Generations: Continuity & Discontinuity
As we embark on the High Holidays tonight, I want to focus us on the theme of generations.
The Torah portions for this holiday of Rosh Hashanah convey intense anxiety about generational continuity. Tomorrow’s reading begins with this issue: “Vadonai pakad et sarah ka’asher amar, va’ya’as adonai l’sarah ka’asher diber. Vatahar va’teiled sarah l’avraham ben liz’kunav.” “The Eternal took note of Sarah as was promised; the Eternal did for Sarah as had been spoken. And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age.” In these opening lines, the text has already set up a central challenge: Abraham and Sarah are old – will there even be a next generation?! Of course, Abraham goes on to have two sons – Ishmael and Isaac – but the worry about continuity doesn’t stop here.
The rest of the reading on day 1 centers on how Sarah’s jealousy fuels Abraham’s expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael, who end up alone, isolated, and about to die of thirst in the wilderness. And then on day 2, we read the next chapter: Genesis 22, where God commands Abraham to take his second son, Isaac, up to the top of Har Hamoriah and offer him up as a sacrifice there. This is extreme family dysfunction; that the same Abraham who once worried that he would not have a child at all has two of them but almost kills each one, in separate instances! According to a famous midrash, when Sarah hears how Abraham has almost slaughtered Isaac, her soul departs and she dies. And in the chapters that follow, neither Ishmael nor Isaac ever speak to their father again. (Only after he dies do they come back together to bury him.) As we gather on Rosh Hashanah, we are left to reflect on this theme of generational continuity and discontinuity – what it is that we have inherited and what it is that we transmit, and how valuable - and how vulnerable - the chain of transmission is.
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I was first introduced to generational thinking as a lens as a newly minted rabbi. I remember picking up a book called When Generations Collide - a workplace book, soon after I had been ordained in 2004, when it was still relatively new. Two authors, Lynne Lancaster, a baby boomer, and David Stillman, a Gen X-er, made the point that with people living longer than ever and working longer than ever, we found ourselves at a moment with four distinct generations side-by-side in the workplace – more than ever before. To be able to get along well in the contemporary workplace and in the world, they argued, was to understand each of these generations, what they value, and how they function and communicate.
Today, more than two decades later, I feel the tension between generations even more acutely. Of course, Kavana is a community and not a workplace. When Kavana first launched in 2006, I was 29 years old and didn’t have any kids; my co-founder Suzi LeVine was in her 30s and had two young children. Fast forward 19 years and many of the founders, like the two of us, are now solidly in mid-life in our 40s and 50s. But, over time, as many of you know, this community has continued to attract young adults in their 20s and 30s, and also drawn like-minded adults in their 60s, 70s and 80s, meaning that now the Kavana community spans every possible life stage. Today, we are trying to forge an intentionally multigenerational community made up of 6 distinct generations.
In the book When Generations Collide, the authors are clear that generalizations do not always hold true for every individual, so that’s my caveat too. And yet, the broad brush-stroke thinking they propose can be a helpful framework for looking at big-picture trends and understanding cultural shifts that stem from having different groups of people who have grown up with radically different life experiences.
Their book terms the generation of anyone born before the year 1945 and the end of WWII “the Traditionalists.” This generation was influenced by figures like Joe DiMaggio, Dr Spock, Alfred Hitchcock, FDR, Ella Fitzgerald, Edward Murrow, Elizabeth Taylor, Betty Crocker and more. Overall, this traditionalist generation is shaped by duty and discipline – they value hard work, patriotism, and loyalty. This generation learned, at an early age, that “by putting aside the needs and wants of the individual and working together towards common goals, they could accomplish amazing things.” And that they have: from winning two world wars to putting a man on the moon.
Those of you who were born between 1946 and 1964 know, no doubt, that you are “Baby Boomers.” Eighty million strong, this enormous generation was influenced by leaders and cultural icons like Martin Luther King Jr, John F Kennedy, Beaver Cleaver, Gloria Steinem, the Beatles, and places ranging from Woodstock to Watergate. The most important invention of the Baby Boomers’ childhood was television, which influenced this generation’s personality. If the key word for Traditionalists was “loyal,” for the Boomers it might be “optimistic.” The booming postwar economy of their youth contributed to a sense that anything was possible. Between jobs and the GI bill and educational opportunities, Baby Boomers were encouraged to pursue their dreams. At the same time, the sheer numbers of this generation led to competitiveness. So while Traditionalists were willing to accept a military-style chain of command and a community mindset, the Baby Boomers learned to value personal achievement, the challenging of hierarchies, and the power of social change.
Gen Xers are next, born 1965-1980, which places me squarely inside this generation. Influenced by the likes of Madonna and Michael Jackson, Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, OJ Simpson and more, Lancaster and Stillman write: “With the explosion of twenty-four-hour media and tabloid journalism, Xers saw almost every role model of their time indicted or exposed as someone far too human to be a hero.” The same was true of institutions during our formative years, from the presidency and the military to the Catholic church and corporate America. It’s no wonder my generation is known for its skepticism and distrust of institutions. Gen X came of age along with the rise of cable TV, VCRs, video games, Palm Pilots, cell phones and the PC. And we’re also the generation of latch-key kids and children of divorce, of AIDS, of kidnapped kids’ faces on milk cartons. The bottom line: my generation is known as being resourceful and independent. [I’ll throw in an aside here, that it’s no wonder that Kavana – this skeptical-of-the-traditional-synagogue-model community, with a scrappy, can-do start-up ethos – was born out of a meeting-of-the-minds of mostly Gen X founders!]
Who’s next? Gen Y, more commonly known as the Millennials. As the book says: With technology and the media blurring the lines between fantasy and reality, the people influencing Millennials often seemed larger than life, including Prince William, Chelsea Clinton, Claire Daines and Leonardo DiCaprio, Kurt Cobain, Barney, the Backstreet Boys, Venus and Serena Williams. Technology moved into people’s pockets, and millennials can brag about being able to go for a joyride on the information superhighway. But, Millennials were also raised with the fear of the gun violence of Columbine. The benefit of the optimistic, idealistic Boomer parenting style for Millennials is that they feel empowered to take positive action when things go wrong – they are savvy, collaborative, and have a strong social conscience.
Since this book came out over two decades ago, two new generations have come onto the scene. I myself have children who fall into both of these categories.
First, there’s Gen Z - born roughly between 1997 and 2012. This is the first digitally-native generation that grew up with the internet and smartphones, making them adept at using social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram and YouTube for information, entertainment and shopping. These young adults are growing up in a time of radical uncertainty - between school shootings and the Covid pandemic and an awareness of the challenges facing our planet. As a result, this diverse generation is already known for their pragmatic problem solving, anxiety, skepticism of traditional institutions and authority, radical inclusivity, and calls for societal change.
Last but not least, although they are still quite young, Gen Alpha includes those individuals born since 2010 - the children of our community up to about age 15. Even more than Gen Z, they are highly technologically-savvy “digital natives,” exposed to screens from the earliest age. They are racially diverse, and also are growing up with an increased awareness of social justice issues, including attacks on DEI, and with climate change as a given - leading to their concern for environmental sustainability. For Gen Alpha, the Covid-19 pandemic hit during their formative years - disrupting school and creating social isolation. They are still growing but seem to be quick learners and entrepreneurial, so we’ll see what the coming years bring.
So here we are, at Kavana, trying to put together a Jewish community made up of all six of these generations, consciously, intentionally.
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This summer, Kavana conducted a community survey, to help us inform upcoming strategic planning work. There was high interest in building multigenerational community – with about ¾ of respondents rating it as a high priority. And when we asked “What ideas do you have for increasing multigenerational connection?” the answers flowed in fast and furious: offering multigenerational challah baking and meals and classes, involving older adults in B’nai Mitzvah, or (one of my personal favorites) starting a Kavana adopt-a-grandparent program. But, the workplace tensions that Lancaster and Stillman flagged decades ago pose real challenges in community building as well, and in the Jewish community, we have some unique tensions.
In his podcasts over the past couple of years, I’ve heard Ezra Klein lay out eloquently how these different generations of Jews view Israel. He argues that a long-standing consensus is breaking down in the American Jewish community. As he sees it, he chunks the six generations that I just named into three cohorts of American Jews with fundamentally different experiences of Israel:
First, there’s an older generation – which he defines as Baby Boomers and older – who were shaped in their formative years by events like the Holocaust and Israel’s early wars, including the Six-Day War in 1967 – which felt like an almost messianically euphoric victory! This group tends to view Israel fundamentally as a vulnerable haven for vulnerable Jews, focusing on its history as a place of refuge.
Second, he names a “straddle generation” of Xers and Millennials – into which Ezra Klein places himself, as do I – which grew up knowing a militarily and politically strong, nuclear-armed Israel that benefited from unwavering support from the U.S. This generation in the middle was taught to see Israel as a place of refuge, but also witnessed the occupation of Palestinian territories and the complexity of two violent intifadas.
Third, he talks about a younger generation (Gen Z, for sure), which has primarily known an Israel with Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right Jewish-supremacist government at the helm, an Israel that is an occupying power. Having come of age in the era of ubiquitous social media, the conflict has loomed large for this younger generation; they are far less connected to the memory of a vulnerable, early Israel or to its founding ideals.
As Klein has pointed out, there was a consensus among much of the American Jewish community, but this consensus is currently collapsing, its pillars having now cracked. A two-state solution no longer feels like it’s on the horizon, or even possible. The idea that “what’s good for Israel is good for the Jews” is no longer widely accepted, especially by younger Jews who see Israel’s actions as compromising, rather than ensuring, their safety. And the relationship between Anti-Zionism and antisemitism has become a source of contention in the American Jewish community, with large communal institutions such as Federation doubling down on the equation of the two, even while younger Jews are vocally protesting against the Israeli government and are increasingly critical of Israel in general. Klein describes all of this as having created a fraught environment, particularly within families, where shared assumptions about Israel have vanished, but so far, there’s nothing yet to replace them with. All of this makes for a tense political landscape within American Jewish life… and then we see this playing out in concrete terms, for example in the New York City mayoral election around the figure of Mamdani. The “establishment” Jewish community is afraid of him – in an Aug 2025 poll, 58% of Jewish New Yorkers said they believe the city will be less safe for Jews under if he becomes mayor. And yet, he has the support of over ⅔ of voters ages 18-44.
It goes without saying that these past couple of years have been incredibly hard ones for the American Jewish community – between October 7th’s attacks on Israelis, and the devastation and horrors still unfolding in Gaza, violence in the West Bank, the plight of the hostages, and with the rise of politicians here who are claiming to combat antisemitism while simultaneously, cleverly, using it as a tool to attack higher education, free speech, democracy, and to manufacture division and fear. With all of this swirling around us, it’s no wonder that the American Jewish community is filled with tension and infighting. Israeli historian Yuval Harari has spoken about how he understands this moment in which we find ourselves as a watershed moment in Jewish history – perhaps the biggest one since the destruction of the second Temple by the Romans – presenting us with what he terms “a spiritual catastrophe” for Judaism itself. I see establishment institutions drawing red-lines that effectively cut off the younger generations from Jewish life – almost like Abraham exiling and threatening to kill his children. I see some younger Jews refusing to be in conversation with anyone who doesn’t agree with them and doesn’t use the same vocabulary – cutting off contact the way that Ishmael and Isaac never spoke to their father again. I hope that Kavana can be the exception to the dysfunction all around us; that here, we might be able to build a multigenerational Jewish community in a more thoughtful, intentional way – a model community – where we put these generations into conversation with one another, even around the tough stuff.
I can’t tell you how grateful I am to be part of this community, in particular. Kavana has attracted deep thinkers, including so many people who don’t fit so neatly into any of the boxes I’ve just laid out. We know that individuals’ personal backgrounds matter a great deal in shaping perspectives, and as a whole, that this is a community filled with people who are willing to seek out nuance and acknowledge complexity; we believe in making both-and statements, and are capable of holding multiple truths side by side.
That doesn’t mean that the task of being in community together feels easy, though, even here. In the same Kavana survey I referenced before, among the many questions we posed, one asked specifically: “Since October 7th, has anything shifted for you? (Please check all that apply.)” This was followed by a number of tick-boxes with a wide range of options – for example, I feel greater attachment to Israelis, I feel greater attachment to Palestinians, I actively seek out news, I actively avoid news, and more. And there were a few high level takeaways that jumped off the page right away from our survey data:
First, and most statistically notable, was that only 10% of survey respondents ticked the box that said “No change - my political beliefs have stayed the same since October 7th.” This means that fully 90% of our community members view themselves as having shifted politically or moving or being in flux over these last two years. That’s huge! Our views are changing and evolving in real time.
Second, 70% of our respondents checked the box that said: “I am more concerned about antisemitism, in the US and around the world.” This is also huge. As a community, we are operating right now from a place a fear, and really feeling our own vulnerability.
The third highest vote-getter, with just over half of respondents agreeing to it, was the statement: “I feel more confused, uncertain and torn.”
The bottom line is that since October 7th, what this survey is telling us is that members of our Jewish community are in flux, fearful, and confused. So here at Kavana, this is telling me that the work that we have to do is not only about holding people in conversation across political difference, across more right or more left-leaning perspectives. This is a huge indicator that this is a hard time for all of us, and we all need to show up for ourselves and for one another with compassion and tenderness.
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In an episode of Krista Tippet’s On Being podcast a few months ago, guest Jason Reynolds talked about how we might connect across generational difference. He offered that the three keys to forging this kind of connection across difference are humility, intimacy, and gratitude.
All three of these suggestions feel deeply Jewish to me, and aligned with the work that we are here to do over these High Holidays. Through our prayers, we try to cultivate a sense of humility, a belief that we don’t already have all the answers, which can translate into an openness to asking questions and genuinely caring to hear the answers. During the coming days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, we seek out hard conversations, offering apologies and making bids to strengthen our relationships through intimate connection, without judging or chastising. And finally, we extend some gratitude at this time of year – through our memories to the generations that have come before us and whose shoulders we stand on, and to the generations that we hope come after us and without whom a future does not exist for any of us. Older and younger, we need one another.
In the coming days, my ask of you is simple but hard. Seek out a connection with someone who is of a different generation than you are. Ask genuine questions and listen for real answers. The goal is not to achieve agreement or alignment, but rather understanding, mutual respect, and relationship. For only through multigenerational connections here – modeled small – can we begin to envision a world in which connection across difference is possible.
We all know that this is a time of polarization, alienation and isolation. The new beginning that Rosh Hashanah represents promises that we have the power to choose a different path. This is the holiday when, at the heart of our services, we will read about ancestors who came oh so close to literally killing the next generation, and younger adults who were so hurt that they cut off ties with older adults. Let’s allow these stories to sink in as cautionary tales, and let’s instead choose connection, compassion, love, and life.
May we all be inscribed for a new year of blessing and goodness, and may we – whatever our age and generation – learn from one another, appreciate our different perspectives, and together help to usher in a better year, of peace and of hope, in our community and in the world. Shana tova.
Rabbi Rachel Nussbaum
