Leap of Faith: lowering the age of suffrage
What do our Jewish texts say about giving the vote to people at 16?
The last words of the Talmud’s opening Tractate, Berakhot (65a), include: “Rabbi Elazar reports that Rabbi Ḥanina said: ‘Torah scholars increase peace in the world, as it is said: And all your children [banayikh] shall be taught of the Eternal One, and great shall be the peace of your children.’ (Isaiah 54:13).”
The Sages interpreted this verse homiletically: “Do not read your children [banayikh], but your builders [bonayikh].”
The Rabbis understand that those who learn attain the wisdom to bring peace. Oh, if only that were truly the case through history! Still the principle is a foundation stone. Chinnuch (education) is seen in Judaism as both a parental responsibility and a communal one. Assuming that we are providing our children a solid foundation through education, is there is a Jewish case to be made for lowering the voting age to 16?
Progressive Judaism is in favour of youth empowerment. We encourage learning and active participation in the life of our communities. Our youth movements are semi-autonomous. Like the sages, we see our children as the builders of our legacy. We have always understood this but there was a distinct deference to the generation above in the last century. Perhaps that was when there were rarely more than two generations sat around a table. The two generations created a balance in leadership of communities, society, and in choosing the government of the day;whilst the older one assumed leadership roles in society.
With a changing demographic – an aging, longer-living population – that sees three generations of adults often sat around the table, perhaps we now face an imbalance; just another reason why we are struggling to look long-term and progress. In what I write there is no criticism of anyone, just a statement of fact.
In our household when three generations sit together, there is a widening gap of understanding and self-interest between the oldest and youngest generations. Knowing that they already face a tough future and a demographic weakness, neither of their own making, we often experience a depressed sigh or shrug from our children.
If we are true to the responsibility to educate our children, seeing them as the builders of our future and our legacy, why would we not enable more young people to vote? I am a father of two daughters, actively engaged with both our synagogue and youth movement LJY-Netzer, yet struggling to find optimism on how they will impact the society they will continue to inhabit when we are gone. It is time to give their generation a chance.
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