Boyz II Mensches with Adam Teitelbaum
4/24/202651 min
Men are drifting, disconnected, and increasingly absent from communal life, argues longtime Jewish communal professional Adam Teitelbaum in his new essay, Boyz II Mensches. What does this mean for Jewish life, starting with the bar mitzvah?
On April 16, Rabbi David Wolpe sat down with Adam for a live virtual conversation where they explored how the bar mitzvah lost its power as a profound rite of passage, how to reclaim this foundational period in a boy’s life, and how to help Jewish boys eventually become Jewish men.
Read Adam’s essay in SAPIR**, Boyz II Mensches**: https://sapirjournal.org/aspiration-ii/2026/boyz-ii-mensches/
Watch the interview on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXczsCczOGg
Questions or comments? Send us a note at info@sapirjournal.org
Music from #Uppbeat: https://uppbeat.io/t/theo-gerard/monsieur-groove
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsAdam Teitelbaum· Guest0:00
[upbeat music] Understanding the way in which vulnerability shows up differently, especially for men, is something that we don't talk enough about. [upbeat music] Torah is a lot of understanding the ways in which men have messed up, and it's the teshuvah they do.
David Wolpe· Host0:17
Friends, welcome back to Sapir Conversations, where we discuss the very best ideas for a thriving Jewish future. I'm your host, Rabbi David Wolpe. Growing up in Philadelphia with three brothers was, for me, a wonderful experience. We would leave the house early in the morning, come back at dinner time. No one was worried where we had been or that we wouldn't come back intact. And also, we knew our place in the world, and we all felt like we had destinies and we had roles, and that was a comfortable feeling. Much has changed in the intervening years. These days, there's a pervasive sense in the broader culture, as well as in our own world, that something is amiss with the boys and young men of today. What the writers Richard Reeves and Robert Putnam termed, quote, "The boy crisis of twenty twenty-five." It's the sense that boys and young men are drifting, disconnected, and increasingly absent from communal life. They argue there's a male malaise when it comes to school and work. This dynamic ultimately translates into a crisis of connection and, worse,