Should our school create opportunities for our students to interact with teenagers who do not have a yeshiva background?

It is crucial that we inspire our students to be active participants in the broader Jewish and American communities. They have so much to offer others who have not been afforded the same education and raised with the same values. They also have much to learn from the sense of wonderment and respect of those to whom our lifestyle is not pedestrian. Most important perhaps is the educational message that we are all one people.

On the other hand, teenagers have vastly different pressures on them than adults. Most adults have spouses and careers and are relatively secure in their identity. Most teenagers, however, are trying to figure out who they are, where they stand in relation to others, and what their principles are. Teenagers understandably have a deep desire to be "normal" (if not cool) in the eyes of their peers.

How do we resolve our seemingly contradictory goals of interaction with the broader community and exposing them solely to positive peer pressure in terms of our values? I believe that the answer is creating venues for interactions that will inspire and not weaken our teens.

Communal Yom Haatzmaut programs are one. This coming Wednesday night, I encourage all of you to participate in "Night Under the Stars" in Mizner Park. In addition, for the last two years, the day schools of South Palm Beach County marched as schools, followed by the community and yeshiva high school students celebrating together and listening to an important message. I hope that this event will reemerge in better economic times.

The Jewish Roots / Kiryat Bialik Program is another. Some of our most deeply committed students meet with local non Yeshiva teens and (via videoconference) hiloni Israeli peers to understand each other's perspectives. For one week each year, we send students to Israel with a faculty mentor to actually live in the homes of these Israelis, and they reciprocate for a week as well.

In trying times, participating in demonstrations is crucial. We unite with our fellow Jews to support Israel, in good times as well as bad.We sent our Student Council Cabinet to New York to participate in anti-Achmedinijad rally at the UN this fall, and we participated in a communal show of support of Israel's Project Cast Lead this winter.

The lifestyle that we preach to our children is both empowering and restrictive. Kashrut, non- physical relationships between boys and girls, kipot, tzniut, and tefila frame what a child eats, wears, and does. For teenagers, who by their nature test limits, an observant Jewish lifestyle is a tall order. We ask a lot.

Programs which do not have our standards are huge challenges to expect a high school student to withstand. This is doubly true if they 24/7 and lengthy. They are only for students with a very strong sense of self and a solid religious identity.

Our Religious Zionist worldview requires us to walk a tightrope throughout our lives- remaining faithful to Torah observance while participating in the broader world. Though tightrope walking is dangerous, we believe that it is what G-d wants from us. May we be successful in teaching our children this high wire act about which we feel so strongly.

Shabbat Shalom

Rabbi Perry Tirschwell