As part of my exploration of issues and themes from The Upswing by Robert D. Putnam and Shaylyn Romney Garrett, I want to focus on grassroots activism as one key building block of an upswing, particularly through development of youth leadership. 

In early 2019 I joined several other senior Jewish Federation professionals on a visit to Belarus hosted by the American Joint Jewish Distribution Committee (JDC).  As part of that trip we visited the smaller community in Bobruisk, and met with a group of teens participating in an outstanding JDC program called Active Jewish Teens (AJT).   

I’m the product of an active youth group engagement in my teen years, serving as a regional president in NFTY and working at the Reform Movement’s Eisner Camp in Great Barrington. I even tried, not so successfully, serving as a youth group advisor during my college years.  I had a deep youth group background, but I was blown away by Active Jewish Teens. 

AJT was created in the mid-2010’s by JDC to meaningfully engage Jewish youth ito learn more about their Jewish identity and make it relevant in their lives and the lives of their friends, families, and wider communities. Over decades of Soviet rule most forms of religious and communal organization and expression had been systematically suppressed.  After the fall of the Soviet Union, Jewish communities in the region started rebuilding Jewish life and JDC has played a huge role. 

AJT now operates in more than 60 communities across the Former Soviet Union, involving thousands of teens in regular activity, in partnership with BBYO and the Genesis Foundation. Like many youth groups it provides a vibrant peer network. The teens take part in cultural activities, Shabbat and holiday celebrations, and spend time together socially.  But at the core is the concept of individual participants being “active” and committing to personal volunteerism. And like the most effective of our youth and young adult engagement programs, the approach is rooted in empowerment. 

Every participant in an AJT group commits to attending weekly group meetings, during which they learn leadership and planning skills. They are guided and supported to conceptualize and implement a personal project to peers outside the group in some way.  It might be volunteering in community service or participating in some other program or experience.  It might be visiting the elderly, or tutoring young school children, learning about Jewish culture or celebrating a holiday.  One of the teens we met created a project to help seniors book medical appointments so they wouldn’t have to wait in line at an office, just to book their appointment.  The strongest participants from local chapters get invited to participate in regional conference where they meet other peer leaders.   

AJT is more than just a great youth leadership development program.  It inculcates into the hearts and minds of every participant two powerful principles: 

1. You are responsible for the broader welfare of the community and you must do something to improve it; and 

2. You can have a bigger impact in the change you want to make by bringing your peers along with you. 

That kind of personal responsibility for leadership was embedded in the youth movement I was involved in, but by the time my children were experiencing youth movement programming in the late 2000s/early 2010s, that emphasis on service to the community was much less present.  Even the leadership experience at the chapter level wasn’t very robust.  My kids weren’t really challenged to do much beyond spend time with other Jewish kids.  They had a good time, and built enduring relationships.  But it didn’t catalyze their development as change agents for a greater good. (Thankfully, they got there anyway.) 

What has this got to do with The Upswing? 

The close of the book gets to the promise of the title – how we can engineer another period of upswing.  As I read this chapter, I found myself thinking again about what I had seen in Active Jewish Teens. 

Two of the key factors that led to such a robust progressive shift were the groundswell of complementary reform efforts, and the youthfulness of the change agents. 

The groundswell of reform efforts happened both through the organization and scaling of change efforts across many communities, and the networking of these change efforts so that activists could learn from one another, support one another, and tackle related challenges of national advocacy.  This has started to evolve more here in the US. Contrary to media depictions, the activists are not only teens and 20-somethings, but also middle-class, middle-aged college-educated women focused on issues that affect their daily lives.  The dramatic and close wins by Warnock and Ossoff in the Georgia Senate run-offs can be largely attributed to long and deep organizing efforts for a decade led by women of color. 

But youth engagement is also central. The reformers of the progressive movement of the last century were in their thirties or younger when they led the broad, sweeping reform initiatives that profoundly reshaped American society.  They didn’t start in 30’s – they had been at it a while and had honed their skills.  Investing in youth to build the skills and habits of activism, and empowering them early to focus on a problem, conceptualize a solution, and engage their peers in action, are building blocks for future leadership that can make a bigger difference.  

When I encountered the Active Jewish Teens program in Belarus I was struck by how meaningfully that model could translate as a new way of engaging youth in many communities. In particular, the model builds habits and skills early for assuming responsibility for addressing the needs of one’s community.  I still think that’s true, and I think the experience of the pandemic could provide fertile ground for motivating more youth to become active agents for change. That could make a significant contribution to engineering the next upswing. 

(You can learn more about the work of the JDC and their Active Jewish Teens program here.)