Contact: The Journal of the Jewish Life Network / Steinhardt Foundation -- The Jewish Lost Generation?

Publication Date: January 1998

Publisher: Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life

Author(s): David Gedzelman; Andrew N. Bachman; Felicia Herman

Research Area: Culture and religion

Keywords: Media; Jewish Continuity; Generational Issues; Youth Engagement

Type: Other

Coverage: United States

Abstract:

This issue of Contact examines the issue of disengagement from active Jewish life and practice among so many Jews in their twenties and thirties. Rabbi David Gedzelman offers a contemporary strategy and institution for attracting young Jews back to Jewish life. Rabbi Andrew Bachman highlights some of the dangers of a "market" approach to Judaism. Felicia Herman analyzes the inherent and historical ambivalence of the young generation toward its religious traditions and identity and explains how American Jewry might nevertheless attempt to reach it. Rachel Landsberg
discusses her relationship to traditional Judaism, and why, despite some personal struggles with it, it is where she has cast her religious lot as a young Jew. Rabbi Hara Person describes her website for Jews in their twenties and thirties, and how the Internet can serve as a gateway for the unaffiliated and disconnected.