Organized religion is on the decline. In a few decades, it will be the remnant of a different type of society. The numbers show that. There are a few reasons. Teens and kids are always the next generation for a church, synagogue, mosque, or other place of worship. When they don't go in their early, formative years, they're likely to not go in their adult years.
I myself am the co-President of my synagogue's "youth group". Right there, at that sentence, you judged me. Likely you are thinking that I believe in God, pray at least semi-frequently, and am doubtful of science. In fact, only one of those three things are true. I believe in God-kind of. But that's a different topic. The point is, the connotation that these youth groups have are largely negative and boring to those not participating in them has stuck. When I think "youth group", I immediately picture a group of stern, Christian kids in a circle reading Scripture. I personally wouldn't want to associate with people like that, who have no sense of fun.
When I hear "Jewish youth group", I picture a bunch of suburban Jewish white kids aggressively praising Israel and living in a bubble. But I know from experience that that's not the case. The grouping of youth that I am a part of is called SHMUSY. I hesitate to call it a youth group because 1. We don't have prayer sessions or Bible/Torah study sessions (a phrase that makes me cringe when I think about) 2. None of us are significantly religiously Jewish. 3. It's less of a youth group than it is a collection of Jewish kids from the city looking for free food and fun place to hang out on Tuesday nights and do events on the occasional weekend.
The problem is that when I ask even close friends or acquaintances to come to a Tuesday night (often barbeques, board games, Guitar Hero, or discussions about things like whether Israel is an oppressive regime or not) I can literally see them internally cringing.
And I don't blame them. Like I said, I'd do the same thing if someone asked me to come to their "youth group". But they have common misconceptions that are preventing them from having a genuinely good time. They will not be preached to. They will not have to study an "ancient texts". In fact, the only thing they HAVE to do is show up. SHMUSY is in essence the Jewish Student Union at a different location and time.
I've been participating in SHMUSY since 6th grade. That's 6 years of my life. As I got older I spent more and more time in SHMUSY. I've probably spent over 500 hours doing SHMUSY related things. That is a disgusting amount of time. There is simply no way I would invest that much of my time over the years into a single activity if I did not truly have a great time doing it.
Some of my non-Jewish friends have asked me why only Jews are allowed to SHMUSY. I've asked the same question of the rabbis who work on Anshe Emet. And what I've learned from those talks and from my (too) extensive reading of Jewey books is that the issue of assimilation for Jews is touchy. For well over 3,000 years Jews have been in situations where they could assimilate and lose their traditions, or stay separate . Nowadays we have struck a balance. Based on a Jew's understanding of the traditions, they will choose to only another Jewish person. This stems from a long, long, long, troubled history of persecution because of our Judaism. So it's understandable why Jews have been uneasy with intense mixing with other faiths.
Maybe after reading this you'll come to a Tuesday lounge night, at 7pm at Anshe Emet. Or not. Just understand that if you think this is a training grounds for religious Jews, you're more wrong than the head of the US patents office in 1899 when he said, "All the things that can be invented have been invented".
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