The ALEPH Kesher (“connection”) program engages, educates, and empowers young Jews as it connects them to organized Jewish life.

Sparked in 1993 by the sole twenty-something attendee at our biennial Kallah, a week-long gathering with over 700 attendees, Kesher has grown to more than 55 twenty- and thirty-somethings registered for this year’s event. Every two years this growing cadre of grass roots leaders and activists gathers as a community for ten days of deep learning among peers, mentorships with ALEPH rabbis and teachers, creative modes of worship, Jewish expression, and conscious communal service.

Almost all Kesher organizers and participants (“Kesherites”) are college aged or recent graduates and are active in other social, political and spiritual causes. Very few Kesherites belong to synagogues or other Jewish institutions before they enter our program. New participants are recruited through personal contacts of Kesher and Kallah alumni, social action groups and non-traditional Jewish settings and programs. Our evaluation data tells us that since the 2001 Kallah, every Kesherite has gone on to greater involvement in his or her local Jewish community, magnifying the number of people affected by the program to hundreds every year. Some have even changed careers to work in Jewish institutions. Most have continued involvement with the explicitly trans-denominational work of Jewish renewal, are coordinating Jewish programs or events and are furthering their own Jewish learning. All report a profound shift in their sense of themselves as Jews, their desire to remain connected to Jewish community and their commitment to Jewish living.

In the two years between each Kallah, Kesherites gather in a variety of settings to continue learning, experiencing and building Jewish community together. For example, 33 Kesherites attended OhaLaH in Boulder, Colorado in December 2002, for the annual meeting of the Association of Rabbis for Jewish Renewal. This participant-driven gathering was planned by Kesherites seeking to reconnect with each other and study with world renowned Jewish scholars and teachers such as Rabbis Zalman Schachter-Shalomi and Arthur Green. At these gatherings Kesherites further their relationships with mentors, explore new and old definitions of Jewish community and practice, and make plans for future gatherings and the Kesher program itself.

In July of 2002, several Kesherites established an ALEPH/Jewish renewal campsite at a national festival attended by over 20,000 people. They were successful in bringing a Jewish renewal presence to the gathering by leading drumming circles, discussions, collective prayers and study sessions. They also built bridges with the only other established Jewish presence at this gathering – a group that locates itself in the Orthodox world. The ALEPH Kesherites added significant diversity to Jewish activities at this festival, most notably through the first participation of a woman in the leadership of an Orthodox prayer service at this event. Over 500 people were touched by their leadership, teaching and hospitality.