A few years ago the most pressing Jewish need in communities north of Boston was how to keep teens within the fold after bar/bat mitzvah. Mirroring a national problem, youth involvement in Jewish life here dwindled. But awareness of the problem and resolve to solve it has resulted in existing youth groups making attempts to do joint programming. While these groups are experimenting with what works and how they can better coordinate activities and offer joint events, the hope is that a foundation has been laid and momentum is building.

A prime example of what Adam Smith of the North Shore Teen Initiative calls a “mega event” is the collaborative overnight Laser Quest Lock-In to take place in Danvers from Saturday night, January 23, into Sunday the following day. The all-nighter is attracting teens from Cape Ann, United Synagogue Youth based in Peabody, ATID at Temple B’nai Abraham in Beverly and SMARTY/YAiSH from Temple Emanu-El in Marblehead and Cong. Shirat Hayam in Swampscott.

Another major event that is less perspiration and more inspiration is the L’Taken seminars in Washington D.C. Seventeen teens from north of Boston cities and towns have signed up for the trip in February where they’ll be joined by high school students from more than 100 congregations as they attend social justice seminars, learn about pressing national issues and have a chance to lobby on Capitol Hill. The cost to families is $350 per teen with NSTI subsidizing the balance.

Neither Laser Quest (purely entertainment) nor L’Taken (social action) would have been possible with the larger numbers of area youth it has attracted just a year ago. Although Temple Emanu-El has taken less than a handful of teens on the L’Taken program in Washington D. C. for the past three years, now the program has been adopted by local youth groups committed to collaborating. 

NSTI — The North Shore Teen Initiative sees itself as the umbrella organization for existing youth groups. NSTI is 16 months into a three-year grant totaling $981,000 from the Jim Joseph Foundation. Involvement is across denominations and includes teens in the 23 communities covered by the Jewish Federation of the North Shore. Executive Director Adam Smith has an executive assistant and uses freelancers in his work, which is governed by a community board. In addition to teen programming, NSTI gave out 29 first-time overnight Jewish camper grants of $1800 a piece last year and is inviting applicants into the program again this summer.

NSTI President Ina-Lee Block said she hopes the Jim Joseph grant will extend beyond the initial three years, but she could not say if it would. NSTI is a pilot program of the Jim Joseph Foundation, set up to learn if new life could be breathed into teen activities.

“It’s our intention to add value to the community,” Block said. “I think (the Jim Joseph Foundation people) are watching us very carefully. To the extent that we are successful, they would like to consider funding similar initiatives in other communities.”

Jew Crew — Jew Crew, begun independently 15 months ago, runs out of Chabad of the North Shore in Swampscott and welcomes all teens including the unaffiliated. Director David Nathan plans sporting, musical and social events. Its budget for 2008-09 totaled $28,000. Events are either free or participants pay $18 to $36. Some 50 to 60 teens attend events with Chabad covering whatever costs are not met.

After over a year of successful programming, Jew Crew’s David Nathan became full time in October. His challenge is to create events he hopes will attract more and more teens. Chile On Ice happens this month, a Purim concert will be held the end of February and the annual New York Shabbaton in March are events geared to excite youth while simultaneously injecting some spirituality and Jewish learning into the process.

With a larger budget, Nathan said Jew Crew could plan more activities and more elaborate events while charging participants less.
“I’d like to do collaborative events,” Nathan said. “Instead of 50 or 60 kids, we could have 200 from other communities.”

Among the things Nathan envisions is a teen lounge at Chabad where kids would come after school to hang out, play games and do homework together.

United Synagogue Youth— USY is the oldest and still the largest youth group north of Boston, according to Youth Chairman David Goldberg. The teen division of USY based in Peabody’s Temple Ner Tamid has 65 teens (110 when the younger groups are included). USY’s annual budget is $25,000 with teens paying $55 in dues. Peabody USY’ers participate in a variety of activities including volleyball and basketball games against other USY’es from New England.  Teens also participate in community service activities, education and religious events as well as dances and conferences with other USY groups in the New England Region. Sue Callum is the youth director, along with Alyssa Pessaroff, Senior Advisor, Eric Lubarsk, Junior Advisor, Amy Dylengosi, Kadima Advisor and Heather Comak, Chalutzim Advisor. 

SMARTY (Swampscott, Marblehead Area Reform Temple Youth) and YAiSH (Youth at Shirat Hayam) have been run from Temple Emanu-El (Reform) and Congregation Shirat Hayam (Conservative) respectively for many years. What is new is the collaboration between SMARTY and YAiSH. The two temples fund youth director Darren Benedick who creates and oversees joint weekly lounge activities for teens in both temples as well as other activities. The doors are open to all Jewish teens in the area, not solely members of the two temples. From 16 to 20 teens attend weekly lounge events. He sees 60 to 75 high school students each month.

“The kids just want to hang out together,” Benedick said. “To them, there’s no lines (separating them). This week it’ll be a movie. Next week we’re going bowling. We also do one big quality event per month in addition to the weekly events.” This month, it will be Laser Quest Lock-In.

USY, Jew Crew and SMARTY/YAiSH are the three major youth groups. Smaller are ATID, a social action group for high school students run from Beverly’s Temple B’nai Abraham. The tuition is $300 a year. An educational trip to Washington D.C. was planned for the Martin Luther King weekend of January 16 with 11 students, two parents and leader Miriam Blue.

Gloucester’s Temple Ahavat Achim —The only temple on Cape Ann has an informal youth group headed by David Wesson, director of congregational learning. Teens get together for Shabbat dinners and recently had an ice-skating party. Some will join in on Laser Tag in Danvers on Jan. 23.

Youth to Israel — Y2I, operated by the Robert I. Lappin Charitable Foundation, is not a youth group similar to the others. However, it is a premier teen adventure unique to the North Shore that has been bringing local youth together in the Jewish state for decades. As more teens become involved in Jewish social groups, more show interest in participating in Y2I.