Every parent and educator I talk to asks the same question: "How do we help young people navigate social media and AI when we're still figuring it out ourselves?" Studies on teen mental health and screen time are alarming, and legislative guardrails are slow to materialize while kids are using tools like ChatGPT for schoolwork and scrolling feeds that shape how they see themselves and each other. The urgency is real, but the frameworks for addressing it are still catching up.
Jewish summer camp is one of the few places where young people can step away from their regular lives; experiment with who they want to be; and grow in a structured, supportive environment. Free from grades and standardized tests and guided by near-peer counselors, campers have room to wrestle with big questions. Jewish values (middot) provide a ready-made framework for the complexities these technologies introduce; camp is where that framework can come alive.
This summer, campers, counselors in training, and staff at URJ 6 Points Sci-Tech Academy will work through a new program: "The Digital Mensches Initiative." Participants will examine 10 core Jewish values and how they apply to the ways we use social media and AI. This experience is designed to foster honest conversation and self-reflection. All participants will offer their own feedback on the process after completing the program, helping them build a sense of ownership throughout the endeavor.
At the heart of the initiative is a set of 10 "commandments," each pairing a Jewish value with a concrete application to digital life. Here are just a few examples:
- Shmirat HaL'shon (Guard your tongue): The prohibition against harmful speech extends to AI-assisted communication. If you use a chatbot to draft a message, you are still responsible for every word it produces. An algorithm cannot absolve you of l'shon hara.
- Tikkun Olam (Repair the world): Powerful digital tools should serve the work of repair. AI consumes real energy and resources. Use technology for tikkun, not just convenience.
- Shabbat (Observe a digital Shabbat): Step away from screens. AI companions are always available, which makes intentional disconnection both harder and more necessary. A chatbot is not a friend.
- Arevut (Take responsibility for your learning): Torah is acquired through effort, teachers, and community…not shortcuts ( Pirkei Avot 6:6). Let what you present reflect your real mind and your real work.
The remaining commandments address dignity online, pursuing truth, providing honest attribution, protecting privacy, observing basic digital decency, and showing the irreplaceable value of genuine human kindness.
What makes this more than a list of rules is the companion study guide, built around chevrutah (partner study) activities, role-play scenarios, and guided reflections. This same model has anchored Jewish learning for centuries: two people sitting together with a text, pushing each other's thinking, and arriving at an understanding through dialogue. The study guide addresses questions about deepfakes, digital privacy, and the ethics of AI-generated work. This way, the learning feels authentically Jewish in method and in vocabulary.
The 10 commandments and study guide were initially built for Sci-Tech Academy, but they are designed to work in schools, synagogues, community centers, and anywhere else Jews gather in thoughtful community. Summer camp is an ideal place to experiment and refine this material, but the larger hope is for this initiative to help inform perspectives and practices well beyond camp for staff, families, and adults navigating the same uncharted territory.
Public sentiment and responses to AI are extremely diverse, by both civil and religious organizations. On one extreme, advocates are championing AI as the solution to our societal ills, while on the other, AI is said to be responsible for the impending breakdown of society. One thing is clear to me: AI is not going away. It is now a part of our technological milieu and it is incumbent upon us to learn how to use it in a way that is consistent with our values.
I keep coming back to something Rav Kook (1865-1935) said in a letter to one of his students: we must "renew the old and sanctify the new." That's what this initiative strives to do. The wisdom in Jewish tradition is timeless. The question is whether we can bring it to bear in digital spaces where so much of life now happens. Camp is where we will start finding out.
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