Great article, I think the perspective you're sharing is vital and under-valued. It strikes me that one issue, upstream from the one you discuss here, is many frum families' fear of secular influences on their children (or themselves). Human relationships always flow in both directions, and potentially effective mekarevim don't begin because they fear (perhaps rightly) that they cannot navigate that two-way street. Before we mobilize the masses, we need to create "hashkafically antifragile" communities.
Another kiruv dynamic that fascinates me is how we "market" Judaism to the nonreligious. The focus is generally on answering their implicit question, "What will Judaism contribute to my life?" But I think many secular Jews beginning their religious journey have other, nobler questions that they are subtly discouraged from asking: What will my life contribute to Judaism? To what extent will my unique worldview and creativity find fertile soil? Mainstream kiruv generally ignores this fundamental need to create and contribute, perhaps because - once again - it fears what "negative influences" will enter. But if we look at the success of sites like Sefaria or the Lehrhaus, or publishers like Koren, so much of their appeal stems from the fact that they're encouraging diverse thinkers to offer new lenses on classic texts. How many more Jews would enthusiastically engage with these texts if they new that their ideas would find a deeply receptive and thoughtful audience?
I think on the one hand, you're right about the fear, but on the other hand, many if not most families give their children access to much more dangerous influences through internet access, or even exposing them to the hero worship of sports culture. I think you're right about investing in developing hashkifically antifragile communities, and a great way of doing that in a way that kids/teens will actually care about the ideas being discussed is to put them in a context where they feel like they have to be able to speak for Judaism. That could be a Shabbos meal; another context is a program I participated in once during the summer, where an Orthodox summer camp organized two meetings between their oldest campers and the parallel age group of a nearby non-denominational Jewish camp. Preparing for those meetings, campers were asking about so many aspects of Orthodox life that they had just accepted unthinkingly without questioning or understanding the meaning (kippa and tzitzis, shabbos, shomer negiah...). The context of having to "argue their side" meant they were much more interested in the answers then if they had been offered an explanatory shiur in the exact same topics. I wouldnt say everyone should go to the same camp and spend the month together, bc I'd be nervous about influence. But the two meetings over the summer i'd think are structured enough to be fully positive.
Re marketing Judaism, Yes! Great point. My first thought is that it relates to how the mekarvim themselves may understand Judaism - preparing for sechar in olam haba, as i wrote in my Lehrhaus article. All they're doing is passing on their understanding to those they're reaching out to. I think a parallel is parents who lean heavily on incentivizing rather than giving their kids opportunities to contribute to the family, not recognizing how motivating that can be.
Great article, I think the perspective you're sharing is vital and under-valued. It strikes me that one issue, upstream from the one you discuss here, is many frum families' fear of secular influences on their children (or themselves). Human relationships always flow in both directions, and potentially effective mekarevim don't begin because they fear (perhaps rightly) that they cannot navigate that two-way street. Before we mobilize the masses, we need to create "hashkafically antifragile" communities.
Another kiruv dynamic that fascinates me is how we "market" Judaism to the nonreligious. The focus is generally on answering their implicit question, "What will Judaism contribute to my life?" But I think many secular Jews beginning their religious journey have other, nobler questions that they are subtly discouraged from asking: What will my life contribute to Judaism? To what extent will my unique worldview and creativity find fertile soil? Mainstream kiruv generally ignores this fundamental need to create and contribute, perhaps because - once again - it fears what "negative influences" will enter. But if we look at the success of sites like Sefaria or the Lehrhaus, or publishers like Koren, so much of their appeal stems from the fact that they're encouraging diverse thinkers to offer new lenses on classic texts. How many more Jews would enthusiastically engage with these texts if they new that their ideas would find a deeply receptive and thoughtful audience?
I think on the one hand, you're right about the fear, but on the other hand, many if not most families give their children access to much more dangerous influences through internet access, or even exposing them to the hero worship of sports culture. I think you're right about investing in developing hashkifically antifragile communities, and a great way of doing that in a way that kids/teens will actually care about the ideas being discussed is to put them in a context where they feel like they have to be able to speak for Judaism. That could be a Shabbos meal; another context is a program I participated in once during the summer, where an Orthodox summer camp organized two meetings between their oldest campers and the parallel age group of a nearby non-denominational Jewish camp. Preparing for those meetings, campers were asking about so many aspects of Orthodox life that they had just accepted unthinkingly without questioning or understanding the meaning (kippa and tzitzis, shabbos, shomer negiah...). The context of having to "argue their side" meant they were much more interested in the answers then if they had been offered an explanatory shiur in the exact same topics. I wouldnt say everyone should go to the same camp and spend the month together, bc I'd be nervous about influence. But the two meetings over the summer i'd think are structured enough to be fully positive.
Re marketing Judaism, Yes! Great point. My first thought is that it relates to how the mekarvim themselves may understand Judaism - preparing for sechar in olam haba, as i wrote in my Lehrhaus article. All they're doing is passing on their understanding to those they're reaching out to. I think a parallel is parents who lean heavily on incentivizing rather than giving their kids opportunities to contribute to the family, not recognizing how motivating that can be.