Where have all the young Jews gone?
At least those in their 20's and 30's. Many who grew up in the Worcester area did not return home after college...the lure of larger cities, greater social opportunities, new relationships, career choices are all factors that play into this equation. In addition, with all the pluses of growing up in a smaller community that is tightly knit, there are negatives that play out as well. The need for greater challenges, the need to break away from home, the attraction of something new and different and more diverse are all reasonable explanations for this phenomenon, not only here but in many places around the nation...How lucky are those few who have their families close by...
Yet, there are still those who have returned. The comfort of returning to a warm community, job opportunities available, the desire to be close to family, the ever changing and exciting nature of areas like Shrewsbury Street, the Canal District, and the ability to become involved in community life more easily are all contributing factors to the return of some natives.
And we have those who are moving to the greater Worcester area for the first time...these are the newbies who are looking to connect....
How are we connecting these young Jews? Frankly we are doing a terrible job...To be honest, though, we don't even know who they are and to be fair, how can we connect them if we don't know who they are...
So that's our challenge....we need to find out who's here...we have set up several social networking sites for this group, but they are only as good as the people we can drive to these sites.
Do you know of anyone who fits the age criterion of 20's and 30's...
Please let me know and we can begin to deal with this challenge.