I hope your first post-Thanksgivukkah Thanksgiving was a wonderful time to reconnect with family and friends. If you missed the latkes at your table, no need to panic – Chanukah is almost here!
Over the last few years we have spent a lot of time and effort building up the TE programs for our post bnei mitzvah teens. There was a gap left by the demise of Makom, our local community high school, but even before it disappeared, only a few TE teens would join its programs every year. Our Confirmation program continued to attract students, and we had a few teens stay on as teacher’s aids in school, but majority of our teens did not find it easy to engage with TE.
Two years ago we added a leadership course for our madrichim (teacher aids). Once a month they met with Olga Markus, learning leadership skills, discussing relevant topics and preparing to be a better presence in the classroom. This year, we added a new cohort of teens, while ‘graduating’ the first class to the level 2 of training -together with Olga they continue to explore the ongoing challenges and opportunities of Hebrew school classroom, run individual programs within our school, serve as excellent substitute teachers and teach our weekly Story House preschool class! In the meantime, yesterday’s bnei mitzvah students have become an excellent addition to our school, as they learn to help our younger students with Hebrew and activities. I cannot begin to tell you how proud I am of all our teen helpers, our wonderful madrichim, and the leaders they are becoming right in front of our eyes!
While school leadership program is extremely successful, it is also important to acknowledge that this kind of a program is not every teen’s choice – and so we have added a ‘Rabbi, How do I…?’ video class, expertly led by Noah Simon, himself a TE teen, where teens create short videos on timely Jewish subjects – we are currently working on displaying their work on TE website.
Last but not least, our joint program for teens with Congregation Mishkan Israel and Temple Beth David continues to go from strength to strength – this year’s: ‘Open Doors, Open Minds: a dialogue among Jews, Christians and Muslims’ brings the teens from our three communities together once a month, exploring the very important reality of interfaith work and providing a welcome opportunity to get to know Jewish teens from other communities. On December 7 we will make our first interfaith visit to St. Barbara Greek Orthodox Church in Orange, where we will attend the service, meet with teens to learn about Greek Orthodox religious traditions and have a chance to ask questions of Fr. Peter Orfanakos.
I am extremely proud of all of our teens, and grateful to all TE members who continue to encourage and support this most important work for the future of our people.
Look forward to celebrating the Festival of Lights with you all at our annual Shabbat Chanukah on Dec 19 at 6pm – don’t forget your chanukkiah and let’s fill our sanctuary with light! Make sure that you sign up for dinner too, so that we have enough food for everyone!