Darren Benedick, youth director at two North Shore temples, chats with teens after their visit to Salem’s Brookhouse Home for Aged Women.
(Pat Greenhouse/ Globe Staff)
For Jewish youth groups, a growth spurt
Aim is to link teens to one another, heritage
Darren Benedick, youth director at two North Shore temples, chats with teens after their visit to Salem’s Brookhouse Home for Aged Women.
(Pat Greenhouse/ Globe Staff)
On a recent glorious spring Sunday, the temperature was nearing 70 degrees but Matt Jepsky was busy inside, arranging cake and ice cream for seniors at a Salem nursing home. For Jepsky and the six other teens who helped serve dessert and schmooze with the residents, the day was part of community service work they’ve undertaken with their Jewish youth group.
“This makes me feel good,’’ said Jepsky, a Marblehead eighth-grader who belongs to SMARTY/YAiSH, a youth group created last year that united teens from Marblehead’s Temple Emanu-El and Swampscott’s Congregation Shirat Hayam.
The group, which mixes community service work with secular events and religious tradition, is among several Jewish teen groups that have started up in recent years.
Across the suburbs north of Boston, hundreds of kids have flocked to organizations such as Jepsky’s group, NEFTY, Jew Crew, United Synagogue Youth, North Shore Teen Initiative, and Youth to Israel.
“Our grand objective is to see a rich tapestry of youth opportunity available for kids on the North Shore,’’ said Adam Smith, director of the North Shore Teen Initiative. The organization, which received a $1 million grant from the California-based Jim Joseph Foundation, is a three-year pilot program that was created to help facilitate more programs for Jewish youth.
Smith works with youth group directors to create and publicize a monthly schedule of organization activities. The group also provides subsidies for first-time Jewish campers, and opportunities for teens to meet peers from other states. Over the winter, 20 teens joined more than 300 others from across the country to meet elected representatives in Washington. The North Shore Teen Initiative also is offering a trip to California in August for teens to take part in Artsfest 2010, a five-day program that offers workshops in everything from dance to digital photography.
Youth to Israel, the oldest locally created organization on the North Shore, is preparing to send 97 teens from 19 communities — ranging from Swampscott to Newburyport — on its 40th trip to Israel in July. The two-week trip for Jewish high school students is fully subsidized through private donations and grants, and through a $100,000 subsidy from the Robert I. Lappin Charitable Foundation.
Beginning every January, teens meet monthly to learn about Israeli and Jewish history, culture, and technology. Deborah Coltin, Youth to Israel’s executive director, believes the program helps foster Jewish identity. “We’re building a community of teens,’’ she said.
When they return from Israel, many join other Jewish youth groups to stay in touch with their friends from the trip. They also serve as ambassadors for the program, speaking about their experiences in Israel at temples, and helping recruit teens to go on future trips.
Eighteen months ago, Rabbi Yossi Lipsker created Jew Crew, which combines community service work, Jewish educational programming, and secular events, such as a trip last week to a
Lipsker, who leads Chabad-Lubavitch of the North Shore, based in Swampscott, said one of the reasons he began the group was to fill a gap that’s created after the bar/bat mitzvah experience. “It’s simply a response to the structure of working toward bar and bat mitzvah as the pinnacle of Jewish life. But Jewish kids have a sense of pride and want more. They want to be part of the Jewish community,’’ said Lipsker.
Mara Tzizik, a freshman at Ipswich High School, said the Jew Crew has changed her life.
“It’s really nice to be around other Jewish teens that you can relate to, and I feel it’s very supportive and open,’’ said Tzizik, who also takes a class with Lipsker on Sunday mornings with other teens. “I’m learning so much about how Judaism relates to our lives, and we use examples from the Torah, and it helps me deal with friendships.’’
In Peabody, about 100 are members of United Synagogue Youth, an organization that has been on the North Shore for more than five decades. Children as young as 8 can join, and programs vary from rock climbing and pottery classes to leading temple services. Teens also volunteer at a nursing home, help out at the Jewish food pantry, and play sports.
Matt Frankel, a Marblehead High School senior, said his experiences on the Youth to Israel trip and as a member of the SMARTY/YAiSH group made him more interested in Judaism. Next year, after he enrolls at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he plans to join the Hillel organization.
“The programs here have united very similar people whose paths ordinarily wouldn’t cross,’’ he said.
Steven Rosenberg can be reached at srosenberg@globe.com. 
© Copyright 2010 Globe Newspaper Company.
