Young Jews put their heads together to ‘spark the future’ for their generation

At the same time, with online dating now being the norm, there is less incentive to attend in-person events – like the charity balls, which used to be a staple in the Jewish calendar – and hence less incentive to organise them.

The upshot, according to the JLC, is that more young people may fall away from the community, leading to a dearth of Jewish leadership in the future.

To counter this, as part of their Forge the Future strategy, set up in the aftermath of October 7, the JLC commissioned the Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR) and Rosov Consulting to explore which forms of Jewish education had the most long-lasting impact on Jews as they moved into professional life.

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While the report, titled What Works, concluded that there was “no magic bullet”, it found that an Orthodox or traditional home life – particularly Shabbat - made the most durable difference and that informal, peer-led, Jewish structures such as young movements and Jewish societies were statistically more likely to impact Jewish identity in the long term than attendance at a Jewish school.

This week’s “Spark the Future”summit, attended by around 50 people, was the next stage, aimed to empower participants to “become grassroots leaders and community builders” and give them an opportunity to brainstorm viable peer-led initiatives to keep their cohort involved, which the JLC has pledged to support financially. Carolyn Bogush, who is co-chairing the task force on young Jews, together with Bill Benjamin, said: “As a community, we need to allow [this project] to flourish and be able to provide opportunities for young people.”

Given the backdrop of the event, led by leadership consultant Joeyt Leskin, it felt – rather suitably - like being on a Jewish summer camp. There was the prerequisite “getting to know you” game – “Find three things all the people on your table have in common” – followed by “the trigger” - hearing from other young people who had succeeded in getting charitable or entrepreneurial projects off the ground, and, finally, the “design sprint” - an opportunity to come up with ideas for projects to keep themselves and their peers connected Jewishly.

Sam, 23, said: “I’m here because I’m keen to see what’s available for students once they have finished studying. It’s clear what kind of bubbles there are at university, such as UJS, but as a young professional, it’s not so clear. At university, I was president of our JSoc. It would be great if there could be the equivalent type of events, such as Pizza in the Park, for people who have graduated.”

UJS president Louis Danker, told the JC: “As a young Jewish professional, I am very lucky that I am working at UJS, and I am able to give back to the community. But it’s not clear, beyond a professional capacity, what else there is. We want more talented Jewish leaders to stay involved as young people.”

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Asked whether he had noticed a decline in Jewish engagement in his age-group, participant Toby, 24, said: “It’s hard to catch the trend, whether it’s going up or down. There are always opportunities to get involved through Jewish charities.” For his part, he was at the summit “to learn more about what people are doing to boost Jewish people’s chances of feeling empowered and confident in the workplace as Jews”.

While the evening was aimed at finding out how to keep young Jewish people engaged, from the conversations I had, it was evident that many participants were already fully embedded in Jewish life. For Maya, 22, an educator and youth lead at New North London Synagogue, her youth movement, Noam, had been key to forming her Jewish identity “as it was based, not just around prayer, but around Jewish communal life. I also went to a Jewish school, which showed me how much fun it was to be with Jewish friends on a day-to-day level.

At university, most of her friends were from her course, but she also attended JSoc events. “But if I hadn’t, I would have found another way to have stayed involved Jewishly.”

But despite participants’ own sense of Jewish connectedness, there was a concern that many of their peers were drifting away from the community and that this would have an impact, both in terms of its size and what it would have to offer in the future.

As Gaby said: “People marrying out is a concern for me as I want to have a strong Jewish community around me. The more people who marry out, the less of a community there will be.”