Path to Confirmation

Dear parents of Path to Confirmation students:

We launched our first "Prism" project last night. What does that mean, you ask? We began examining how our temple fulfills the mitzvah of "Love your Neighbor as yourself," and in so doing, figure out how we as a community or as individuals may be able to add or improve upon what is already being done, in the temple as well in our daily lives. Besides the "Our Congregation" section, we also have stations where the students may look at videos, articles, or books on the subjects of Race Relations and Civil Rights, LGBTQ, Social Justice, and Women & Judaism, still through the prism of "Love your Neighbor." They can work individually, in pairs, or in small groups, and they will be creating a presentation showing what they have learned and what their ideas and suggestions are, moving forward.

As you might guess, this is a completely different way of learning than we are used to, and we are going to go as slowly as we may need to, in order to ensure that everyone understands the scope and methodology of the project.

We already have a "Parking Lot" of suggestions that fall outside the scope of what we are currently doing. Coby Rinke suggested that "loving your neighbor" should include examining environmental practices that support the earth, because in so doing, we support people living on the earth, i.e. love our neighbors. He is right and it is a great suggestion, but for now we are "parking" it for later discussion.

Last night, your teens also had the opportunity to help the Brotherhood to dismantle the sukkah, and they seemed to really enjoy doing so. The Brotherhood showered them with pumpkins (if you can imagine such a thing!) as take-home gifts. By the way, two large bags of pumpkins were left in my classroom, so if your teen left his/hers, please let me know. (They are still there and will probably last....)

Finally, we had a short Hebrew Through Movement class with Ariela and the confirmation class, learning לקום לשבת לרוץ לעצור ללכת לקפוץ להסתובב

Please ask your teen to demonstrate these verbs for you. I also taught them a very simple Hine Ma Tov folk dance, using some of the HTM vocabulary. It was a lovely end to the day, especially since it was Ariela's birthday and we all enjoyed her סוכריות (candy).

Kol tuv (all the best), Morah Judy