Are young Jews being served as well as they can be by the Jewish community at large? In today’s global atmosphere, do we need to transform both the organization and values of American Jewry? Those were a couple of questions raised by Tahl Raz, an editor of the website Jewcy.com, in an interview with Leadel.net, a “leading media portal dedicated to bringing a fresh perspective” to a global Jewish audience.

Jewish organizations in general used to do a great job of catering to the needs of the Jewish community, Raz said, but he believes that bureaucracy and “self preservationist tendencies” makes it hard for them to evolve with the modern Jewish community.

“They became hyper-focused on several issues,” he said. “There is constant talk about the intermarriage crisis, and there is constant talk about who is a Jew and how do we define a Jew, and there is talk about these unaffiliated Jews.” But Raz believes these are not the issues most important to young Jews today. Today’s generation is “much more concerned with people in Darfur” and other global issues. “I think the idea for moving forward is getting back to basics, getting back to rabbis and communities that are helping people,” he said.

Raz’s solution is simply cooperation. “Ultimately if we want to have a transformative impact on the community we’re going to have to work with these organizations, we’re going to have to rebuild this infrastructure.” Raz thinks we can get there by redirecting our focus from issues that have divided Jews in the past – most notably intermarriage:

“There is a huge opportunity in the intermarriage trend. These are people that if you show them how vital the community is and how great it is to raise kids Jewish, these people are going to raise their kids Jewish. Ultimately, that’s all that matters.”