A Jewish Engagement Success Story

If you would like to support Jessica's cantorial ordination fund, please visit her GoFundMe campaign at: https://www.gofundme.com/jessicas-cantorial-ordination

My co-leaders for High Holidays this year are the most earnest rabbinical students you have ever seen.  They have wonderful educations and family support.  They are on fire for social justice and contemporary issues.  They will be assets to their future communities with long careers in front of them.   I, however, didn't have such a conventional path to Jewish communal leadership.  Here's why I think it matters.

My master teacher, Hazzan Jack Kessler, teaches that American liberal Judaism is on what he calls a "rescue mission". If you look at the way it is talked about, though,  you would think that the only path to the success of that mission is looking at how to attract young adult Jews into our institutions. Jewish leaders desperately want to fill up those empty buildings.  We offer "Tequila and Torah" to our under-30 communities. We send the Millennials up to the roof for cocktails while their parents have stale cookies in the basement.  I wish I were kidding, but if you follow as many Jewish organizations on social media as I do, you know I'm not kidding at all.

Here's the thing.  It's not working.  Despite our best efforts to date,  young people who have gone through our religious school training,  our summer camp programming and our organized efforts on college campuses are not buying what we are selling.  They fall in love with whomever they choose.  They have their families, and love their kids without the benefit of any of the ceremony Jewish institutions offer.  Data increasingly shows Jewish young adults often don't participate in any sort of institutionalized Jewish life.  Consequently, organizations are pulling their collective hair out trying to figure out how to diversify their populations.  That's where you get "Latkes and Vodka with free childcare".

My Jewish journey diverged from a fully assimilated path.  Like the parents of younger people today,  my parents chose not to have any involvement in Jewish life save for family gatherings a couple of times a year.  No shul.  No religious school.  No Jewish peer group for me.  My first Jewish ceremony was my wedding, performed by a renegade rabbi who was used to doing interfaith weddings, even twenty years ago,  and was surprised to find that we were seeking him out.

My husband and I made different choices.  We affiliated with a local synagogue.  When our kids came along, we participated along with them.  Through the dedication of the religious school teacher and the rabbi who first truly took an interest in our family, not only did the kids learn,  but I did, too. Aleph-Bet.  Prayers.  Jewish history and culture.  I studied one-on-one for a year to prepare for my adult bat mitzvah.  On our tenth anniversary, my husband and I renewed our vows, which I understood with real awareness.  That same rabbi pulled me out of the pews to be a cantorial soloist.  Those were my first High Holidays.  The Aleph Alliance for Jewish Renewal Cantorial Ordination Program took me from there to where I am today as an emerging Jewish professional.

Living in Northern California, but not near enough to San Francisco, no outreach ever reached out to me or my kids.  Each step of our Jewish process has taken relentless effort, considerable expense, and creative networking.  Our first forays into Jewish lay leadership were hard.  Starting seminary without a significant Jewish background and without the benefit of any community support, in retrospect,  was probably the riskiest thing I have ever done.  Yet,  here I am, a formerly fringe Jew, now pulled into the heart of Jewish life and leadership, with kids who self-identify as Jews and my own non-conventional Jewish education.  I am a Jewish engagement success story,  without the singular focus on my age group, or any gimmicks. It took caring, dedicated Jewish professionals, with enough flexibility in their jobs, to work with me and my family.  It took time and hard work, not tequila, or even "Rock Hashanah".

Middle-aged women like me now represent a growing number of Jewish professionals in liberal denominations, drawn into leadership through the experience of raising families or simply following their own interests.  We are in clergy and teaching roles.  We run synagogues as staff and lay leaders.  We raise funds and speak about Jewish causes.  We support college campus organizations.  We design and run countless "alternative" Jewish offerings to share Jewish heritage and positive experiences with others. We are one of the many under-acknowledged faces of American liberal Judaism along with Jews of color,  the LGBTQ+ community, the Disability community as well as interfaith families to name just a few.  

Valuing one demographic over others, no matter which one it is,  is not the path to securing a meaningful Jewish future.  Programming does not replace the need for real dialogue and caring.  Curiosity doesn't develop from watching a three-minute video.   Risk and even some failure may happen.  However, with enough quality time, all of us have the opportunity to succeed.  

Jessica Leash is the organizer and cantor of Silicon Valley Jewish Meetup, a brand new community serving the San Francisco South Bay.  She will be ordained by Aleph Alliance for Jewish Renewal Ordination program in January of 2018.  This year, she is serving as the High Holiday cantor at Congregation Shir Ami in Castro Valley, CA.  To reach her, please email: cantor@ha-emek.org

If you would like to support her cantorial ordination fund, please visit her GoFundMe campaign at: https://www.gofundme.com/jessicas-cantorial-ordination