USY/Kadima Youth Involvement Update
Why is this Year Different from All Other Years?
Sydney Sookerman, Youth Advisor
This will be my 5th year as the Youth Advisor for Congregation B’nai Tikvah and the North/South Brunswick Chapter of Hagalil USY. I am looking forward to this year although I know it’ll be different. Together we have overcome the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and the youth leaders of CBT managed to create a meaningful experience for their fellow peers during that time.
Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are around the corner but I am going to connect this upcoming new year with my favorite holiday, Passover. You may ask, why will this year be different? A popular part of the Pesach Haggadah are the Four Questions! Beginning with “why is this night different from all other nights?” This line is traditionally recited by the youngest person at the table. The seder leader asks what differences do they notice. The youngest person then replies that there are four ways in which they notice a difference about Passover. So “why is this new year different from all other years?”
Instead I have four questions for you as a member of Congregation B’nai Tikvah to help me answer:
- Why are USY member numbers down across the nation?
- What will this new year look like for USY?
- How can we keep conservative Jewish youth activities alive in the present day and in the future?
- How can you as a member of CBT help our youth stay involved?
I want you to think about questions one and three. Let me answer questions two and four.
Number 2: This year our USY and Kadima chapter aka NSBUSY will hopefully be able to feature more in-person events than in the past two years. This includes events with our synagogue like, shabbat services, discussions with Rabbi Wolkoff, Social Action events, holiday themed events, a basketball tournament with the Men’s Club, and so much more. But “why is this year different from all other years?” We will create events with other chapters in our region, all of which (like ours) are dealing with declining enrollment and participation. The United Synagogue Youth has announced that they are changing their structure of engagement coming this fall. “The Regional Executive Board will be tasked with supporting and being present at local chapter programs, strengthening relationships with their peers, and building excitement for regional experiences. The goal is to build strong local experiences that can support strong regional experiences, as opposed to the other way around (Brett Richman, Area Director of Hagalil).” There will still be regional events and conventions, just not as many as the organization used to hold. We will work with our neighboring synagogues to collectively succeed in youth programs and participation, using our community to communicate with one another and ultimately help answer question 3.
Number 4: Help our youth stay involved. Follow us on Instagram @northsouthbrunswickusy. Share and like posts. Share flyers from emails with any other Jewish youths you know, even if they are not a CBT member. Parents! Encourage your kids to come to an event. That one event might change their experience with Judaism in a positive way. Grandparents! Encourage your grandchildren to go to events at their own synagogue, or if they’re visiting you, our chapter is open to all Jewish tweens and teens. Support our fundraisers. You bet we are selling the famous Krispy Kreme Donuts again this year, just in time for Chanukah. Supporting us through these sales, makes special off-site events happen for our teens, enabling increased attendance through cool experiences.
On question number one, we can look to declining new young family membership in Conservative congregations everywhere as the part of the problem but as Rabbi Wolkoff and our own CBT membership committee can attest, it is a bit more complicated than that. For question number three, for now we can just keep going back to number four. Its up to all of us.
Together with all the items listed above, I am going to drive this year with my terrific NSBUSY Board Members: Rafi Rockman as President, Liam Rosen as Membership Programming VP, Hannah Cadoff as Communications VP, and Jordyn Weintraub as Social Action/Tikun Olam VP for both Hagalil and NSBUSY!
I am excited for what this “different” year has in store and it is going to be awesome.
Shana Tovah U’metukah
