Retilting the Playing Field: Emerging Assumptions About How to Engage Jewish Teens Today

This paper is a first effort to systematically document programmatic interventions in five of the ten communities participating in The Jewish Teen Education & Engagement Funder Collaborative, a joint philanthropic effort launched in 2013. The paper identifies patterns and trends reflected in the programmatic choices made by each community. It then makes explicit five assumptions that underpin these choices and reflects on what they imply for further teen education and engagement efforts. These assumptions, as elaborated in the paper, are identified as: (1) "every body counts;" (2) "breaking down the silos;" (3) "integrating curation and innovation;" (4) "tapping Israel;" and (5) "searching for blue ocean."