Institute Turns 25

Judaic studies undergoing a revolution

By AMY R. KAUFMAN

article created on: 2008-10-01T00:00:00

“There has been nothing less than a revolution in Jewish studies over the last several decades, and the role Rabbi (Joshua) Stampfer has played is very significant,” said Rabbi Dr. Robert Wexler in his keynote address at the Sept. 18 banquet celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Institute for Judaic Studies.

Wexler, president of the American Jewish University (formerly the University of Judaism and Brandeis-Bardin Institute), spoke on “Young Jewish Adults in the 21st Century—Who Are They?,” in which he focused on the problems of educating fifth-generation American Jews.

“Where are young people getting their Jewish education?” asked Wexler, the father of four children under 30.

Citing recent studies, he said only 20 percent of Jewish children are enrolled in Jewish day schools, and 80 percent of those students are Orthodox. Others receive their Jewish education in Hebrew and Sunday schools.

Wexler said the old models have not been successful.

“The day school movement is peaking, the bump is over,” he said; the Hebrew and Sunday school model is “a 100-year-old failure.”

Young Jews also get their education in the mainstream media, on TV and the Internet, where the message on Israel “is generally not a positive portrayal,” Wexler said. “If we do not solve this problem … we are not going to be happy with the consequences. I believe without question it can be changed.”

Wexler said young Jewish 20-somethings—whether conservative, moderate or liberal—are “less interested in Israel” than their parents’ generation.

“When they go to Israel on birthright, it turns around all three,” he said. “The most exciting part is, there are solutions to these things. It may not be a cheap solution, but a simple, elegant solution can turn it around.”

One survey indicated that “of all phenomena in Jewish life, remembering the Holocaust is a very important value to Jewish young people,” Wexler said. “The theory is (that) Hollywood loves the Holocaust;you don’t have to go to day school to learn about it. The portrayal of Jews is not only sympathetic but heroic. Also, the general culture values it.”

Wexler said that, in light of the high rate of intermarriage, “we shouldn’t be surprised” that only 47 percent of young Jews say they have a strong connection to Judaism.

“The American part of them embraces reaching out—on the other hand, they feel ‘I love my heritage,’” he said.

In one study, Wexler said, “Fifty-six percent of all Jews 18 to 24 interviewed said they prefer to marry Jewish. That’s a very impressive start. But 75 percent of them date both Jews and non-Jews. That’s the contradiction.”

Wexler said he isn’t concerned that none of his children are married.

“I’d say my wife and I didn’t talk about it more than five times last week,” he quipped.

According to Wexler, “the two fastest-growing denominations are orthodoxy and nothing.”

Among the Orthodox, however, “having a lot of kids is having an impact” on the number of young people with a strong Jewish identity, he said. Those who are currently unaffiliated “may later see themselves as denominational,” he added.

Wexler pointed to the popularity of the Jewish performance group STorahtelling and “the salon,” described as an “independent Jewish initiative” in Jewish Week.

“Young Jews want episodic Jewish experiences. They are organization phobic,” Wexler said.

He said the Institute of Judaic Studies offers “a safe, non-demanding, quiet way” of educating Jews of all ages.

“It has had tremendous influence,” he said.

This year Newsweek listed Wexler as one of the top 50 most influential rabbis in America. Wexler has served as AJU president since 1992. Ordained as a rabbi at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, he received a master of arts degree in Hebrew literature from JTS and an M.B.A. from Baruch College in New York City.

In her introduction to Wexler, Toinette Menashe acknowledged that “under his leadership, we now have a rabbinical school in addition to JTS.”