The biggest challenges facing the American Jewish community today stem from our community’s failure to educate, in a serious way, most of our youth.

Memorizing some lines of Torah, and learning something about Tikun Olam in order to have a party isn’t, going to inspire young Jews to take pride in the majesty of our people’s history.

Hearing something unrelatable about some people who lived thousands of years ago, isn’t going to inspire young Jews to explore Jewish philosophy in a meaningful way.

Being taught that it’s important to build a family within a communal construct and stay connected to our people because of the Holocaust, isn’t going to curb the tide of assimilation and intermarriage.

Being told that Israel is wonderful because it invented the cherry tomato and is great at high tech, isn’t going to inspire young Jews to care about Israel or think deeply about the ideas that undergird it, let alone fight for them.

It may be too late to meaningfully change the course of the American Jewish community, I don’t know, so much damage has been done. Still we need to try and time is of the essence.

It’s a difficult time for everyone now. No need to rehash why. But out of this challenging time have come some incredible new initiatives for Jews of all ages to learn, in a serious way, about Zionism about Jewish history, about, Jewish philosophy, all online.

Please send me a private message if you want to learn more about some organizations, including my own (full disclosure) who are doing some incredible work on this front.

Stay healthy and safe! #Shavuot Sameach, and #ShabbatShalom!