYE)?
Why have you termed this initiative a “revolution”? Bradley: Nothing short of
a revolution is necessary to reverse the post-b’nai mitzvah dropout trend and ensure the Reform Jewish future. The change we TEENS FROM CONGREGATION BETH EL OF THE SUDBURY RIVER VALLEY imagine is of a magnitude AND THEIR ISRAELI EXCHANGE PARTNERS REST ATOP MASADA, 2012. that defies tinkering. There Rabbi Bradley Solmsen, URJ is no quick fix. We are planting seeds In many synagogues b’nai mitzvah director of Youth Engagement and that may take a decade or more to bear observances are standardized, not takco-director of the B’nai Mitzvah ing into account the differences between fruit. Revolution: It points to the fact that the 13-year-olds in terms of maturity and bar and bat mitzvah experience can either interest or the differences between fami- Isa: It will require a huge cultural leap be a strong point of Jewish continuation to shift the Jewish community from lies in motivation or Jewish identificaor an exit. If our goal is to shift this trend, tion. Also, the celebrations tend to focus the long-held assumption that religious then we need to ask: How can the cereon the individual child’s performance of school is about preparing kids for their mony, the preparation, and the aftermath a ritual that s/he may not be able to fully bar/bat mitzvah to what we believe relibe deeply engaging and relevant for both gious school should be about: learnunderstand or appreciate; for example, teens and their parents? ing how to become a committed and not having learned the meaning of the Our CYE goal is developing opportu- Hebrew he/she is reciting. involved member of the Jewish communities to ensure the majority of youth and nity. To accomplish this radical change, their families remain engaged in Jewish How did we get into this situation? schools will have to teach Hebrew and life from the time they enter our comt’fillah (prayer) differently, parents will munities through the rest of their lives. need to revisit the expectations they Isa: It began in the 1930s and ’40s, B’nai mitzvah is one of our last major when, to address the low rate of synabring to b’nai mitzvah, and synagogues opportunities to connect with parents gogue affiliation and the correspondmay need to reconsider and possibly and teens as a unit. Afterward, young ingly low rate of enrollment in religious undo the financial models that many people tend to make their own decisions schools, synagogues and central agenhave relied upon since the ’40s. regarding involvement in the Jewish cies of Jewish education banded togethcommunity, and therefore become more er to impose attendance requirements Are congregations that have not experienced post b’nai mitzvah difficult to engage. That is why we’ve on students whose families wanted to dropouts doing anything differently made b’nai mitzvah transformation one celebrate their b’nai mitzvah in a synato engage youth? of the first major CYE initiatives. gogue. In 1945, for example, the New York Federation of Reform Synagogues Bradley: Yes. Some congregations mandated two years of school attenIsa Aron, professor of Jewish Education, HUC-JIR and co-director of dance before a boy reached the age of are already revolutionizing b’nai mitzthe B’nai Mitzvah Revolution: Much 13. Although these requirements sucvah. For example, Congregation Beth El of the impetus for this project is coming ceeded in increasing both synagogue of the Sudbury River Valley, Sudbury, membership and school enrollment, from synagogues that share a growing Massachusetts has built a multi-year prothey had the unintended consequence uneasiness about the way b’nai mitzvah gram around an exchange between their of making bar mitzvah preparation— are celebrated, and the fact that b’nai teens and teens in Israel which encommitzvah preparation has, in many cases, rather than the Jewish engagement and passes study of modern Zionism and involvement of the next generation—the supplanted other religious school goals. Israeli history in the 9th grade, parallel reform judaism
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