By David A.M. Wilensky
As readers of Reform Judaism magazine will recall, the RJ magazine's summer 2008 issue included a series of important questions regarding the Reform Movement and their answers as given by 30 adult members of the Reform Movement.

I'm currently at the URJ Kutz Camp with a group of people who will be the future lay and professional leadership of the Reform movement in North America. I'll be using many of them as well as many of the younger Kutz staff members this summer in a series of posts here on the RJ.org blog, in which I will be asking Reform high school and college students (and perhaps a few 20-somethings) for their take on Reform Judaism via questions similar to those used in the magazine.

Josh Levin lives in Sarasota, Florida.  He is a senior in high school.  This year Josh will be the Religious and Cultural Vice President for the North American Federation of Temple Youth's Southern Tropical Region. Josh has three summers of experience at the Kutz, NFTY's Campus for Reform Jewish Teens. Next year, he plans to attend the University of Florida.

What is significant about Reform Judaism? What sets us apart from other North American Jewish movements? How does that make us stronger? How does it make us weaker?
As Reform Jews, we need not feel obligated to our religion or yearn to fulfill every commandment (especially those we take moral issue with, see animal sacrifice or stoning). We need only take what connects us to Judaism and the Jewish people in modern times. This makes us stronger as we are forced to think and to choose for ourselves what from our tradition is for us in a modern world and what from our tradition is not, while maintaining that tradition for the next generation.

Why are you a Reform Jew? "Because my parents are" is a valid answer. If it is because your parents Reform, what has kept you involved in Reform Judaism?
My parents are Reform. More specifically, my mom wanted to convert, but not to orthodoxy.  Reform was the obvious choice. My ability to choose for myself and life as a modern person while maintaining my Judaism and connection to the Jewish people has kept me Reform.

Do you believe in God?
Yes.

How do you feel about Reform synagogue worship (or worship you've experienced through NFTY or Kesher or here or at other URJ camps) as it's practiced today?
The traditions are varied and widespread. That is one of the incredible parts of the Reform movement: there is no "right" way to conduct a prayer service. The only issue is people not understanding why the tradition is what it is, wherever they are praying.

Is social action central to your identity as a Reform Jew?
Social action is central to my identity as a person. Simply the experience of being a human being means to me that I should support other people.  Being a Reform Jew, I feel especially responsible to other Jews. "All Israel is Responsible for One Another" is one of my guiding principles as a Reform Jew.

Was the Bible written by God?
No.

How do you reconcile Torah teachings that may be inconsistent with your beliefs today?
Torah is an ancient book fundamental to the survival of the Jewish people.  But I have quite a bit of faith in the documentary hypothesis, so it is not a huge issue to me that Torah and the life standards of an ancient time past do not apply today.

Do you believe God hears our prayers?
Yes.  But it is up to us to carry out our own goals and dreams we contain in our prayers or we will be doomed to a passive life without any of those prayers being fulfilled.

When do you most experience or feel closest to God?
I feel that by creating good we bring ourselves closer to the divine, as everything God created was supposedly good.  So by taking responsibility for my own creation, I feel closest to God.

Is the State of Israel important to you and to your Jewish identity?
It is paramount in both.  Most peoples of the world have a state belonging to them.  This is true for the Jewish nationality as well.  Only thanks to Israel is it easy to understand "Jewish" as a nationality and us, Jews, as a people with a bond stronger than religion.

Looking to the future, what are the most significant challenges we face, as a Movement and as North American Jews?
Not speaking Hebrew, having a poor Jewish history education, and living in America without visiting Israel are the three issues of American Jewry that will connect us less to the Jewish people and more to the American people (or Canadian people).  If that trend continues, it will become harder for Jews living in America to identify themselves that way and easier and easier to just be American.  Assimilation, for all intents and purposes, is the biggest threat to American Jews.

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