Mosaic United: Adapting the Jewish Landscape for Gen Z
The lives and interests of young Jews today are very different from those of their parents. Mosaic United is cracking the riddle of how to engage teens and young adults, and strengthen their connection to the Jewish community
“Diaspora teens are no less interested in their Jewish connection than previous generations,” says Alana Ebin, Director of Mosaic United Teens and an educator at heart. “They’re curious and thoughtful and inquiring. The difference today is how they engage; they exist in a social media saturated world. It’s our job to keep up with them.”
The same is true for young Jewish adults, as they build families and establish themselves, adds Mosaic United’s chief strategy officer, Elisheva Kupferman. “It’s not that they aren’t interested in their identity and heritage. For too many, they’re simply not interested in the current offerings. They find little relevance to their lives in existing communal frameworks.”
Meeting young Jews where they are
It is into this gap that Mosaic United has slotted. Now in its ninth year, the non-profit meets young Jews where they are, supporting and encouraging fresh and relevant programming to inspire them to connect with one another, to explore their Jewish identity, and to engage with the Jewish world and Israel. Backed by Israel’s Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism to design and launch effective informal Jewish education initiatives in Diaspora Jewish communities, Israel’s government matches donations to Mosaic United by philanthropists worldwide.
Each Mosaic United initiative targets a distinct demographic. Jewish university students worldwide are addressed by its veteran Campus program, which has already reached over 130,000 young adults via its partners, Hillel International, Chabad on Campus International, and Olami. In 2022 alone, another 6,000 youngsters (a quarter of them Israeli to build person-to-person connections through mifgash) served in the Shalom Corps, Mosaic United’s global volunteer platform, working in 79 humanitarian projects in 27 countries. And Israelis who live outside Israel are the focus of Yisraelim, currently operating in five European countries and the US, which strengthens their Jewish-Israeli identities and connects them with broader local Jewish communities.
Buoyed by the success of its first three endeavors, Mosaic United is now evaluating the pilot year of a fourth, Teen Travel, which is led by Ebin, and is preparing to launch a fifth, Community Development, designed by Kupferman.
“Israel is an amazing classroom”
The turn of Jewish high schoolers worldwide came last summer with the launch of Teen Travel to Israel, in which Mosaic United is investing $8.75 million via its new partnership with RootOne, the North American financial, educational, and organizational umbrella for Israel teen trip providers.
“Visiting Israel, especially on educational programs, has a lifelong impact on Jewish identity and engagement in the Jewish community,” says New York-born Ebin, who recalls her first visit to Israel at age 16 as “one of the most memorable experiences of my life.” The effect is more than anecdotal. “Studies consistently show that these trips have tremendous influence: teens, who come on Israel trips have higher levels of Jewish engagement than those of similar background who do not.”
“Israel is an amazing classroom,” says Ebin. “Israel trips provide young people at the age of self-exploration with an immersive experience, give them better understanding of themselves, of the multiplicity of Israeli voices and perspectives, and ultimately, a greater pride in their Jewishness.”
Aiming to increase the numbers of teens who traditionally visit Israel on three-week educational programs, Mosaic United’s Teen Travel targets high schoolers who are mostly unaffiliated with establishment Jewish life. In its first year, it helped bring some 5,000 North American Jewish teens to Israel in partnership with RootOne. This year, Mosaic and RootOne are on track to bring 6,500 North American teens, with plans for continued growth.
The Mosaic magic
These youngsters travel to Israel with one of 39 affiliated partners from across the spectrum of Jewish identity, from NCSY and NFTY to BBYO and Camp Shalom. “Most of these organizations have run Israel trips for years,” says Ebin. “Our involvement lies in both increasing the numbers who come thanks to a $3,000 individual subsidy (about half the trip’s cost) and increasing the impact of the trip.”
One way in which impact is deepened is with a learning requirement, both before and after the trip. “RootOne created an incredible learning portal with a very wide choice of topics,” notes Ebin. “Israeli arts and culture, Israeli cooking, women and Zionism, and Biblical Israel are some of the options. We require nine hours of pre-trip learning, but found that last year the participants averaged 17, clocking up a combined total of 85,000 hours of virtual study through our portal!”
The Israel travel itinerary connects with what the teens study ahead of time and is also built with the post-trip experience in mind. “Israel itineraries for teens are moving away from focusing only on the must-see sites – the Western Wall, Masada, Yad Vashem,” says Ebin. “The visits are increasingly seen as a springboard to future visits, so instead of packing in only required sites, their programs focus on themes – Jewish history and heritage, or Israeli diversity, or geopolitics and Zionism, or contemporary issues and more – which are of concern to the teen population.”
And each trip, she explains, includes days-long encounters with Israeli contemporaries (mifgashim). “This is a core feature of our trips. Meaningful mifgashim provide an opportunity for both groups of teens to build authentic connections. This is more than a program, it’s an opportunity to engage, to challenge, to forge long-lasting relationships. We see this as a benefit to all parties involved, including the Israeli teens.”
Global ambitions
In a bold move to grow the offering beyond the comfortable borders of North America, Mosaic Teens will debut its international expansion this summer. A pilot will bring some 300 teens from ten European and South American countries – the vanguard of the two million Jews outside North America “who have the same need for connection, identity, and community as the young Americans,” adds Ebin. This initiative, the first of its kind, aims to triple its participant numbers by summer 2024.
Jewish options for everyone
Collaboration between Mosaic United and Jewish campus organizations like Hillel, Chabad, and Olami ensures that trip graduates stay involved during their college years. However, once they graduate, they often find no parallel programs and no community structures that interest them, according to Elisheva Kupferman.
Kupferman works at the intersection of education and strategic planning as the head of a research and development team at Mosaic United. “We explore projects to connect young Jews in the Diaspora to their Jewish identities and to Israel,” she says. “Our focus is strategy, planning, and data-driven interventions. We fit opportunities with needs to get the biggest return on Mosaic’s investment.”
The newest of their projects is the Community Building initiative which launches later this year. “It’s built on key takeaways from our research on the young professional experience,” explains Kupferman. “First, that young adults are looking for authentic, unmediated, ‘do-it-yourself’ Jewish experiences that are often hyper-local and based around niche interests and affinities. And, despite a deep belief in education as a powerful lever for deepening Jewish identity and commitment, it’s not the only tool in the toolkit. For this growing population of young adults, Jewish connection is a habit that has to be built in ways other than through established synagogues and existing Jewish institutions, which simply aren’t successfully capturing the interest of the majority of this subset.”
The Jewish communities and community structures that this population would opt into are led not by rabbis, Jewish professionals, or official Jewish bodies, but by these young adults themselves. “They may be attracted by a Jewish parent circle, or a Jewish environmental group or a peer-led minyan – hyper-local, hyper-specific niche groups,” says Kupferman. “Our program will identify and encourage such groups, provide them with funding, and mentor them to help crystallize concepts and take their group to the next level.”
Groups will be established through Mosaic United’s organizational partners around the world and public calls for proposals. “The plan is to seed the marketplace with Jewish options and alternatives for everyone,” Kupferman continues. “The different groups are incubators for people with ideas, for social entrepreneurs to come on board. After a startup stage of planning, growing, setting norms, and increasing numbers, we’ll help the communities move to sustainability by focusing on the resources, training opportunities, collaborations and cross-pollination that will make it a fixture in the Jewish world, and part of something bigger. If we do it well, on a sufficient scale, we’ll create an environment where communal innovation is accessible and sustainable, and contribute to a Jewish landscape that has something for everyone.”
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