Communities Taking Hold of Youth Engagement
HTTP/1.1 200 OK Date: Thu, 23 May 2013 16:11:42 GMT Server: Apache/2.2.22 (Unix) mod_ssl/2.2.22 OpenSSL/1.0.0-fips mod_auth_passthrough/2.1 mod_bwlimited/1.4 FrontPage/5.0.2.2635 X-Powered-By: PHP/5.3.10 X-Pingback: http://blogs.rj.org/xmlrpc.php Link: ; rel=shortlink Vary: Host Transfer-Encoding: chunked Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8 Communities Taking Hold of Youth Engagement | RJ Blog

To celebrate Shavuot last week I joined with friends at a nearby community-wide tikkun leil Shavuot (an all night Torah study) hosted by our congregation, Congregation Beth Elohim in Brooklyn. As in so many communities, it was a lively scene as people gathered together, listened, learned, questioned and challenged each other. This inclusive form of community gathering is a foundation of Reform Judaism and has served as a core element for the Campaign for Youth Engagement.
Following the launch of the campaign at the Biennial in 2011, the URJ began reflecting on NFTY, URJ camps, Mitzvah Corps, Israel programs, and all other aspects of our youth engagement work. At the same time, many congregations and communities across North America began their own process of gathering, listening, learning, questioning and challenging their own work of youth engagement. In just over a year, the Campaign for Youth Engagement has supported more than 150 congregations and institutions, and over 300 clergy, professionals, and community leaders as they invest in the process of change around youth engagement.
- All the Reform congregations in the Pittsburgh area came together to create NFTY Pittsburgh, a city-wide effort to unite and support the youth groups at seven Reform congregations. The rabbis of these congregations wanted to build upon this teen-led effort and recently hired a professional to support their work.
- In Washington, D.C., 11 congregations came together on two different occasions to jointly consider youth engagement efforts at their individual congregations and communally. Challenging assumptions and visioning possibilities, 6 educators, representing 5 congregations have joined together to develop a multi-year proposal to invest in reviewing, evaluating, learning, and developing a youth engagement strategy together.
- During three gatherings in Chicago, 40 individuals representing 29 congregations and institutions came together to develop shared language around youth engagement, explore collaboration, and develop internal plans for strengthening their work around youth engagement.
This is just a sampling of the efforts in communities across North America to gather, listen, learn, question and challenge youth engagement efforts. There is energy and excitement in these communities. There are energetic conversations and disagreements. There are new theories and new partnerships. To reach our goal of engaging a majority of our youth by 2020, we will need all of this (and more)!
HTTP/1.1 200 OK Date: Thu, 23 May 2013 16:11:42 GMT Server: Apache/2.2.22 (Unix) mod_ssl/2.2.22 OpenSSL/1.0.0-fips mod_auth_passthrough/2.1 mod_bwlimited/1.4 FrontPage/5.0.2.2635 X-Powered-By: PHP/5.3.10 X-Pingback: http://blogs.rj.org/xmlrpc.php Link: ; rel=shortlink Vary: Host Transfer-Encoding: chunked Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8 Communities Taking Hold of Youth Engagement | RJ Blog

To celebrate Shavuot last week I joined with friends at a nearby community-wide tikkun leil Shavuot (an all night Torah study) hosted by our congregation, Congregation Beth Elohim in Brooklyn. As in so many communities, it was a lively scene as people gathered together, listened, learned, questioned and challenged each other. This inclusive form of community gathering is a foundation of Reform Judaism and has served as a core element for the Campaign for Youth Engagement.
Following the launch of the campaign at the Biennial in 2011, the URJ began reflecting on NFTY, URJ camps, Mitzvah Corps, Israel programs, and all other aspects of our youth engagement work. At the same time, many congregations and communities across North America began their own process of gathering, listening, learning, questioning and challenging their own work of youth engagement. In just over a year, the Campaign for Youth Engagement has supported more than 150 congregations and institutions, and over 300 clergy, professionals, and community leaders as they invest in the process of change around youth engagement.
- All the Reform congregations in the Pittsburgh area came together to create NFTY Pittsburgh, a city-wide effort to unite and support the youth groups at seven Reform congregations. The rabbis of these congregations wanted to build upon this teen-led effort and recently hired a professional to support their work.
- In Washington, D.C., 11 congregations came together on two different occasions to jointly consider youth engagement efforts at their individual congregations and communally. Challenging assumptions and visioning possibilities, 6 educators, representing 5 congregations have joined together to develop a multi-year proposal to invest in reviewing, evaluating, learning, and developing a youth engagement strategy together.
- During three gatherings in Chicago, 40 individuals representing 29 congregations and institutions came together to develop shared language around youth engagement, explore collaboration, and develop internal plans for strengthening their work around youth engagement.
This is just a sampling of the efforts in communities across North America to gather, listen, learn, question and challenge youth engagement efforts. There is energy and excitement in these communities. There are energetic conversations and disagreements. There are new theories and new partnerships. To reach our goal of engaging a majority of our youth by 2020, we will need all of this (and more)!

About Rabbi Bradley Solmsen
Bradley Solmsen serves as the North American Director of Youth Engagement for the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ). For eleven years Bradley served as Director of Brandeis University’s Office of High School Programs which includes BIMA, Genesis, and Impact: Boston. Rabbi Solmsen was ordained at The Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion in New York and received a masters degree in Jewish education from the Jewish Theological Seminary. Bradley is currently pursuing a doctorate in Jewish education at the Jewish Theological Seminary’s Davidson School. He has extensive experience as a Jewish educator in Israel and North America working with teenagers and college students and training Jewish educators. Bradley is married to Aliza Kline and is the proud abba of Ela, Gila and Nomi.
Coming in 2014: The First Reform-Run Day Camp!
May 28, 2013 by urjnetworkadmin • Reform Judaism Blog • 0 Comments
Big news: The URJ and Camp Harlam, our Philadelphia-based regional overnight camp, recently announced that in 2014, we’ll be opening the first URJ-affiliated day camp!
With 14 URJ overnight camps across North America serving more than 8,000 children and young adults, this entry into day camping is expected to create exciting new opportunities for outreach to young Jewish families and act as a gateway experience into Jewish camp for hundreds of young children. This foray into day camping is a strategic initiative to complement the Movement’s focus on youth engagement.
Paul Reichenbach, the URJ’s Director of Camp and Israel Programs, said, “URJ camp and Israel experiences give kids Jewish cultural roots and inspire them to seek more and more connections. A day camp model will enhance our ability to reach more kids and encourage them to embark on their own Jewish journeys.”
Camp Harlam was selected to launch this pilot program for a few reasons: the camp’s exceptional reputation and brand, the strength of the Reform congregations and communities in the Philadelphia region, and the ability of the camp’s professional and lay leadership to articulate a compelling vision for Harlam Day Camp. The expectation is for the day camp to be a model; based on its success, we’ll consider other day camp initiatives for various target communities throughout North America in the coming years.
Drawing on Camp Harlam’s years of experience will be critical to assure that a summer at Harlam Day Camp will have a lasting impact on its participants. The day camp will offer a robust program that builds skills and introduces children to new things; a community that produces real and meaningful relationships; excellent role models and leaders; and a sense of connection that will continue after the summer ends. Camp Harlam has secured funding to allow for the build-out of this vibrant program and financial assistance for families in need.
In the Greater Philadelphia area, Camp Harlam will be joining an established market of Jewish day camps, as the Philadelphia area is the off-season headquarters to a number of Jewish overnight camps and a vibrant Jewish community. Aaron Selkow, Camp Harlam’s director, said he believes that this endeavor is an opportunity for Camp Harlam to be a leader within the Reform Movement and to partner with others to push the envelope for excellence in youth development, family engagement and Jewish communal service.
A critical asset for Camp Harlam will be the large Reform Jewish population in the region and Harlam’s established partnership with 13 URJ-affiliated congregations in the Greater Philadelphia area. As with its overnight camp, synagogue support will be a key to promoting and supporting the educational elements and enrollment of the day camp. Rabbi Gregory Marx of Congregation Beth Or in Ambler, PA, said of the day camp announcement, “Jewish camping has proven, time and time again, to be a wonderful tool for enhancing Jewish identity, belonging and meaningful Jewish experiences. I welcome Camp Harlam’s decision to move forward in this worthwhile effort.”
Leadership of the new camp will be locally based, under the helm of a new year-round director, Eytan Graubart. Graubart, who has been a director in the Jewish camping field for the last six years and comes with a wealth of knowledge and experience, will work closely with Selkow to develop a top-notch Jewish day camp program that will also be coordinated and tightly integrated with Harlam’s overnight program.
URJ President Rabbi Rick Jacobs said of the endeavor, “Camp Harlam, like all of our URJ camps, has developed its own joyful and engaging brand of Reform Jewish living and learning in a truly beautiful, fully immersive, well-supervised, fun setting. The day camp initiative is a way to expand what Camp Harlam already does so well and offer more entry points for Jewish families to engage with the Reform Movement.”
The location of the day camp is still being determined and will be announced in the coming months.
For more information on Camp Harlam and Harlam Day Camp, visit www.URJCampHarlam.org. For more information on the URJ, visit www.URJ.org.