Gen-X Spokeswoman Says Theme of “Jewish Continuity” Doesn’t Resonate With Young People

Speaking as the voice of her generation, Amy Tobin, manager of cultural arts and community development at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, told the annual convention of the United Jewish Communities’ General Assembly that its signature communal goal — ensuring Jewish “continuity” — is failing to engage Jews in their 20s, 30s and 40s.

The Forward reports (Nov. 23,2001): “For one thing, she told the assembled Jewish lay leaders that her longtime boyfriend is not Jewish — an act akin to waving a handgun at a Million Moms March rally. ... She said that, ‘The messages we hear are that Jewish continuity is in danger, and it feels, as if all organized Jewish efforts bend toward that crisis. This does not resonate for us, because we feel as connected to human survival as Jewish survival.’ Ms. Tobin described her cohorts as people who feel Jewish in everything they do, but who actively seek out cultural diversity. They deeply believe in the Jewish concept of ‘healing the world,’ but are more likely to relate to the words of civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr. than to the Jewish precepts contained in the Mishnaic collection ‘Ethics Of Our Fathers.’”

As products of America’s open society and multicultural environment, young American Jews “have assimilated the non-Jewish world into our worlds,” Ms. Tobin said. “Appeal to us in our totality, as multi-dimensional people and as Jews.” If not, she warned, organized American Jewry can kiss her generation goodbye.

The Forward describes Amy Tobin in these terms: “While her Jewish background is impeccable and her father, Gary Tobin, is one of the Jewish communal world’s most respected researchers, her work at the JCC is skirting the cutting edge of Jewish culture and identity. The Hub, a performing arts program she founded at the San Francisco JCC, often features performances by both non-Jewish and Jewish artists. What makes the events Jewish, Ms. Tobin said, is that each adds a dimension of Jewish culture and tradition to which people her age would normally flock. A recent Sukkot celebration she organized exemplified Tobin’s vision. Held at a Bay Area night club ... the evening’s program featured Jewish as well as African American, Sicilian, Chinese and Sri Lankan performers who took on the theme of ‘home, wandering and displacement’ through poetry, chasidic stones and hip-hop music. Its audience members described their ethnic backgrounds as Jewish-Irish, Buddhist, Zimbabwean, Jewish Zionist liberal, Lebanese/Eastern Orthodox, Polish Quaker and ‘Jewish-fill-in-the-blank.’”

Ms. Tobin said that, “We’re not trying to go around and make people marry each other.” But she is trying to create a sense of community among members of her generation who are becoming “increasingly individualistic and dangerously un-communal ... I try to mirror our daily lives in what I do.”

She expressed the view that, “If you try to force kids to be Jewish in the way the Jewish community typically tries to, in the freedom of America, they get knocked out. ... I appreciate and respect the sacrifices of generations of Jews who fought to be part of the fabric of American society. Now we are.”