They are Jewish kids with Jewish values, and they give every indication of carrying a conscious, active Jewishness into their adult lives. True, these teens may not be representative of all American Jewish adolescents, but they are not unique. There are many more like them in Southern California, west of the Mississippi, across the country. If they represent the best of our people's future, we probably have a future. Meanwhile, Solomon Mizrahi, graduating this month from Valley Torah, has summed up their anxieties, their dreams and their confidence.
Some Jewish teens are willing to interdate, but a Jewish home and Jewish kids are nonnegotiable.
Not surprisingly, interdating isn't even a blip on the radar for Orthodox teens. It saddens me to think that it is already so commonplace among Jewish teens that you would have to ask the question. Among the other 12th graders who contributed insights, attitudes toward interdating ranged from a firm stand against, at least for themselves, to a willingness to date people from all cultures, usually in the name of experimentation and commitment to multiculturalism - and because they don't see the dating they do now as serious. Yes, I date non-Jews. I feel I can learn a lot from non-Jewish people.