School’s Out for Summer: A Time for Thinking About Teens and the Jewish Community
June 17, 2007 - א' תמוז תשס"ז by:
In a comment on our first post, Rabbi Joel Mosbacher of Beth Haverim in Mahwah asked about successful teen programs and experiments for keeping kids involved past bar and bat mitzvah. When I read this comment, I thought about Alice Cooper’s song, School’s Out for Summer. While many Jewish teens are now out of school actually enjoying Jewish experiences like Israel programs and Jewish camps, when fall comes and religious or Hebrew school starts, the annual lament about how unsuccessfully we’re engaging teens in Jewish educational experiences will begin anew and teens will make painful jokes about having to attend Talmud Torture, a nick-name they give to Talmud Torah.But the news is not all that bleak and I’ve asked several colleagues and friends to share their thoughts on CO-STAR about this subject because it’s so important. Check back with us in a few days for some of their thoughts. Now, for some personal experience….
My daughter (just graduated from high school) stopped going to shul on Shabbat shortly after her bat mitzvah. My wife and I wanted to make sure that Shabbat was still a distinctly meaningful and joyful day for her. So, we started a neighborhood Shabbat afternoon get together group, which has drawn anywhere from 5-15 kids each week for the past 5 years.
The format was simple: food, fun, friendships. Food—we always had good plentiful food to eat, because teens grow physically at great spurts during these years. Fun—we selected study topics which were relevant to them–from school (balancing academics with other aspects of their lives), from their social lives (the complexity of relationships), from their environment (the threat of school violence and Jewish views on gun control) and Israel (families of this group often visited Israel).
Friends—teens like to hang out with out teens. In fact, some of the best parts of the group happened when we finished meeting and a few of teens decided to stay afterwards and talk with each other. We made sure that the study was interactive, always included some Jewish text or reference and never lasted for more than an hour.
While my children are now in college, this group will continue meeting in my home. It has become the highlight of my week and I know that bringing Jewish teens together for relevant, fun and significant discussion can have a deep impact on their Jewish lives before they begin the college years.
Thanks and looking forward to hearing from you,
Rabbi Hayim Herring, Executive Director, STAR
June 26, 2007 - י' תמוז תשס"ז at 6:18 pm
Ah teens….a wonderful and challenging age!
For 7 years, I’ve chaired and co-chaired an initiative that came from the Minneapolis Jewish Federation to engage teens Jewishly. We initially hoped a community wide (non-denominational) high school would be a model as we’ve seen in Philly: Gratz Community High School and New Haven, CT: Makom. For now, we’ve concluded that for our community this is too ambitious…though I still believe COLLABORATION is a key educational principle. Getting a critical mass of teens for any program seems to be an eternal and huge challenge…a mean reason (of several) that believe in collaboration.
A second key educational principle I’d cite is RELEVANCE (for adult programming as well.) What we offer should answer be able to answer the question: How can I use this Jewish information in my day to day life? (And I mean really use the info…i.e. in my relationships, with my parents, at school at the movies, when I’m on facebook or myspace etc.)
As for the fun factor…the main key seems to be social in nature. When teens are with their friends, they can enjoy most any activity..including physically difficult labor. After putting on or observing more programming and classes than I could count (I had 4 teens of my own at one point…now I am down to just 3 as one is 20) the content of the programs seems secondary. I’ve seen my kids enjoy low quality programs and dislike high quality programming. “who was there” seems to be as important as anything.
LOGISTICALLY, things should run smoothly too (kids are no different than adults in this regard) The busses must run properly, the food be good, the organization tight and the teacher or teen worker must connects well with teens.
Finally, often overlooked or avoided are PARENTS. Teens (in spite of their self perceptions) are neither adults nor independent. They still look to their parents for guidance and permission A LOT! They will protest and kvetch often, but parents matter to them a great deal and the more honest and mature teens will admit this. Some of our more successful programs (from camps to classes, to Israel programs) heavily involved the parents for recruitment, nudging to attend, volunteering to help and even for content.
Gil Mann
Past President, Minneapolis Jewish Federation
Creator of www.beingjewish.org
Author of How to Get More Out of Being Jewish and Sex, God, Christmas & Jews
June 28, 2007 - י"ב תמוז תשס"ז at 2:48 pm
Hayim posed three questions about educational programs for teens. Here are some quick responses from my perspective:
1. What key educational principles should inform the creation of effective teen programming post b’nai mitzvah?
A few that come to mind for me are:
1. Understand who teens are and what their lives are like. Use this as a starting point both in terms of what to do (try to respond to genuine needs, interests, etc.) and what not to do (don’t infantilize, don’t assume that being Jewish is the only or most important thing on their minds).
2. One size will not fit all.
3. Never neglect the social dimension.
4. Youth are capable of more than we often give them credit for. Let them, and take them seriously.
5. Connect the Jewish and the general.
2. How can we bridge the “fun” gap between Jewish summer camping and Jewish education during the rest of the year (how can we create settings where the learning is meaningful and the environment is enjoyable)?
We may not have the lake handy year round, but many of the other components of the camp experience can be translated into what happens the rest of the year. Keep the focus on active learning and on creating relationships among participants and with leaders. Build in intensive experiences (over-nights, travel). Use the community as a campus. Reserve time for informal stuff.
3. What specific program can you recommend which models best practices for Jewish teen programming?
I can’t really single out one. I admire what Panim does, but there are other similar programs that also deserve credit for building social consciousness. Prozdor in Boston is modeling what a Hebrew High School can be, but there are other good ones in that category as well. I’m sure there are examples of excellence in many areas – the challenge is to make these normative, rather than exceptional.
July 15, 2007 - כ"ט תמוז תשס"ז at 6:54 am
[…] What a difference a culture makes. In an earlier blog post, Hayim wrote about the challenge of keeping American teenagers involved with their Jewish education. Now, the International Herald Tribune has an article, Non-Jews reviving Poland’s Jewish culture that suggests Jews and Non-Jews are eager to embrace Jewish life. […]
July 20, 2007 - ה' אב תשס"ז at 12:27 pm
[…] What a difference a culture makes. In an earlier blog post, Hayim wrote about the challenge of keeping American teenagers involved with their Jewish education. Now, the International Herald Tribune has an article, Non-Jews reviving Poland’s Jewish culture that suggests Jews and Non-Jews are eager to embrace Jewish life. […]
August 8, 2007 - כ"ד אב תשס"ז at 3:56 pm
I would just like to weigh in on the discussion on teenagers. I am now the Director of Congregational Education and Outreach at Temple Emanu-El in Birmingham, AL. As part of my portfolio, I oversee all educatioal programming here and I have recently created a new program for 7th - 9th grades. In theory and in a color print brochure, it looks great. I hope to make it work.
It is entitled, “What do I make of my Judaism” and it has three parts. The students meet Wednesday nights throughout the year and are engaged in one of the three parts each Wed.
Part 1: I am employing the “Media, Torah, Values” curriculum created by the Union for Traditional Judaism that uses media clips as triggers for discussions on Jewish values and in so doing, walks the kids through several Jewish texts on a particular value/issue. This will take place monthly or bi-weekly.
Part 2: Choosing from studying Pottery, Photography, Quilt Making, Drama, Visual Art or Wood Working, the students will have the opportunity to learn a particular craft from an expert congregant in one of these areas. The first half of the year, this “Hands On” aspect will take place monthly and in the second half of the year, will take place bi-weekly. As the students begin to develop mastery of their particular craft, they will then begin working on a project or projects that will be based upon a text or texts that they have been exposed to. These projects will be worked upon as they draw near to the end of the year when a Final Show will be held for them to display or perform their works.
Part 3: Employing the URJ “Sacred Choices” curriculum, over the course of the year, we will hold 5 parent-child parallel learning sessions on Jewish sexual ethics.
I believe that this program will fly because it has the potential to meet many different needs: independent learning and applicability of the lessons to daily life, the honing of a real life skill that can be applied elsewhere (but was learned at temple), and the recognition that the temple is making it clear that we believe that if the values we teach cannot be directly at home in the students’ lives, then we may as well not be teaching them.
Rabbi Scott Hausman-Weiss