JWI and the United Synagogue Youth have formed a unique partnership to help USY teens navigate interpersonal relationships. This is the latest in a series of JWI programs that teach Jewish teens to make smart, self-respecting choices in their friendships and relationships.

This JWI-USY partnership will include training at USY’s 2009 International Convention, and follow-up programming – based on a JWI-authored sourcebook for a healthy relationship curriculum. It could reach more than 14,000 USY members in peer settings. Project materials, supported by relevant text study, explore friendships, dating relationships, respect and communication.

This joining of forces is a celebrated next step in JWI’s decade-long commitment to healthy relationship education, and a great stride toward our goal to make such training a standard part of all Jewish education. USY Director Jules Gutin called the partnership “a trailblazing opportunity to use Jewish teachings to guide teens through the tough decisions they face in their relationships,” and said the resulting curriculum will be “an invaluable tool: We’re so excited to combine our resources and make it available to our teens.”

Since JWI created When Push Comes to Shove…It’s No Longer Love!®  – the first national Jewish educational program to address dating abuse, released in 2005 – we have followed with a succession of healthy relationship programs for Jewish youth of all ages. Strong Girls: Friendships, Relationships & Self-Esteem, its complementary program Good Guys: Partnership & Positive Masculinity, and others in the series have reached thousands of teens nationwide.

“Jewish teens are not immune to dating violence, aggression among friends and struggles with self-esteem,” said JWI Executive Director Loribeth Weinstein. “These issues do affect our children, and giving them the skills to build healthy relationships is as much our responsibility as putting a roof over their heads. The time to start this dialogue with our kids is now.”

Dating starts younger than most adults realize. Nearly half of 11- to 14-year olds say they have been in a dating relationship. Though most parents discuss relationships with their tweens, research indicates that many parents are in the dark about the reality of those interactions. (Liz Claiborne, Inc, 2008)

JWI thanks The Hadassah Foundation and the Toby and Nataly Ritter Family Foundation for their generous involvement in helping to make the vital education of so many Jewish teens possible.