The RosenBlog

We American Jews are always complaining that Israel does a lousy job of hasbara (public relations/propaganda). I beg to differ.

Anyone who has been reading about the state of American Jewish life lately — the numerous studies showing that younger people feel increasingly distant from Israel, synagogues, federations, organizations and a sense of peoplehood — should recognize the name Steven M. Cohen.

As a leading sociologist of American Jewry, he has authored or co-authored at least seven important reports or articles in the last year and a half describing the crisis the community faces in transmitting its Jewish values from this generation to the next.

I remember as a teenager in Baltimore stopping into a Reform temple on Shabbat morning out of curiosity, having never attended a Reform service, and being asked to remove my kipa before entering the sanctuary.

Times have changed.

Let’s try a little end-of-the-year game.
 
I’ll mention a name or phrase, and you tell me the first thing that comes to mind.

Ready?

Walt-Mearsheimer. Jimmy Carter. Ahmadinejad at Columbia.

How about: Hamas. Sderot. 1939.

Too easy?

Alvin Rosenfeld. Tony Judt. Norman Finkelstein.

I think you get the picture.

Is it fair to trace our communal challenges of intermarriage, assimilation and lack of affiliation back to boys losing interest in Jewish life after their bar mitzvah celebrations?

You could make the case that since non-Orthodox young men drop out of Jewish religious and educational activities at a far higher rate than girls, and intermarry at a higher rate than Jewish women, we need to find a way to involve and inspire boys Jewishly at an early age.

And then presto, the worrisome decline in our numbers and affiliation would be reversed.

Jack Rosen, the chairman of the American Jewish Congress, may well face the first serious challenge to his longtime, dominant leadership of the organization at an executive board meeting scheduled for Jan. 30.

Jack Rosen, the chairman of the American Jewish Congress, may well face the first serious challenge to his longtime, dominant leadership of the organization at an executive board meeting scheduled for Jan. 30.