Jewish pride in high school
OU’s youth group reaches students across the region
Students in Jewish high schools had ready access to emotional support and informational updates after the cataclysmic Hamas attack on Israeli Gaza border communities on October 7, 2023. But if Jewish students in public high schools or secular private high schools felt shocked and anxious – especially if they were Israeli citizens who knew someone who was killed, kidnapped, or injured, or had a relative called up for reserve duty in the war that followed — they did not have a built-in supportive atmosphere and often faced apathy or even hostility.
But they were not alone. “We were able to be in that space for them,” Rabbi Reuven Lebovitz of Fair Lawn said.
Rabbi Lebovitz directs the New Jersey and Northeast regions of the Jewish Student Union network under the auspices of the Orthodox Union’s NCSY youth movement.
Every year, about 19,000 teens — Jews of any or no affiliation, and a few non-Jews as well — participate in JSU clubs, which now number close to 400 across North American public and secular private high schools.
While all JSU staffers are Orthodox, their goal is not to promote a particular brand of religious observance but to provide a safe place of belonging for these teens — a fun, educational, and inspiring environment in which to foster friendships, Jewish pride, and a connection with Judaism and Israel.
“We’re a space for them to get together and celebrate their culture and values,” Rabbi Lebovitz said.
Since October 7, there’s been a significant increase of interest in JSUs.
In response to that interest, the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey started allocating funds to JSU in January 2024. This funding enabled the OU to boost the number of JSU clubs in the federation’s Bergen-Hudson catchment area from 11 to 16.
The roster now includes chapters in public high schools (Bergen County Academies, Bergen Tech Teterboro, Cresskill, Demarest, Fair Lawn, Fort Lee, Hoboken, Glen Rock, Leonia, Northern Valley, Pascack Hills, Ridgewood, Teaneck, and Tenafly) as well as private high schools (Saddle River Day School and Barnstable Academy in Oakland) and the Bergen County High School of Jewish Studies, a regional Sunday program based in Ridgewood.
Rabbi Lebovitz oversees 36 JSU clubs throughout New Jersey, including eight in MetroWest. Before October 7, the total number in New Jersey was 17.
“After October 7, the clubs saw an explosion of kids attending and kids asking for JSU clubs at their schools. They were searching for a space that would understand the challenges for Jewish teenagers,” he explained.
Speaking from his office in the Teaneck headquarters of Tri-State NCSY, Rabbi Lebovitz recalled an emotional JSU meeting at a Bergen County high school days after the Hamas attacks.
“One girl who came to the meeting is Israeli, and her entire extended family lives in Israel. She said to me, ‘Rabbi, I learned a lot about the Jewish people this week. All my friends know I’m Israeli and they know I spend every summer there. But not one non-Jewish friend asked me this week how I am doing. At the JSU, everyone embraced me. It made me feel much more connected to my Judaism.”
Glen Rock High School senior Mia Benyamin expressed a similar sentiment. She started attending meetings in her sophomore year and is now president of her JSU club.
“Before joining JSU, I felt like I was losing touch with my religion,” she said. “I hadn’t even gone to synagogue since my bat mitzvah. After joining JSU, I have learned and relearned so much and have found a deeper meaning in life.
“I love the community that comes with JSU. I have made friends both within and outside of my school thanks to JSU and have even made friends and connections out of the country, like in Canada. I have had so many different opportunities to grow.”
Sheryl Sarin, senior director of community planning and allocations at JFNNJ, explained that in 2018, the federation adopted a strategic plan to focus on what it terms “the continuum of Jewish life,” allocating funds to programs that strengthen Jewish identity from preschool to post-college.
“We’d known there was a big falloff from the time of bar/bat mitzvah through high school and beyond,” she said. “We were looking for ways to engage many different demographics of teens. When JSU came and talked to us about what they do, we saw that their model meets the teens where they are. It was the perfect place for us to invest. The program builds Jewish identity and offers Jewish education and a support system.”
While visiting a JSU meeting at Tenafly High School, Ms. Sarin was surprised to find all 35 attendees actively engaged and participating in the discussions and activities.
“I asked one of them why he came, and he told me, ‘I don’t belong to a synagogue or Jewish youth group, but here I have a safe space.’
“Many Jewish kids were feeling unsafe, and here they can feel safe — especially as antisemitic activity has been on the rise.”
JSUs are often the first point of contact following an antisemitic incident, Rabbi Lebovitz said.
In one school, a swastika was found scrawled on a bathroom wall, and administrators reached out to him. “Our club devised a Holocaust presentation that all 1,700 kids in the school watched,” he said. “If we hadn’t been in the school, I don’t know what the response to the swastika would have been.”
Another positive aspect that the young man in Tenafly mentioned to Ms. Sarin is the joint activities with JSUs in other local schools. These events enable participants to expand their Jewish peer group beyond the weekly, biweekly, or monthly programs in their own schools.
The JSU at Glen Rock High School, for example, gets together with JSU members from Fair Lawn and other nearby towns every Monday night.
“We also have Shabbatons, conferences, a summer trip to Israel, and relief missions” — including one to hurricane-hit Fort Myers, Florida, during February break — “that grow their Jewish community even more,” Rabbi Lebovitz said.
Ms. Sarin said the original JFNNJ allocation was through June 2024. After an evaluation of the program’s impact, a higher amount was allocated for July 2024 through June 2025.
“We anticipate that we will fund them again for the fiscal year starting July 2025. We know they do great work,” she said.
Rabbi Lebovitz, who has worked with JSU for a decade, said the federation “has helped us tremendously in the past year and a half, as kids who had friends in JSUs reached out to us asking to open JSUs in their schools.”
This task isn’t simple, he added. “There are challenges at each school. There is often red tape to get started; some require school board approval. There’s no magic wand to get into the schools. Each one is different.”
Each club is different as well. “It’s not copy and paste. We run clubs at lunchtime, before and after school, depending on the school club schedule.”
And there is no agenda, he said. Aside from providing a staff member to lead the 30- to 60-minute meetings, and kosher food such as pizza, JSU lets the students set the tone. “They tell the staff what they want from the club. We are there to help facilitate the choices they make.”
The teens generally divide the designated time between “schmoozing” and engaging in discussions and activities related to Jewish values, holidays, or Israel.
Jason M. Shames, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey, said, “Our partnership with JSU, which we proudly support through funding, ensures that Jewish teens have a safe space to connect, learn, and grow. By meeting them where they are, we’re strengthening their Jewish identity and providing the support they need to navigate today’s challenges with confidence and pride.”
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