Who was the "RH" of HUC's School of Education? Why This Honor, When?

This was posted by my teacher, Rabbi Stephen Arnold (OSRUI, Kallah Aleph '72) - Ira Wise '91 

Chaverai, 

RHSOE: Who was the "RH" of HUC's School of Education?  Why This Honor, When?  Rhea Hirsch, of course!  Any graduate of our alma mater's LA campus knows that!   But how many of them -- or the rest of us -- know anything about why she is so honored?

American Jewish Archives to the rescue!

Rhea Hirsch was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1878. Hirsch came under the influence of Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise and the Reform Movement and was inspired to attend Hebrew Union College. She was one of the college's first students to receive a teacher's certificate.

After the loss of her husband in New York, she came to Los Angeles in 1940. When the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC) founded its College of Jewish Studies at the Wilshire Temple in 1947 as the forerunner to the present Rhea Hirsch School of Education, Hirsch enrolled the first semester and continued to be a student each year for the remainder of her life.

In the ensuing years she attended classes regularly, taking over one hundred-twenty units of Jewish studies concerning every course offered by the school. Her zeal and scholarship brought her citations both from the UAHC College of Jewish Studies and the School of Education which was named in her honor in 1969. 

Rhea Hirsch had two children, Kingdon Hirsch and Rebel Dunsay. She died in Los Angeles, California in 1970.

I'll buy an ice cream sundae for anyone who already knew her bio, and will be attending our next NAORRR Convention from January 2-6, 2014 at the Wyndham in Orlando, FL.

Steve Arnold, Cincinnati '61 

(Who knows what happens west of the Mississippi?!)

Using the ATM to Bring Teens into Temple

The entire American Jewish world, it seems, is focused on how to engage or reengage the younger generations of Jews. Foundations are funding, denominations are discussing, and Federations and synagogues are searching for the latest and greatest strategies to engaging these lost generations. Our own Union for Reform Judaism kicked off its Campaign for Youth Engagement, on the theory that unless we engage young people in their early years, we surely will lose them in their later high school years and beyond.

While the solution to this contemporary challenge necessarily needs to be multi-pronged and multi-focal, at Congregation Or Ami in Calabasas, CA we have stumbled upon some success in the most unlikely of places: at the A.T.M.

Paying Jewish Kids to Play?
For most of us, A.T.M. refers to the computerized kiosk which dispenses cash. Young people are drawn to them second only to their parent's credit card. At Congregation Or Ami, our teens do seek out A.T.M., not for money, but instead to make deposits (of their talent) to the temple.

At Or Ami, A.T.M. stands for "Art, Theater, Music," a teen engagement program that is part of our constellation of teen activities known at the temple as Triple T: Tracks for Temple Teens. Inspired by the URJ's Campaign for Youth Engagement and by similar programs at URJ Camp Newman's Hagigah Festival, A.T.M. begins with a simple premise: that many young people find expression and relief from stress through arts and music, and we, the Jewish community, need to capitalize on that reality. (Read about our Future Coaches track: Saving the Jewish People... On the Sports Field.)

Creating Their Own Production Company
A few times a month, a diverse group of 7th-11th graders meet with a talented Jewish musician, and sometimes also with a young actress. Following a semester's study of trends in Jewish arts, theater and music, our teens explored a variety of Jewish topics, settling on the issue of Jewish identity as their focus. Through class discussions and values clarification exercizes, they delved into the multitude of experiences which influence Jewish identity development. Then the teens labored to create their own musical theater production.

As a group the teens wrote and edited a script, and utilized multimedia - music, singing, rap, video and more - to articulate the story of a teen developing her Jewish identity. Background sets were painted, props collected, stage hands selected, and costumes created. Their regularly scheduled A.T.M. sessions were supplemented with extra rehearsals during their free time.

A Festival of Jewish Arts
Rabbi Julia Weisz beautifully wove the A.T.M. musical theater production into a teen-led Shabbat service, forming Or Ami's first Festival of Jewish Arts. Teens from all the Triple T tracks, joined parents and temple leadership, for this multimedia service.

The service began with a video presentation in which one student (who happens to be on the autism spectrum) interviewed other students about their experience in A.T.M. Throughout the service, teens from other Triple T tracks led prayers after introducing them with kavannot (inspirational creative writings) on the theme "What prayer means to me." We were particularly inspired as one teen, whose father is fighting cancer, shared his interpretation of the Mi Shebeirach prayer for healing and then led us in the healing prayer. The musical theater production, a modern drash if you will, was engaging and inspirational.

The Kvelling Began As the Curtain Came Down
Our teens, their parents, and our entire temple community kvelled continuously that night and in the nights that followed, as each tried to capture the essence of the Jewish experience that embraced their teenage children. The comments from three parents are indicative of what we are hearing:

Parent Lesli Kraut: I was very inspired by the Festival of Jewish Arts Shabbat Service. Remembering back to when I was a teenager, my parents forced me to be involved in a local youth group chapter. I didn't want to go and definitely did not feel like I belonged. Our teens, including my own son Andrew, want to be at Temple. They are engaged, excited and most of all comfortable with their Judaism. It is so wonderful watching them interact with each other and knowing that they share a special bond and a sense that they definitely belong. Thank you, Congregation Or Ami!

Parent Mike Moxness: When my son Aaron presented his interpretation of the Mi Sheberach and led the prayer, I couldn't stop the tears from falling. I have been living with advanced cancer for the past year and I have always taken great solace in this part of the service. It exemplifies the caring community of Or Ami and I truly believe that all the prayers offered up on my behalf have helped me survive. Having Aaron sing those words brought up strong feelings of gratefulness for all the support we have received. I am especially grateful for the home our kids have found in Or Ami's youth programs. It provides a place of comfort in this turbulent world. All teenagers face many challenges, and letting them express their thoughts without judgement is incredibly important. It is difficult for most kids to talk about painful experiences, however, giving my son the podium for a few minutes in front of a supportive community helped the healing continue.

Parent Addy Chulef-Mindel: I want to let you know that after the Festival of Jewish Arts Shabbat Service, my daughter Jessie said, "I feel that Or Ami is my second family..." We are thrilled that we joined Or Ami, and Jessie looks forward to continuing to make new friends and doing Tikkun Olam (acts which fix the world). Having the feeling of community, and the opportunity to help and give back is where Jessie finds meaning--and that's what Congregation Or Ami is all about.

So Go Ahead
Ask the A.T.M. teens what they accomplished at the Festival of Jewish Arts. They might say that they put on a musical play. They might respond that they made great friends and had a lot of fun. But we know better.

In the midst of the scripts and the sets and the rehearsals, our teens utilized their artistic and musical talents to grapple with what it means to be Jewish. All within the context of a Jewish night for teens. Although we did not pay them to participate, they each came away with something even more valuable:  A deeper understanding of their Jewish identity.

Cross posted at Or Am I?

What is a “Camp-Like” Approach?: Bringing the Magic from Cabins to Classrooms

Michelle and family at Eisner Camp

Twenty years ago, I walked in to my first Religious School teaching job.  I had just finished an amazing summer as a camp counselor at URJ Camp Swig and was filled with ideas.  On that first day of school I covered the walls with giant posters of text, created a massive pair of sunglasses hanging from the ceiling, handed out black ray-ban knock-offs, and challenged my students to “wear their sunglasses at night” as they went on a scavenger hunt by flashlight to uncover how the Torah could “shine light” on their daily lives.  

During that school year I would use every programming technique that I had learned at camp – basketball games with changed rules to explore Jewish leadership styles, group art work to imagine modernized Torah scrolls, and wrap-up discussions around fake camp fires.   My students enjoyed themselves and learned, as did I.  But in the end, I couldn’t help but feel that I was missing something.  Despite integrating the best informal and experiential education models that I knew, in the end it was just religious school.  A good year for everyone – but still just a better-than-average isolated year of supplemental education.

In my professional life now as a Jewish Camp Consultant I am often asked how to bring the magic of camp in to schools and synagogues.  Indeed, recent articles on ejewishphilanthropy.com, jesna.org, and other blog rolls suggest that this is a “hot topic.”  When people ask this question, they often share with me stories much like my own – stories of bringing in the best experiential programming, but still falling short of the life-impacting outcomes that they crave.   Despite bringing in the program, the “magic” is missing.
When we began the Foundation for Jewish Camp Specialty Camp Incubator, Adam Weiss (Cohort 1 Project Director) and I talked a lot about the magic of camp.  Indeed, we had a unique opportunity to work with camp directors to create new cultures and new camps.  To be successful, the Specialty Camps needed to intertwine high level specialty education with Jewish celebration and learning in a seamless synergistic relationship.   In order to support them in this task, we needed to break down, articulate and plan what was usually accepted as just the “magic” of the camp experience.

As we worked with the Incubator camps, we realized that there was a continuum of strategies at play. On one end of the continuum was what we came to call “Surface Strategies.”  Surface Strategies refer to the planned camp activities that campers and staff organize.  Activities that fall on this end of the continuum have overt goals and occur at a scheduled time of the day or week.  These activities can be isolated, one-shot programs, or “linked curriculum” with ongoing activities that occur regularly and seek to foster accumulated knowledge or developing skill.  When driven by outcomes and meaningful content, Surface Strategies can be powerful tools for building Jewish identity and knowledge.   They can and often do utilize the best of experiential education – they are active, learner centered, have opportunities for growth and challenge the campers.   These Surface Strategies are relatively easy to integrate in to synagogue settings and are often held up as the model when schools try to be “more like camp.”  Indeed, it is this type of programming that I introduced in my first classroom, and that many have referred to in their articles and blogs.

However, when we stop at Surface Strategies, we miss the other end of the continuum that camp people know is where the “real magic” lays – Embedded Strategies.    Activities on this end of the continuum are not on the daily schedule, but lie below the surface of camp and define the camp environment and experience.  When utilized with intentionality, like Surface Strategies, Embedded Strategies are powerful tools for forming identity.   Indeed, without them, camp loses its impact.  Strategies on this end of the continuum include intentional role modeling, relationship building, rituals, utilizing Jewish teachable moments, aspirational arcs and creating sacred spaces.    Making schools more like camp is not just about integrating experiential education techniques (though these are important), it is about wielding the power of Embedded Strategies and taking advantage of every asset camp offers, to create communities where Judaism is a living, vibrant reality.

At intentionally crafted camps, counselors are prepared not to just teach, but to create meaningful relationships with their campers and fellow staff members.  They are told the importance of getting to know the kids, and are encouraged to share their love and excitement for Judaism casually throughout the day.   Campers are told that camp is a place you make “life-long friends,” and the entire institution supports this goal.   Rituals are intentionally crafted to touch souls, and frame days and weeks.   The Dining Hall is the Chadar Ochel, and Hebrew becomes the “secret language” of camp.  Campers know that when they come back every year they will have more privileges and responsibilities, from later bedtimes to running Maccabiah.  Staff tell campers that they are “being a mensch,” and “showing kavod” when they help a friend, and everyone cries while they pack their bags and head home.  These Embedded Strategies don’t happen by chance – they are intentionally crafted, outcome focused, and reinforced in staff development and daily decisions.

If we truly hope to learn from camp how to create synagogues and school based education programs that impact lives, than we need to utilize the entire continuum of intentional strategies.   We need to go beyond just program, and ask ourselves questions such as:

• Who do we hire to work in our congregations and schools and how do support them in building relationships, being role models, and sharing their own Jewish journeys?
  
• What rituals do we craft that frame the experience and are impactful, relevant and engaging?
  
• How do we foster a community that views Jewish learning and celebration as positive, meaningful, and on-going?
  
• How do we build aspirational arcs where students and adults see the potential for growth with expanding learning opportunities, privileges and responsibilities?
  
• What unique assets do schools and congregations have and how can we leverage these assets to impact Jewish identity building?
  

From Family Education tracks to hybrid Daycare/Hebrew Schools, new models of supplemental education are emerging across the Jewish world.  Though these new models and approaches are exciting and hold great potential – they are no more or less powerful than trees, lakes and cabins.   What creates “summers that last a lifetime” isn’t just the setting or program model.  Summers that last a lifetime are intentionally crafted below the surface, cultivating magic, interaction by interaction.

Ray-ban knock-offs, however, are always helpful.

Yom HaShoah & the Jewish American experience, a new resource

by Laura Novak Winer '94

As Jewish educators, we are always looking for new resources.  I have one I'd like to recommend!

My Mother's Wars is Lillian Faderman's portrayal of her mother's experience as a single woman struggling to survive in the New York garment industry as her Latvian family across the ocean struggles to survive growing anti-Semitism and the impending Holocaust.

Dr. Lillian Faderman is a long time resident of Fresno. I recently had the honor of meeting and getting to know her.  A retired professor of English at Fresno State, she was a trail blazer for women entering academia in the 1960s and 70s.  She was a trail blazer in developing the fields of Women's Studies and Gay Studies.  I am told by my lesbian friends that her books on lesbian history are required reading for any woman in the process of coming out.

This book is very different though. It is personal.  Lillian tells, with "emotional truth" the story of her mother's experience as a poor immigrant in New York City who not only struggles to survive on her own,  but also struggles to save her family back in Latvia. My Mother's Wars offers a perspective on the Holocaust that is timely and issues an ethical call for today.

I am sure that Lillian did not intend for My Mother's Wars to be a book primarily about the Holocaust. She wrote the book as a means of understanding her mother's life and the choices that ultimately led her to become the strong, troubled, all-loving mother that she was.  Yet, for those of us who can view Mary's life from the outside, Lillian gives witness to the experience many of our families lived and endured.  Watching and waiting, in pain and sorrow, feeling helpless as family members across the ocean fought a too-often loosing battle for survival.

Through My Mother's Wars we see the power of the media, film and print. We see the impact those media portrayals had on Americans' understanding of the war and the Third Reich.  Each chapter begins with "Time on the March", excerpts from real-time newsreels and newspapers.  As we read the transcripts of the newsreels Mary would have seen each time she went to the movies, we are transported to that time and place. We feel the increasing tension in Germany and Eastern Europe. We read of the United States' reluctance to get involved.  And from these emotionless news clips Lillian leads us into Mary's own experience as she palpably feels the helplessness and impending doom to befall her family.

For Mary, it sometimes took months to get news from her family.  Footage shown in the movie houses was sometimes weeks old.  But for us today, in the age of Twitter and live-streaming, we receive news as it is happening. One might rationalize that back in the 1930's-40's we didn't really get the full story of what was happening.  (Though I wouldn't...)  But today we do not have that excuse.

We live with memory of the human rights failures of many countries, political and religious leaders, who stood idly by while Hitler and the Nazis devastated thousands of communities, murdering 6 million Jews and millions of  Soviets, Poles, homosexuals, people with disabilities, Jehovah's Witnesses and others.

Today, when we say "never again", we have no excuse to ignore human and civil rights violations happening in our world, in our back yards. Whether it is battles over civil rights here in the US, genocide in Sudan or Congo or crimes against gays and women in Uganda, the news is IRL, in real life and in real-time.

My Mother's Wars is a powerful story that can spark conversation and learning with teens and adults.  It can serve as a rich jumping off point for learning about the Holocaust, the experience of Jews in America during the war, the struggles of immigrants to America, Jewish American culture during the 1930's-40's, our Jewish responsibility to fight for civil and human rights. Pairing a study of some of these areas with a relevant social action project would be a fitting tribute to Mary's family, and all of our families lost in the Shoah.

Adapted from blog posted at rabbilnw.com

What do you say to your kid when...?

What do you say to your kid when...?

This was a frequently asked question last night at Congregation Or Ami's Center for Jewish Parenting program on talking with your kids about sex and sexual ethics where I had the honor of being the guest teacher.

What do you say to your kid when he asks what you did when you were his age?

What do you say to your 13 year old before she heads off to sleep-away camp for the first time?

What do you say to your daughter when she sees something overtly sexual on TV that perhaps she doesn't understand?

What do you say to the carpool kids in the back seat of the car when they are talking about whose hooking up and whose "doing it"?

What do you say to your son when he asks, "How do I know when I am ready to have sex?"

Such hard and scary questions.  Such real questions. We've all been there as parents, aunts, uncles, go-to-adults in the lives of our youth.  And if we haven't been there yet, we inevitably will be.

As I guided this group of sensitive, open-minded, and eager-to-find-guidance group of parents through our conversation about Jewish values and Jewish sexual ethics, we came to some really important understandings about navigating our way through this part of parenthood.

1. There are no cookie-cutter answers to any of these questions.  Answers come from our own hearts, from our understanding of the role that Judaism plays in our lives, from our articulation of what we believe and what we want our children to hold as their beliefs.  As one parent succinctly put it: My response to my child always begins with "this is what our family does."

2. Answers are based on what a child is ready to hear and ready to understand.  Listening to their verbal cues and observing their reaction is important. One parent shared her experience of reading a book with her daughter about relationships and sex. She said to her daughter, "We will read this together each night. We will read as long as you feel comfortable.  Once you've said 'awkward!'(said in that adolescent lilt) three times, we will stop for the night." Slowly, but surely, they made their way through the book together, had meaningful conversations, and did it at her daughter's pace.

3. As my colleague Rev. Debra Haffner has said, it's not about the "big talk." It's about laying a foundation in which our kids know that the door is always open for conversation.  When we build relationships with our children that are open to dialogue and safe conversation, our kids are more likely to come to us with their questions and concerns.  This begins when they are very young and God-willing will continue throughout their lives.

4. Sometimes the best answer to a question is a question.  How rabbinic. Rather than pontificating or giving hard and fast answers that shut down conversation, we should help our kids explore and understand their own questions. What are they really asking? What do they think? How do they feel? In this gentle way, we guide and teach our kids to hear what their own inner voice is telling them.  When we do this, we give our kids the skills they need to listen to that inner voice that will always be with them - even when we aren't.

5. Always say "I LOVE YOU."  No matter what the question, no matter what the dilemma our kids face, we must always, always let them know that we love them, and will always love them.  Our kids will make mistakes.  They will have regrets.  Knowing that we are always there for them, that we will always love them - no matter what those mistakes - is vital for their growth and development into healthy, strong self-sufficient adults.

Cross posted from rabbilnw.com

Reform Rabbis Respond to Seismic Shifts

At CCAR convention, our Reform Rabbis recently responded to seismic shifts in the Jewish world. Through study and conversation, takeaways emerged as to what would make a successful rabbi in this continually shifting world. How many of these are relevant to "educators of excellence" and in what ways?

The Jewish world is undergoing tremendous shifts, the train has already left the station, and we rabbis have an opportunity and a choice.
by Paul Kipnes '91

A paradigm shift is overtaking the American Reform Rabbinate. This is not the first time we have encountered such seismic pressures; yet the intensity far surpasses anything I have before experienced in my 21 years as a rabbi. Uniquely, the annual convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis confronted these shifts head on.

The Jewish World is Changing… Rapidly
Recent literature has been slowly nibbling around at the edges, suggesting that as the world was changing, so too the American Jewish world was changing. Hayim Herring addresses it; Dr. Ron Wolfson does too. The CCAR Journal devoted a whole issue to it (New Visions of Jewish Community, co-edited by Rabbi Alan Henkin and myself). Like everyone else, rabbis are struggling to figure it out.

We are confronted by the perfect storm: an economic downturn which is siphoning off resources from the Jewish community at an alarming rate; the community’s aging which, as Rabbi Richard Address has been warning us, is creating new pressures on the community; the pervasiveness of technology which is flattening the preexisting hierarchies of Torah study and ritual life and obviating the need for a synagogue for so many people; and the increasing disengagement of younger generations of Jews from the organized Jewish community.

Addressing the Economy, Relevance, and Technology
So when 600 reform rabbis and their spouses and partners gathered in Long Beach, CA for the CCAR  convention, we were primed for learning. On one level we rabbis did everything we have done in the past: experienced inspiring worship, engaged in thought-provoking Torah study, and grappled with the latest perspectives on Israel, social justice, youth work and the like. On a more pervasive level, each rabbi at the convention, and the group as a whole, struggled openly and humbly with these titanic shifts in the Jewish world.

After a year of sharing stories of shifting economic priorities, concerns about the relevance of synagogues and the denominational movements, and questions about technology changing human interactions, we embraced our mutual desire to work together to shift focus, skills and intentions so that rabbis can lead our communities and places of work through the era of rapid change.

In large group presentations, intimate intentional conversations, and professionally facilitated seminars, we endeavored to define the shifts taking place in our Jewish and secular worlds. We explored how we could face those changes, working together, to lead the Jewish community forward.

Unorthodox Presentations at a Non-Orthodox Convention
In this pursuit, we learned from an unorthodox bunch of presenters. A filmmaker, a politician and a doctor (acclaimed documentary filmmaker Tiffany Schlain, and LA Board of Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, and UCLA Hospitals CEO David Feinberg) spoke about how narrative, community building and the pursuit of customer service excellence could lead us through the shifts. A genetic testing web company founder and a Facebook VP (Anne Wojcicki, co-founder and CEO of 23andMe and Marne Levine, Vice President, Global Public Policy at Facebook) illuminated realities and issues raised by the prevalence of technology in our lives; they urged us to face these shifts by embracing the technologies and the conversations that must follow.

In separate sessions, an Emmy award winning TV producer (Howard Gordon of 24 and Homeland fame), a Pulitzer Prize winning author (Michael Chabon of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, The Yiddish Policeman’s Union and Telegraph Avenue fame), and nationally-known Jewish newspaper editor-in-chief (Rob Eshman of the Los Angeles Jewish Journal) explored the use of narrative storytelling to capture and mold the experiences we seek to explain and perpetuate.

We reenvisioned the conversation about Israel with the help of Los Angeles-based Israel Consul General David Siegel, who as part of the Prime Minister’s inner circle is able to bring forward his insights on Jewish pluralism. Siegel is the son of the conservative rabbi who created the Israeli conservative Masorti movement and a member of a Progressive Jewish synagogue. The perspectives of a bevy of Israeli Progressive rabbis made it clear that colossal shifts were happening vis-a-vie religious pluralism in Israel while simultaneously we may be seeing a drawing closer to Israel by American Jews.

Reform CA: Organizing a Jewish Religious Voice for Justice
Most significantly, we gave birth to two new community organizing movements, each seeking to transform the pursuit of social justice, one in California and the other throughout the United States. First, we officially founded Reform CA, a movement of Reform Rabbis and Jews dedicated to ensuring that our Jewish values have a voice in the pursuit of a better California. Simultaneously we created Rabbis Organizing Rabbis as a nation-wide group committed to serious social justice activism through the prism of pluralistic progressive Reform Jewish values. Both groups recognize that with the world changing so quickly, there is a need for steady, value-based perspectives  to guide us toward truth and right in the face of power and might. Both groups agreed to address comprehensive immigration reform as our first issue, with the Trust Act as the Californian effort of choice.

Addressing the Shift
Too soon the convention ended, leaving us to ponder: what ideals, perspectives or knowledge will help guide us forward?  I suggest five:

• Listening is Key: As Dr. Ron Wolfson’s new book Relational Judaism suggests, successful rabbis need to spend more time listening to our congregants or members and their concerns. Such conversations will enable us to connect up individuals with each other, creating communities of shared concerns.
• Community Conversations Build Relationships: Since individuals are able to access learning online and ritual as a fee-for-service experience, successful rabbis will strive to facilitate conversations within the community over a wide swath of issues. These conversations build relationships, increase commitment, and deepen the connection to everything from Torah to ritual to issues of personal importance.
• Torah is Real: As always, the narratives of Torah provide poignant touchstones to the realities of our lives. Successful rabbis will use everything the world has to offer – video, conversation, outside-of-synagogue locations, social media, personal storytelling and more to invite the Jew out of the pew to read him/herself into Torah and our Jewish tradition.
• Technology Tells the Story: Jeremiah Knight, noted marketing/advertising expert and brother of convention chair Rabbi Asher Knight, illustrated how successful social media campaigns tell stories, invite simple but meaningful actions and provide constant connection to the story and the values they embody. Successful rabbis embrace social media for what it is: a primary means of connection and learning for multiple successive generations of people. Instead of arguing pilpul – whether online interactions are as significant and real as in-person connections – successful rabbis will utilize everything at our fingertips to connect, engage, listen and learn.
• The Personal Trumps the Programmatic: While we crave meaningful experiences of learning and dynamic ritual, most Jews eschew programs which seek to teach or transform. Successful rabbis will shift the shape of Jewish engagement from “programmatic” to “relational.” As Rabbi Kerry Olitzky, CEO of Jewish Outreach Institute, has been teaching for years, successful rabbis move beyond their desks to stake out public space – in the foyer, the youth lounge, the local bookstore, the supermarket kosher aisle and the coffee shop – to meet people where they are.

There are so many more lessons with which we must grapple; these are but five. Perhaps the take-away from the CCAR Convention is this: the Jewish world is undergoing tremendous shifts, the train has already left the station, and we rabbis have an opportunity and a choice: to face the reality and embrace the possibilities, or to ignore and become even more irrelevant.
As Torah teaches, u’vacharta bachaim, we ought to choose that which bring Judaism back to life.

Rabbi Paul Kipnes is rabbi of Congregation Or Ami, Calabasas, California and blogs at Or Am I?

Epic Israel! My Summer Plans

A few weeks ago the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, in partnership with the Jewish Agency for Israel and the  BJE: Builders of Jewish Education in Los Angeles, CA announced the establishment of a new summer program in Israel for high school teens, Epic Israel.  I am honored and excited to be the program leader for this trip. You might think its crazy that I would want to spend 4 weeks in Israel with a group of 16-18 year olds. But here's why I am looking forward to this trip!

Our tagline for the trip is:

 Your first trip to Israel should be epic, right?  Thanks to Epic Israel, it will be!

Ask any adult who participated in a trip to Israel as a teen, or any teen who has recently returned from a trip, and you will hear how memorable and transformative (read: epic) an experience they had.  Individuals who travel to Israel on teen trips return home with stronger friendships, stronger connections to Israel and stronger connections to Judaism.  Such expressions of transformation are not just anecdotal.  Research has shown that there is a “correlation between participating in an Israel trip and strengthened indicators of Jewish identity.”  (For those interested in learning more about this research on Israel Experiences check out “The Israel Experience” from The Aleph Bet of Israel Education developed by The iCenter.)

What is it about being in Israel that leads to this impact?  It is Israel itself.  The Israel Experience allows that which was only previously accessible through words on a page or pixels on a screen to come to life.  The Israel Experience gives participants the opportunity to learn about Israel in Israel – to see the sites, the people, the historic and the modern, to learn in a manner only feasible when standing in there in real time and place. 

When we are in Israel we can stand at the place where Abraham stood when God told him to take Isaac up to the mountain to sacrifice him. When we are in Israel we can walk on the same cobblestones our ancestors traversed when bringing their goods to the ancient markets in Jerusalem.  When we are in Israel we can sit on the shore of Lake Kinneret, reading poetry of the early 20^th century poet Rachel. When we are in Israel we can experience the art, the music, the flavors, the vibe of the country in real time rather than through YouTube or the Food Network channel. When we are in Israel we can meet, connect, dialogue and learn with Israelis who embody the joy and challenges of life in the Jewish State each and every day.

Why a teen Israel Experience? With that experience, our teens learn about Israel. With that experience, our teens learn about themselves and what Israel and Judaism means to them.  With that experience, our teens explore their personal identity and come to see themselves as part of the ongoing story of the Jewish people.

Epic means memorable. Epic means legendary. Epic means transformative. Our teens who participate in Epic Israel will come home saying, “That was epic!” And they will mean it.

Laura Novak Winer, '94
Cross posted from rabbilnw.com

What If the Model Isn’t Broken? Using the Congregational Religious School as it was intended to be used

Lynn Lancaster is Education Director at the Forest Hills Jewish Center. She is also one of the sharpest Jewish educators I have ever met. We became friends when we both were invited to be mentors in the Leadership Institute. And today she was faster than me. She found this excellent article on eJewish Philanthropy and sent it off to me before I even looked at my e-mail. Well played, Lynn!

I agree with nearly everything Steve Kerbel says. And he makes a key point: the success or failure of any model of Jewish education rises and falls on the commitment of the parents. If we are successful in helping them to make Jewish learning and living as a part of a sacred community a priority, then everything will work and the opportunities for us to be spectacular increase. 

Many who want to blow things up seem to think that doing so will allow us to reach more adults and help them choose to prioritize things in this manner. Others suggest that doing so is giving up on getting most folks to prioritize Jewish living over suburban (or urban) life in general, and so we might as well make it as attractive as we can so we can get at least some of their attention.
In either case, I think Kerbel is refocusing the conversation in a manner that makes sense. 

What do you think?

Ira Wise, '91

---

Steve Kerbel

What if the model isn’t broken?

by Steve Kerbel

I have spent my adult life, even when pursuing other career choices, involved in Jewish education. I spent twenty years on the informal side, staffing and writing study materials for youth groups and Jewish camps, teaching in religious schools, tutoring b’nai mitzvah, and eventually teaching in day schools and leading two congregational religious schools for the last 18 years. I am a product of two excellent day schools, USY and several fine Jewish summer camps.

A few weeks ago, on a Shabbat morning, events converged in the sanctuary of the suburban Washington, DC congregation where I now work that lead me to believe that the congregational model of education might just work, if it’s used properly. Like any tool, you get different results if the tool is in the hands of an experienced craftsman versus a weekend warrior. Allow me to expand the thought.

Two smachot occurred, an auf ruf of a couple who met in the 4th grade of our religious school, and a bat mitzvah of one of our students. This was not the ordinary student, by any definition. She is gifted with a beautiful voice, she is poised and mature. But she has also been in synagogue most shabbatot since she was two weeks old. Her family welcomes Shabbat every week, builds a Sukkah and invites guests to share in its use, her father blows shofar on the High Holidays. When this family’s younger son had a conflict between weekday religious school and his Tae Kwon Do class, it was the Tae Kwan Do that yielded to religious school, not the other way around. The children in this family attend a Jewish content summer camp for four weeks every summer.

I contend that this is the right way to use the Congregational religious school model. You participate in services and activities, you take a role, you bring your Judaism into your home and you carry it out again, sharing it with others. This student led all of Kabbalat Shabbat on Friday evening, led the Torah service, read all 8 aliyot and led the congregation in Musaf. Not a typical suburban bat mitzvah. This was a religious school student, not a day school student. To me, it was a lesson in what can be, when we put a product to its best, intended use.

There is a lot of discussion and dissent in the education and lay communities that the model is failed, its failing most families, its tired, I’ve even heard that it needs to be blown up. The model as designed has the potential for success; to create comfort, confidence and community. The model can create committed, literate, striving Jews who integrate Jewish rhythms into their daily lives. We can connect our people to our living texts, we can teach about the sanctity of people and the sanctity of time, we might even improve the quality of our families’ lives. The cost is family buy-in and involvement. If you commit to raising a serious Jew the same way you commit to a serious musician or athlete, it takes what all these people talk about: participation, cheering your kid on, modeling healthy behavior, and yes, as any concert musician or Olympian will tell you, sacrifice. All those athlete profiles we watched from London this summer moved our emotions about how the athlete’s families have to sacrifice for the success of their child. I think we have to create this same expectation for our families if they want to commit to raising successful Jews.

The problem, however, is that the vast percentage of families involved in congregational education are the equivalent of those who take music lessons or participate in a sport and do not become, nor do they have any aspirations to become, concert musicians or Olympians. What models can we adapt or create to attract and retain these families as active, engaged and continuing participants in Jewish communal life?

The ‘model is broken’ conversation comes from the growing acceptance that, although we know what could work, we have been unsuccessful in convincing our audience. We are constantly in the position of the salesman who ‘successfully’ sells the car except for one small problem – the customer doesn’t buy it. The search for alternatives to the current model is driven by a desire to find the formula that will somehow break through this conundrum. We are without a doubt in a period of searching, transition and change. It may be that the formula I describe will remain as a viable option for some families within a larger community-driven set of alternatives. But for now, the search for the right context and mix goes on.

I’m not certain there is an exact formula that will work for everyone, and even the highest quality tool doesn’t produce the highest quality result every time. Perhaps the right investment by the consumers in the product, and quite frankly, better modeling and instruction by education professionals, can make a big difference in making something that may not be working for everyone work better for more people in an affordable, accessible way.

Steve Kerbel is Director of Education at Congregation B’nai Tzedek, Potomac, Maryland, is the current chair of the Education Directors Council of Greater Washington and a national officer of the Jewish Educators Assembly.

Cross-posted from Welcome to the Next Level.