A revived state of activism

On the third floor of a rambling house in Washington Square, 14 young activists gathered Tuesday evening to watch the president's State of the Union address.

They jeered at the television during each pause in the speech. They slurped on their beers whenever the president used the word ''freedom."

And with little paper cutouts of George Bush's face, they played bingo on cards marked with what they see as the president's favorite words -- ''war," for example, and ''terrorism," and ''liberty" -- throwing down a Bush head each time he used one.

''The State of the Union is just a fun community-building event that revs people up," says Margie Klein, the coordinator of Kavod House, which hosted the event. ''We're working to build a religiously empowered social justice community. There's several different ways to do that."

A veteran organizer and first-year rabbinical student at Hebrew College in Newton, Klein, 26, began Kavod House in September in an effort to build a community of young Jews committed to social justice work. (Kavod is Hebrew for respect.)

The house hosts dinners every two weeks on Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath, as well as lectures, film screenings, and activism workshops, often connected to a monthly theme or a Jewish holiday.

As many as 40 people at a time have come to the house's Shabbat dinners, having heard about it mostly through word-of-mouth and informal networking.

Klein says the house satisfies a need for young Jews who are dissatisfied with what she calls a ''consumer-oriented Judaism," where people are invited to participate in programs that paid professionals have created for them. It is a dissatisfaction that worries many in the Jewish community who are increasingly looking to grass-roots initiatives like Kavod House to reach unaffiliated Jews in their twenties and thirties.

''It's a thing that's percolating," says Shimon Felix, the Israel-based executive director of the Bronfman Youth Fellowship, a leadership training program that has given Kavod House a $4,000 grant to jump-start its operations.

Felix says Klein is one the fellowship's ''star alumni" and has created an ''alternative community" for young Jews who are underserved by existing programs. ''Something like Kavod House can be a model," says Felix. ''There's a big chunk of the community that's not being served."

One member of that chunk is Ben Healey, 24, who met Klein as an undergraduate at Yale and now works for the Mass Ballot Freedom Campaign, a Dorchester-based political advocacy group.

''I don't go to temple regularly," says Healey. ''I think I wouldn't be involved in any meaningful way except showing up [to temple] on holidays. What Kavod does is offer me an opportunity to engage my peers in the Jewish community around issues of concern."

After graduating from Yale, Klein worked in a number of social action positions, but the 2004 election persuaded her to switch gears and begin studying for the rabbinate.

She was dismayed that the religious right enjoyed an apparent monopoly on so-called moral values and laments that liberal groups are often perceived as godless.

''We don't have an effective moral language to talk about social justice and the environment in a globalized context," says Klein, who sees Kavod House as part of a larger effort to build a spiritual movement committed to social change.

''We really see Jewish life and Judaism as defined by engagement with the world, rather than retreat from it," says Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld, the associate dean for student life at Hebrew College, which has provided logistical and consulting services to the house.

Anisfeld says Kavod House is a ''success story" in that, much like Hebrew College itself, the group crosses entrenched denominational lines, bringing together a diverse group of Jews around an issue of common concern.

''We're really interested in Kavod House because it's a model of activism that's enriched by learning, and learning that's enlivened by questions of contemporary political and social significance, she says.

Klein grew up in New York City in a family steeped in social causes. Her grandmother, who she describes as an ''amazing force," was a founder of Planned Parenthood, and her mother was a community organizer.

''I just grew up thinking it was my job to improve the world," says Klein. ''I feel like I'm on a mission."

E-mail Ben Harris at ciweek@globe.com.