<p>In most major metropolitan areas, the percentage of Jews who belong to synagogues is 40-50% of all self-identified Jewish families (notable by charitable contributions, organization memberships or other indicators). Rural communities have a somewhat higher percentage of synagogue affiliation than urban/suburban locales. </p>
<p>Hillel is thought of by many Jewish college students as a place for worship, although in fact it offers much more including social and political dimensions. When inactive Jewish kids decide not to check out or attend Hillel services. they're acting a lot like their parents, collectively that is. </p>
<p>What interests me are those from inactive, organizationally unaffiliated Jewish homes who arrive on campus and decide to explore their roots a bit. </p>
<p>If a student is distinterested in checking out the Hillel, I believe the parent can still alert the Hillel to the student's existence and ask for a bit of outreach. In some of the bigger Hillels, there's a new category of outreach professional staff that specializes in finding kids and making small groups with social bonds based on dorm location and other proximity factors.</p>
<p>We looked out for the Hillel family brunch during freshman orientation to kick things off to a good start. There were plenty of exhausted freshmen who'd been awake the entire previous night in their new dorms, who enjoyed meeting other students. I got the feeling many had been "dragged" there by parents but upon seeing each other, were happy to meet yet another new student. It's harder to nag a kid into first checking out the Hillel by phone for High Holy Days, but for some that's their first contact in September. Other kids go off really looking for Hillel, especially if they were active in youth groups during high school. </p>
<p>Good luck to all on this important dimension of college life. Personally, I think telling kids to go over to Hillel "to find other Jewish kids" is a mistake, since they are already meeting them in their dorms. Rather, I'd suggest it could be spiritual, warm, calming, delicious, fun, or offer a sense of community/belonging as a lively end-of-week activity after a hard week of classes. Or sometimes the students like the rabbi, because they are chosen for their ability to tune in to college sensibilities, and communicate in refreshing ways, compared to the congregational rabbis the students know from home. A big complaint of kids is if anything about the service is different than their home, but that's just something they need to expect as part of growing and discovering new things, which college is all about. Of course the tunes will differ, but that's a good thing.</p>