Our Outcomes

Our philosophy for HELPING JEWISH YOUTH THRIVE rests on three interconnected outcomes:

WELLBEING SHLEIMUT תומילש

When teens embrace their full, multi-layered and authentic selves, they thrive. Shleimut means wholeness. It shares a root with the word “shalom,” which implies coming to a place of being at peace with one’s whole self. This is not an easy feat in a world filled with 24-7 advertisements, social media messages, and pressures urging teens to change their bodies, buy more stuff, filter their photos, and achieve perfection in school and extra-curricular activities.

Jewish teens’ access to personal wholeness and selfacceptance can be eroded by societal messages and practices that perpetuate antisemitic, misogynist, and racist tropes and that do not value all gender identities and sexual orientations. Our programs honor the “whole self” of each preteen and teen, guiding them to navigate through unhealthy social pressures and providing them with Jewish wisdom and practice to foster their spiritual and emotional development. We support identity development, self-awareness, self-acceptance, healthy risktaking, balance, and resilience.

CARING CONNECTIONS HESED • דסח

We know that building healthy relationships and communities is core to a healthy adolescence and to positive life experience. We support Jewish youth in their friendships with peers, familial and intimate relationships, and in their Jewish and secular communities. Our programs and materials help teens develop and practice essential interpersonal skills, including empathic listening, assertive communication, boundary setting and respect, and conflict resolution. Hesed also applies to the most challenging aspects of teen relationships—hook-ups and romantic encounters. We do not shy away from the crucial task of helping youth to shift the way they value others and thus proactively support teens to form healthy and respectful connections and to recognize and talk about the continuum of abusive behavior. Our goal is to give each young person the experience of a being part of a supportive community of Jewish peers, helping them to develop and the tools and values they need to build meaningful relationships and communities of their choosing.

JUSTICE TZEDEK קדצ

As a Jewish organization, our commitment to justice is deeply rooted in our understanding of the injuction, repeated multiple times in the Torah, to care for the marginalized and oppressed among us. As a feminist organization, we recognize that this responsibility entails working to transform the systems that continue to keep power, knowlege and access to resources in the hands of the few. Today’s teens know all too well that there are powerful forces that seek to roll back the advances that have been made for women and LGBTQ+ folks. Those same forces often perpetuate antisemitism and racism.

Our programs support our teens in pushing back on these forces in two ways: First, we help them to understand how Jewish feminists have cultivated the seeds of feminism within our tradition and how our prophets envisioned a just and equitable society for all people. Second, we encourage teens to discuss the most challenging aspects of tzedek - power, privilege, race, access, and discrimination, and to ask what our role, as Jewish people, should be in addressing ongoing inequities. As a result, our teens develop a proudly Jewish and feminist vision for justice, and begin to explore the roles that they can play in advancing social change.