What If We Stopped Telling Young People What They Need?

Today, the entire Bnei Baruch staff, together with our volunteers, came together in Petah Tikvah and on Zoom for an important discussion about how to expand and strengthen our youth community.

We want to create an environment where young people can find connection, friendship, support, and meaning - and where they have the freedom to bring their own ideas and creativity.

We structured the workshop around three simple but challenging questions: What should we lose? What should we change? And what should we introduce? Some of the most valuable ideas came from mothers, who spoke about what it would take to create an environment where young people would genuinely feel comfortable, welcomed, and connected.

Our top marketing expert put the challenge very bluntly: “We’re all too old to decide what the youth needs.” Young people today are simply different from us. They have grown up in a completely different world, with different ways of communicating, connecting, and expressing themselves. Maybe instead of trying to design their community for them, we need to create the space and conditions for them to create their own.

And that is already beginning to happen. This evening our young friends are having their own event like they do every Thursday. Tonight's topic is about the values of building a spiritual society - beginning with personal example. By applying our method they're beginning to define for themselves what kind of society they want to create and what kind of people they want to be within it.

One young woman who has grown up here her entire life spoke about the importance of dissemination - of reaching more young people in Israel who are really searching for answers, meaning, and direction. Another young man, who had grown up in the group but hadn't returned for many years, spoke very emotionally about his return and how much being part of the group is giving him direction. He described it as having become the most important thing in his life.

These stories brought the whole discussion back to its real purpose. We aren't simply trying to make our youth community bigger. We want to create an environment where young people can find connection, friendship, support, and meaning - and where they have the freedom to bring their own ideas and creativity.

Maybe our responsibility isn't to tell the next generation what their world should look like. But rather to listen to them, give them the space to build it, and support them as they lead the way.