Following an inspiring talk on Chanukah by Rabbi Moshe Hauer, executive vice president of the Orthodox Union, at Cong. Ohav Emeth in Highland Park in mid-December, I had the privilege of speaking with the guest speaker about the OU’s top priorities for 2025.
“The Orthodox Union is seriously focused on work that builds religious engagement across all ages,” said Rabbi Hauer. In that vein, the OU focuses considerable efforts on youth and a major area of expansion is the Jewish Student Union clubs (JSUs) in public high schools. Rabbi Hauer shared that while before Oct. 7, the OU had 300 JSUs across the U.S.; they now have nearly 400 JSUs. Participation and engagement in JSUs has increased markedly and the OU plans to continue to address this opportunity proactively.
The OU is also seeing a rewarding response to its efforts on college campuses and a growing need on Israeli college campuses. In the United States, the OU has placed Jewish Life Initiative on Campus (JLIC) rabbinic couples on 24 campuses with significant Jewish populations. The OU has noted a growth of yeshiva day school graduates who are choosing to pursue their undergraduate college studies in Israel; in prior years, this group represented 3% of day school graduates attending university and now it represents 19%. As a result, the OU now operates JLIC chapters on 12 campuses in Israel.
Another area of remarkable growth and promise is in the OU’s activities for Emerging Career Professionals (ECP), where the OU seeks to create a sense of community and places of connection. They have found this age cohort, which “is adjacent to those served by JLIC,” according to Rabbi Hauer, is underserved and represents a significant need. The OU has held ECP programming in New York City, Los Angeles and at its Israel Center in Jerusalem, all coordinated by ECP director Rebbetzin Sarah Proops, and intends to expand it in 2025.
The OU has earned a strong reputation for creating and disseminating digital tools for Torah education and looks to expand this suite of services. Their well-regarded tools include the apps All Mishnah Jr., All Daf (which includes a wealth of Daf Yomi resources), and All Halacha (which includes Kitzur Shulchan Yomi). Additional projects are expected to launch in 2025.
All the while, the OU remains steadfast in its commitment to the security of the Jewish community and the need for political advocacy. Rabbi Hauer identified the work of Nathan Diament, executive director of the OU Advocacy Center in Washington, and Maury Litwack, founder and CEO of Teach Coalition, which advocates on behalf of non-public schools for equitable government funding and resources, as high priorities of the OU. The efforts of their teams have shown strong results and the OU will continue to prioritize their work.
The OU has also developed a promising new initiative called Living Smarter Jewish (LSJ). This initiative creates opportunities to assist community members in managing the affordability of Jewish life; some programs in this area include individual counseling and financial coaching for newlyweds.
Lastly, the OU will continue to concentrate on its role as the leading representative of the Orthodox Jewish community and as a “voice for our values.” This includes its engagement within the broader Jewish world, the state of Israel and with other faith communities. Rabbi Hauer stated that this work is driven by a conviction that “We need the general community to better understand us.”
Harry Glazer is the Middlesex County Editor of The Jewish Link. He can be reached at [email protected] and he welcomes reader feedback.
