Jewish literacy — a modest proposal for the People of the Book

I chuckled in nervous recognition the other day, when I read a piece by Mireille Silkoff in the New York Times that began, “This summer, I paid my 12-year-old daughter $100 to read a book. As far as mom maneuvers go, it was definitely last ditch, and the size of the payout was certainly excessive. I can’t say I am proud — but I am extremely satisfied. Because the plan worked. It worked so well, I’d suggest other parents of reluctant readers open their wallets and bribe their kids to read, too.” (Mireille Silkoff New York Times, 9-2-2024)

A few decades ago, I also tried bribery. Concerned that my preteen kids had already lost their youthful love of reading, I came up with the idea of paying them a penny a page. For a little while it worked; reading a short novel doubled their allowance. But soon the kids wised up to the ruse and declared that it made no economic sense. Distressingly, however, they did not counteroffer. They said they had better things to do with their time, had enough homework as it is, and besides, they did not need the money.

So my experiment to encourage reading for pleasure failed. And apparently it’s failing all over. We don’t need statistics to tell us what we see anecdotally every time we try to wean our youth away from their screens. But a 2021 federal survey confirmed our fears — it found that almost a third of 13-year-olds said they “never or hardly ever” read for fun. That’s way, way up from the 8 percent who said the same when my kids were young, roughly 35 years ago. The picture was similar for older teens. Less than 20% of both cohorts now read for pleasure on a daily basis.

The pandemic only increased our kids’ digital addiction. And while they technically may be reading online during their free time, more often than not it is just mindless scrolling, and nothing like the “deep reading” of nonfiction and novels that truly educates, illuminates, and motivates.

As a rabbi (never mind as a parent and now as a grandparent), I’m concerned about the decline not just of literacy in general, but of Jewish literacy in particular.

Here’s the basic question: Are your kids (or grandkids) reading great Jewish books?

So what can we do other than lament the situation? Well, even though it didn’t work for me, yes, I believe we should consider bribery. But let’s call it by its positive name: incentive-based compensation!

Here’s my basic idea: For every age-appropriate Jewish book our teens read for pleasure, a matching contribution from parents, synagogue, and federation will contribute $18 each to a college education fund. Let’s say a teen reads 20 books a year (that’s about one every two to three weeks) for the five years between ages 13 to 18. That would be $5,400 toward their college tuition. That’s nothing to sneeze at. Each partner would be contributing $360 per student per year. What a worthwhile investment in the Jewish future.

So what books should our youth be reading? I leave that for each community to decide. Obviously, there would be a list for younger teens and another for older teens. Regarding the latter, I have a list of great Jewish books that I require for adult students converting to Judaism. It could be adapted for older teens. It may be a bit dated, but let’s not neglect the bountiful basket of modern-day classics that we grew up with.

Shouldn’t every teen read a great history book, like “Jews, God and History” by Max Diamont?

Shouldn’t every teen read a moving memoir of the Holocaust, like “Night” by Elie Wiesel?

Shouldn’t every teen read a poignant novel of traditional Jewish life like “The Chosen” by Chaim Potok, of antisemitism like “The Fixer” by Bernard Malamud, and of Israel, like “Exodus” by Leon Uris?

I’m sure that coming up with the master list of great Jewish books will be both informative and fun for each community that endeavors to do so.

Do you remember getting lost in a great book that you could not put down? Do you remember being transported to a new world with new possibilities? Do you remember people, places, and stories that quickened your pulse and lodged in your mind?

We are called “the people of the book.” Let’s live up to that name!

Barry L. Schwartz is rabbi of Congregation Adas Emuno in Leonia and director and editor-in-chief emeritus of the Jewish Publication Society. His latest book is “Open Judaism: A Guide for Believers, Atheists, and Agnostics.”

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