What Limmud Can Teach Us

A Spirit of Youthful Volunteerism Sorely Lacking in America

By Jane Eisner for The Jewish Daily Forward

The fourth and final night of the massive conference known as Limmud UK coincided with Christmas, but you’d never know it in the auditorium where thousands gathered on the campus of the University of Warwick in Coventry, several hours from London. Instead, the focus was on the two men who oversaw the annual marathon of non-stop classes, lectures, debates, dancing, prayers, performances and late-night sessions at the bar, all in service of self-styled Jewish learning.

Richard Verber and Oliver Marcus stood at a podium and did what co-chairs do: Thanked the very many people who made this Limmud the largest and, observers said, the most successful since the idea was launched in 1980. Two thousand, six hundred participants attended 1,102 sessions offered by 451 presenters from around the globe – an organizational challenge for even the most seasoned conference coordinators.

But Verber is 29 years old. Marcus is 27.

And they chaired Limmud in their spare time.

Limmud is an avowedly volunteer and egalitarian effort, and overwhelmingly young. One of the people in charge of the optional Shabbat weekend before the conference began on December 22 is only 25. One of the people overseeing the massive undertaking of feeding kosher food to thousands three times a day is the same age.

This was my first time at Limmud UK, and I was hugely impressed by the volunteer leadership of the under 30 crowd; I saw the same thing on a smaller scale at Limmud New York last year.

The contrast between this approach and the one taken by so many youth-engagement efforts in the American Jewish community is profound. Here we offer free books to Jewish toddlers even if their parents can afford to buy them; free trips to Israel through Taglit Birthright; free homey meals (and sometimes liquor) at Chabad houses on campuses across the country; thousands of dollars in grants and subsidies to young Jews with the inkling of a novel idea.

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