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Friday April 7, 2006

‘Tel Aviv One’ draws dozens of local young Jewish adults

by alexandra j. wall & dina kraft
special to j.

Before Hanna Rotman went to Israel last month, the executive coach and mother of two said, “I gave some money but that was about it.”

But after joining more than 1,000 young North American Jews — 25 of them from the Jewish Community Federation of the Greater East Bay, 65 of them from the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation and one from the Jewish Federation of Silicon Valley — who gathered for the four-day Tel Aviv One conference last month, she is thinking about how to become more involved.

“It reminded me how important it is to have a relationship with Israel, and it created a community here of like-minded Jews who are also passionate about Israel.” Until this trip Rotman, of Oakland, hadn’t been to Israel in quite some time.

The United Jewish Communities federation umbrella group, which organized the event, felt that a connection with Israel would help jump-start involvement among young Jews whose interest in the federation system has been lagging.

Younger Jews tend to be much less engaged with Jewish causes than their parents, and the challenge in cultivating the next generation of Jewish leadership is to find what will resonate with them, organizers say.

In past years, the federation’s outreach to younger members was held in Washington. The plan now is to alternate the conference between Washington and Tel Aviv, and this was the first time it was held there.

Most participants paid $500 for this year’s all-inclusive trip, while the UJC subsidized the rest of the $2,130 price tag.

The decision to have the conference in diverse, cosmopolitan Tel Aviv was a bid to show young Jews that Israel is a compelling, modern country with which they can identify.

“There was a clear recognition that matching young leadership with the city would be an ideal way to spark a real interest in Israel,” said Glenn Rosenkrantz, UJC’s director of media affairs and marketing.

Participants had the opportunity to tour Tel Aviv — from its fashion houses and high-tech centers to its first neighborhoods — and to see UJC-funded projects such as programs for Ethiopian preschoolers or at-risk teenagers.

They also saw performances by leading pop stars like the band Shotei Hanevuah (Fools of Prophecy) and dance troupes.

“It wasn’t like ‘Hey, let’s put up some speakers and hope everyone claps,’ it was more like ‘Let’s make sure everyone’s emotionally involved and we get their blood pumping,’” said Jeremy Dann, a San Francisco strategic consultant and novelist. “They engaged us at both a head and heart level.”

With an eye to promoting young philanthropy, individual federations brought their participants to see projects that their communities are funding — for example, JCF participants had their own pre-mission in its sister town of Kiryat Shmona.

About 70 percent of the conference participants had not been to Israel before this trip, and Dann was one of them.

Dann had gone through the JCF’s “Club Fed” program, which introduces young adults to the federation system and local Jewish community, and a handful of events. The price made the trip a very economical way to go, Dann said.

Rotman agreed that sponsoring such a heavily subsidized trip, “they invested a lot in us, and I definitely want to give back with not just a check but my time.”

Both federations have plans for follow up with Tel Aviv One participants, to keep them engaged and involved.

Alexandra J. Wall is a staff writer at j. Dina Kraft is a staff writer for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency based in Tel Aviv.

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