Building Our Youth for the Future

Abstract

Even as successive generations of youth reassure their elders, in the words of The Who's 1965 rock anthem, that “the kids are alright,” the adults remain unconvinced. Whether the young are anticipated as agents of progress or continuity, the stakes could not be higher. Hence the imperative articulated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in a 1940 address at the University of Pennsylvania: “We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future.” Concern about youth as the future societal pacesetters and custodians is also a common thread that runs through the three articles in this issue of the Journal of Jewish Education. Nowhere is this theme more pronounced than in Helena Miller and Alex Pomson's article, “When the Heart is Stilled: Adolescent Jewish lives Interrupted by COVID-19.” The authors present and analyze the findings of a recent study of adolescents attending Jewish secondary schools in the UK. As the title of the article suggests, the study, which was funded by the Pears Foundation and the Wohl Legacy Foundation, was designed to measure the impact of SARS-CoV-2 on the respondents’ “Jewish lives.” While the researchers came into the study interested in documenting the schools’ abilities to respond to the challenges presented by COVID-related restrictions, they soon began wondering whether the cancelation and curtailment of Jewish experiences outside of school, including bar mitzvah celebrations, heritage travel to Israel and Eastern Europe, and youth group activities, might have been even more disruptive to the teens’ solidification of their Jewish identities and sense of collective Jewish belonging. Young people, they found, “have been thrown back on the Jewish resources they found under their own roofs,” with varying outcomes. (p. 2) The study found that the pandemic more negatively impacted teens’ emotional wellbeing and academic plans than their connection to Judaism, the Jewish community, or Israel. Nevertheless, the authors express concern that missed opportunities to attend summer camp and engage in heritage tourism would adversely affect the “Jewish communal ecosystem,” since “the young people for whom these experiences serve as a runway to a life of Jewish activism might find it a lot harder to get off the ground.” (p. 17) Curricular Intellectual Who was Ahead of His Time,” surveys the educational contribution of this former head of the Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva in Jerusalem. Prior to becoming head of this national-religious stronghold, which was founded in 1924 by Abraham Isaac Kook, the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi in British Mandatory Palestine, Yisraeli was a communal rabbi JOURNAL OF JEWISH EDUCATION 2022, VOL. 88, NO. 3, 177–179 https://doi.org/10.1080/15244113.2022.2102834