10/23/2026
Meeting the Moment for Our Teens
For generations, it’s been said that “kids today have it so much easier” than the adults who came before them. If only that were still the case.
Today, our middle- and high-school students face enormous challenges that were unthinkable when we were their age.
A major contributor to this new reality is social media, which has become a modern-day Pandora’s box for teens. These platforms have created unprecedented opportunities for connection, communication, and self-expression, but those benefits have come at a significant cost.
Because of social media, teens now live under constant peer scrutiny. Every insecurity they feel, mistake they make, or rejection they experience can now be seen by an audience that extends far beyond their immediate friends and fellow classmates. More alarming, these humiliations can become permanent, searchable, and can even go viral.
The result is a level of pressure that previous generations could never imagine. And for Jewish teens today, the situation can be even worse.
Social media has helped to unlock historic levels of hatred targeting Jews. Through a relentless stream of misinformation, anti-Israel rhetoric, and antisemitic tropes, Jewish teens can find themselves in a maelstrom of lies, vile images, and abusive language. Compounding the issue, they are seeing people they know – including some they consider friends – sharing and liking this content.
In Jewish Cleveland, we recognize this new reality and are working tirelessly to help support our teens through these troubling times. For example, through the Jewish Education Center of Cleveland (JEC), we have various programs designed to help teens explore their Jewish identities and deepen their connection to Israel – from the immersive and friendship-building experiences offered by @akiva for high schoolers to project-based opportunities like jHUB’s B-Mitzvah program for tweens.
New this year is @akiva’s “Foundations for the Future” program – a college prep and mentorship program for Jewish high school seniors. Through this program, our teens will receive the tools they need to navigate antisemitism and anti-Israel rhetoric on campus, resources to connect with everyday Jewish life in college, and more. This year the program will feature an Ohio-wide conference in Columbus for our community’s 12th graders.
Other examples include:
- Offering fun and enriching Jewish summer camp experiences through the Mandel JCC.
- Providing dynamic peer leadership and engagement opportunities, as well as rewarding social experiences, through local youth group chapters of BBYO, Bnei Akiva, and NCSY.
- Teaching teens about the importance of Jewish philanthropy through the Saltzman Youth Panel.
- Empowering teens to educate peer groups from different school districts about Judaism through personal interactions, storytelling, and discussions through @akiva’s newly launched “student to student” initiative, which is designed to combat antisemitic stereotypes and prejudices.
- Bringing teen emissaries from Israel (Shin Shinim) to Jewish Cleveland each year who enhance the vibrancy of the Israeli culture clubs and youth groups throughout the area.
All of this and more are in addition to the specialized curriculum that is available for our teens at our local Jewish day schools.
At the same time, we added our first Director of K-12 and Campus Affairs – whose sole focus is combating antisemitism in educational settings – and launched several new initiatives to create healthier, more supportive learning environments for Jewish students in public and private schools. A few recent examples include:
- Developing a series of Cleveland Jewish Teachers Summits that are designed to provide practical resources so that all educators who are Jewish in Cleveland have what they need to feel supported and successful in schools outside of the Jewish community.
- Organizing Education Leaders Summits that bring together superintendents, principals, heads of school, and other administrators across Northeast Ohio for a day of learning about the Jewish people, strategies for promoting Jewish inclusion and belonging in schools, and tools for combatting and preventing antisemitism.
- Hosting a quarterly Antisemitism in Education Roundtable discussion that brings together local representatives from peer organizations that combat antisemitism in and through education. Participants collaborate to refine best practices in antisemitic incident response, develop proactive programming for students and educators, identify opportunities to work together, and strategize for increased impact.
- Providing a wide range of educational resources and support to institutional partners, youth groups, and educators working directly with Cleveland Jewish teenagers and their families through the JEC.
- Offering school districts unique opportunities to teach students about the diverse history of the Jewish people, Jewish values and traditions, and Jewish art and culture – as well as providing their students with a platform to combat hate – through the Maltz Museum.
In addition to these high-impact programs, we also work with the leadership of individual school districts should an antisemitic incident occur. Through this work, we are not only helping to identify immediate response options, but we are also assisting them in developing long-term strategies to ensure Jewish students remain safe, included, and thriving.
And, finally, we are working closely with parents as they advocate for their children.
- As part of our online toolkit to empower the community to stand up to hate, we have a dedicated section of the website for parents (and students) designed to help them address an issue with school administrators.
- Similarly, we work directly with parents on an individual basis when an issue arises with their child/children. Through effective communication and advocacy, we work to help these families get their concerns addressed in a timely fashion. We also work with parents to develop talking points if they are making remarks at an official public venue, such as a meeting of the board of education.
In Jewish Cleveland, we want our kids to have it better than we did when we were their age. By investing in them, standing with their families, and strengthening the institutions that serve them, we will provide them with the support, resources, and sense of belonging needed to navigate the significant challenges they face today.
In a future letter, we will explore how we are helping teens manage the growing levels of anxiety, depression, loneliness, and other mental health challenges they now face because of these extreme societal pressures. In the meantime, if you or someone you know is struggling, please contact our Access Jewish Cleveland service. We are here for you.
Shabbat Shalom and Am Yisrael Chai,
Jeffrey J. Wild, board chair
Erika B. Rudin-Luria, president
