USCJ Review - Spring 2007
Turned-On Kids
How one isolated community found a way to give every Jewish child the opportunity to go to camp, USY conventions and even to Israel
Ideally every Jewish child should have the opportunity to go to a Jewish sleepaway camp, a Jewish day or Hebrew high school, youth group events, and a peer trip to Israel. These are the keys to keeping kids connected to Judaism and to building the next generation of Jewish community leaders. The cost of the programs is out of reach for many families – but the cost to our communities is even greater if our children don’t have these opportunities.
They have those opportunities in Spokane.
When you live in a small, geographically isolated community like Spokane, in the eastern part of Washington state, it is even harder to keep your kids connected. Spokane is home to approximately 3,000 Jews and just one Conservative synagogue, Temple Beth Shalom. In fact, Beth Shalom is the only Conservative congregation between Minneapolis and Seattle.
There is something unusual going on in Spokane. Most of the community’s children go Jewish summer camp beginning in third grade, 90 percent of eligible kids there attend all regional USY events, and 18 to 20 teens go to every USY international convention. Spokane routinely sends so many delegates to USY’s international convention that in 2004 the director of United Synagogue’s youth department, Jules Gutin, presented the group with an award for its consistently high level of participation.
Spokane also has provided USY with a disproportionate number of board leaders in its Pinwheel region, according to Neil Chark, the youth director for United Synagogue’s Pacific Northwest region. “In the last six years, three out of four USY Pinwheel region’s directors have been from Spokane,” Neil said.
“Spokane kids have an advantage that other kids in our region don’t have,” said David French, who at 17 is Pinwheel’s president. “Whatever we want to participate in, we can. No other synagogue in the region can do what we do.” No other synagogue in the region can afford to.
David was able to join the Alexander Muss High School program in Israel during his junior year. The eight-week program was founded in 1972 by Rabbi Morris Kipper and the Greater Miami Jewish Federation; it originally was a South Florida initiative. Upon his return, David wrote in an essay for the scholarship committee, “The last day in Israel, I planted my roots there. I planted a tree that I can return to sometime in the future…. Israel is simply a puzzle of millions of pieces of culture and history, and it is our job to put our piece in the perfect place. For me, it was planting a tree.”
David will return to Israel and visit his tree. He has just applied to Nativ, the yearlong program in Israel for new high school graduates.
But David’s connection to Israel and Judaism has been shaped by his own Jewish journey. David and his family converted to Judaism. “Hebrew school and USY framed the foundations of my education, experience, and interest. If it weren’t for Hebrew school, I wouldn’t have had friends who urged me to go to camp,” said David. “And if it weren’t for camp, I wouldn’t have had any interest in USY, and if it weren’t for USY, I probably never would have wanted to go to Israel so badly.”
It is a special scholarship fund, the Spokane Temple Beth Shalom Scholarship Fund for Jewish Youth, that has made David’s journey possible. “The scholarship bridges the gap between us and the larger metro areas of the region,” David said.
Every child in Spokane whose family is a member in good standing at Beth Shalom and enrolled in Hebrew school or Hebrew high school can receive about $22,000 worth of scholarships. The money can be used to pay 75 percent of the bill to Camp Solomon Schechter for third- through 11th-graders. It can pay 80 percent of the cost of camp reunions and Kadima and USY programs, and up to $3,200 for a one-time peer trip to Israel with USY Pilgrimage, USY High, or the Alexander Muss High School program in Israel, said Adie Goldberg, the education and youth director at Temple Beth Shalom. “How many kids are guaranteed a trip to Israel?” she asked rhetorically.
How can the community do this?
It can do it because of Eugene Huppin, an amazing man with an amazing vision, who saw a community need and went to work to fill it.
Gene, a retired attorney whose practice included estate planning, grew up in a Conservative household in Spokane. He and his wife, Gerry, brought their five children up there as well. The Huppins wanted each of their children to have a strong Jewish education and identity, and to meet many other Jewish children. They realized that this was difficult in an isolated area.
So, at a time when only a small percentage of Spokane’s parents could afford to send their children to camp or conventions, the Huppins sent their children to Camp Solomon Schechter in Olympia, Washington. The camp is run by United Synagogue’s Pacific Northwest region. “We would send our kids to camp and they came back with a great Jewish education and joy, singing zemirot and Birkat ha’Mazon,” Gene said. As a result of their experiences and commitment, all three of the Huppin daughters went to regional USY conventions and on Pilgrimage; all became USY regional directors. Two of them are now Jewish educators.
“All this made our lives richer as Jews,” Gene said.
Gene believed that every child in the community should go to camp, to USY programs, and on Pilgrimage, whether their parents can afford it or not. It took Gene 25 years to build the Spokane Temple Beth Shalom Scholarship Fund for Jewish Youth. The fund has grown from humble beginnings to $1 million today. To start the fund, Gene approached some of his Jewish clients. He encouraged them to set aside money for a youth fund. Some of the fund’s money comes from estates and some comes from people who shared Gene’s vision and gave generously.
The fund started small, just sending kids to camp, but over the years it has evolved into what it is today. Its founders are pleased at the difference that the fund has made in the lives of many of Spokane’s young Jews. Gene said, “Spokane’s kids are better educated in terms of yiddishkeit. They know kids from all over the West and from all over the country. It has given them the benefits of a larger community.” The fund is administered by Gene and the scholarship committee. The scholarships are not based on need, and any child or teen who meets the criteria and applies to an approved program is funded. But the scholarship is a gift that comes with a commitment to the community on the part of the recipient and his or her parents.
The families must be members in good standing of Temple Beth Shalom. The child or teen must be enrolled in Hebrew school or the Midrasha High School and must be active members of Kadima or USY. They must go to religious services a certain number of times. And they must do community service work in a program that is run by the local Jewish family service agency. Each participating USYer is matched with a senior citizen from the community. The USYers are required to spend time with their partners at least once a month; the synagogue provides challah or flowers for them to bring. The goal is to have the young person develop a real relationship with the older one, Adie said.
After attending any program or event that the scholarship funds, the awardees must write a paper explaining what they just learned and how they intend to share that knowledge with the community. The papers go to the scholarship committee.
Melissa Huppin, who is 19 years old and Gene and Gerry Huppin’s great-niece, is majoring in Jewish studies at the University of Washington. “As a recipient of the scholarship, I attended Camp Solomon Schechter for nine years, starting when I was seven,” she said. “I also went to Kadima kinnusim, at least 20 USY conventions, and Alexander Muss High school in February and March of my junior year. Being able to travel all over the country and the world with other Jewish teens opened my eyes to different ways of bringing Judaism into my everyday life and motivated me to learn more about my heritage.”
Melissa says the Shema every night before she goes to sleep, something she began doing at Camp Solomon Schechter. She plans to major in Jewish studies and pursue a career in Jewish education.
Maggie Yates, 18, a freshman at Macalester University in St. Paul, Minnesota, is seriously considering making aliyah. “It’s on my horizon,” she said. “I first decided to make aliyah when I was on the plane ride back. I realized how whole I felt in Israel and what it meant to leave.” She said that she would not have been able to study in Israel without the scholarship. The “fund gives you a larger Jewish experience than you can have in a small community,” she said.
Alex Nelson, 17, is the president of Spokane’s USY group. The scholarship allows him to be active in USY. “I would be hard pressed to find funds without it,” he said.
Alex studied in Israel last year and believes this experience changed both his and his family’s outlook on Judaism. “Going to Israel helped me figure out what Judaism is all about in my mind. I am more conscious of Judaism in my everyday life,” he said. “Since I came back from Israel, my family has become more active in doing mitzvot and going to temple.”
The young people of Spokane come back from camp and USY with Jewish friendships and exposure to a culture that makes Jewish identity grow. That culture fosters fervent Jewish identity and fervent Zionism and that benefits the community, said Rabbi Jack Issacson, the spiritual leader of Temple Beth Shalom. Rabbi Jack, as he prefers to be called, said, “Our youth are Jewishly committed and Israel committed and that sets the agenda for our USYers and their parents.”
Rabbi Jack said, “I have no trouble invoking pediatric Judaism as a way to turn parents on through their kids.” Several Spokane families have visited Israel when their children were there on scholarship programs. It was the first visit for many of those parents, he added.
The scholarship fund has grown in the past 10 years and so have the kids it has benefited. Those young people are making college and career choices based on their commitment to Judaism. They are choosing schools that offer Jewish studies. Spokane students have gone to List College at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, and to graduate program at the seminary as well. They participate in the Shusterman program at the CAJE conference for Jewish educators and they take leadership roles in their college or university Hillels. They are the future leaders of the Conservative movement.
“This is a real success story,” said Jay Weiner, the director of the United Synagogue’s Pacific Northwest region. “If we can find ways to fund these programs – what a turnaround this will make for the Conservative movement as a whole.”
