Esther D. Kustanowitz, The Jewish Week, November 2006

The voice of the under-40 generation wasn’t heard loudly enough at the GA.
Esther D. Kustanowitz - Special To The Jewish Week

LOS ANGELES - For Jewish communal professionals, volunteers and innovators, attending the United Jewish Communities’ General Assembly is like a massive family reunion. Such an assemblage provides abundant encounters with old friends, opportunities for new relationships and potentially awkward encounters with uncles you’d rather not talk to.

But most of all, you hope to see your cousins, so you can see what they’ve been up to and what they’re planning for the future.

But at this year’s GA, few featured speakers were under the age of 40. I quickly discovered that my creative cousins were most visible at the somewhat grandiosely named “Marketplace of Jewish Ideas,” the central location for multitudes of brochures, pamphlets, publications and business cards, all of them the visual representations of ideas being touted as the salvation of the Jewish people.

Some cousins were delegates, members of the PLP (Professional Leadership Program), a program designed to cultivate “an exceptional network of next generation talent who will lead the Jewish community of the 21st century,” and the federation world’s Ben Gurion Society, an attempt at engaging younger donors. A few were featured at a plenary or two, speaking about community service initiatives and birthright israel trips. Others represented Jewish campus organizations and graduate school programs. The Jewpardy! game at the Yeshiva University booth, run by YU’s Center for the Jewish Future, added an infusion of whimsy. The birthright israel booth was literally rocking, with music a-blaring and alumni reuniting. Representation from sites like myjewishlearning.com, jewishgeography.net and planitJewish.com acknowledged that today’s young Jews are most likely to interface with Jewish life online.

But in darkened plenary halls and in smaller breakout rooms, the voices of my generation were mostly missing in action.

It’s not that youth were totally absent; they were just geographically undesirable. While the GA itself began in downtown L.A., JUST For a Day, the major Hillel community service initiative, was happening at various off-site locations, involving more than 1,000 students from 83 schools and culminating in a huge concert in Hollywood by well-loved bands The Leevees and Guster.

At the concert, Hillel President Wayne Firestone (at 42, slightly older than the metaphorical cousins I’d been seeking, but still youthful) said that it was no coincidence that JUST For a Day was part of the GA. “It shows that we young people have something to say.”

Hillel reportedly also got a shout-out at a plenary the morning after, as incoming UJC Chair Joe Kanfer described JUST for a Day and talked about the UJC-sponsored Hillel Rebuild and Repair efforts in the Gulf of Mexico last year. But for the most part, once the event was over, it was over. Perhaps this was because of location, but it’s also likely that for all of Hillel’s promotion, the event wasn’t more prominent because it wasn’t centered on Israel, and was therefore not in keeping with the theme of “One People, One Destiny.”

There’s something to be said for focusing a GA on the Jewish homeland in a time immediately after a war; such a show of devotion strengthens the connection between Israel and the U.S. The goal of Jewish peoplehood, of tying all Jews to each other under the chupah of national destiny, is also a worthy one.

But “one people, one destiny” is most effective when we acknowledge that Jewish peoplehood comprises many voices. An older, more experienced generation has much to teach, but should be open to learning; creative energy from younger, committed Jewish adults could be just the tonic to rejuvenate the established structures of Jewish institutional life.