Teen Education Committee

Welcome to Temple Israel's youth education program! 

Whether you are a rising 8th grader, a returning teen, the parent of a TI teen, or a family seeking a reform congregation with a vibrant youth program, we hope you will find what you are looking for here. 

We start the 2011-2012 school year with great excitement.  Together with teens and parents, our Temple Israel education leadership has taken a strong youth program and made it even stronger. 

For decades, Temple Israel teens have shaped their own Jewish education and community experience through participating in Monday Night School, youth events, weekend kallot, and social justice actions. 

Over the past year, our teens have encouraged us to:

  • Apply Jewish learning and values to situations in their lives today,
  • Increase their familiarity with Jewish practices they can use now and in the lives they are actively and individually shaping,
  • Prepare them to "stand on the backs of giants" with respect to Jewish religion, philosophy, culture and social justice, and
  • Understand what Israel means to Jews and others around the world.

After a year of gathering input from teens, parents, clergy, and teachers, Education Director Rabbi Morrison and Youth Educator Naomi Sobel have reshaped TI's youth program.   

         

 Naomi Sobel, Teen Educator                                               Rabbi Jeremy Morrison, Director of Education

 

The essential components of our new program remain the same - Monday Night School; RFYTI (Reform Youth of Temple Israel) youth events and the much-beloved weekend kallot; and the Madrichim student teaching program.  10th grade Confirmation remains a central and meaningful life cycle event built around a year studying theology and learning to give voice to personal beliefs.  At 12th grade graduation, teens will continue to demonstrate their learning, leadership and legacy to younger teens.  


What is changing is the ability of each teen to chart an education pathway that conforms to their own interests and goals for personal development.   New electives will be offered to enable our teens to deepen their Jewish knowledge and experience along four distinct pathways.

  • Critical readers, thinkers and debaters who use study of Jewish religious and rabbinic texts as a touchstone for building new intellectual capabilities.
  • Thoughtful practitioners of Jewish ritual who make choices that bring meaning to their lives while deepening connections to friends, family, congregational life, and their Jewish heritage.
  • Committed community members and activists working to bring about a more just world through dialogue, service, organizing, and advocacy.
  • Engaged partners in a world-wide Jewish people who connect with and are informed both am yisrael (the People of Israel) and eretz yisrael (the State of Israel).

Our goals are for our children to enter college, careers, and future communities empowered with all that their Jewish heritage can provide them and ready to thrive as Jews in a complex and challenging world. 

 

Click here to learn how to participate!

 

We invite you to join us in achieving these goals.

  • Teens:  enjoy friends, have fun and discover ways to make Jewish learning your own. 
  • Parents:  the doors are open to your involvement in many ways - in parent components of the teen programs, in adult programs building community among teen parents, and in serving as a member of Teen Ed Committee.  If you're interested in getting involved, please email me. If you are a Temple member and would like to enroll your child, contact Naomi Sobel, Teen educator.
  • Prospective Temple members:  Please contact our membership office to find out how you and your teen can be part of this community.
  • Teachers and educators:  TI strives for innovation and quality teen programming.  If interested in teaching a course, contact Naomi Sobel, Teen Educator.

Sincerely,

Barbara Berke, Chair
Temple Israel Teen Education Committee