Not At All Traditional: How Nashville has solved the Millennial Jew “crisis”

Originally published by the Jewish Observer on February 10, 2020.

While other Jewish communities around the country panic in the face of their ability (or lack thereof) to engage Millennial Jews, Nashville has been fearless in its dedication to providing space for young Jews in its community — and more importantly, supporting young Jews who want to create spaces of their own.

Through the original Best Jewish Nashville initiative in the late 2000’s, the Jewish Federation identified Jews ages 22-40 as the population most in need of attention. Thus bloomed NowGen, a social group run though the Federation that hosts several events a month ranging from Rosh Hashana dinners to Super Bowl parties. When I first arrived in Nashville in 2012, the people I met through NowGen are why I fell in love with this city, and I’m still happily residing here seven years later.

Out of this young Jewish Nashville community came others: Through NowGen I became friends with Nashville newcomers Sarah and Jacob Ruden, and in 2016 the three of us founded Jewsic City Shabbat, a musical Friday night service that meets in people’s homes and draws an average of 40 young Jews to the monthly events.

Our size grew rapidly to the point where we could not sustain the group on our own, so we approached the Federation for help. As a result, we received a New Initiatives grant, which has been renewed three times and for which we and our Jewsic City community are extremely grateful. In response to the lack of Jewish events in East Nashville came East Side Tribe, a grassroots community that hosts potluck shabbat dinners, encourages interfaith participation, and is led by Millennials. Wandering Scholars, established by Emily Siner in 2018, is a non-denominational Torah study group with discussions led by volunteers — and again, its participants are primarily Millennials.

The widespread panic over engaging Millennial Jews was clear when I attended the Union for Reform Judaism biennial conference in December. Congregational leaders fretted and complained about how Millennials don’t want to be involved in Jewish life. I happily countered their concerns with anecdotes from young Jewish life in Nashville, and I pointed out that what worked for our community was to let the Millennials drive their own Judaism. Our young Jewish community is thriving because we are given the space and resources to come up with our own ways of celebrating and participating in our religion.