Bnai Mitzvah

Bnei Mitzvah Weekly Afternoon School 5772 (2011-12)                                                                           

Weekly Afternoon School: Tuesdays, 4:00-6:00

Monthly Family Class: First Tuesdays, 6:30-7:30pm

Day & Time

Bnei Mitzvah Learning Program meets on Tuesdays

4:00-6:00pm

at M.S. 88 (7^th Avenue & 18^th Street)

Emergency Contact information

If there is an emergency, please try to contact us in this order…

Ora Wise, Education Director- (917) 224-8269

Tehila Wise, teacher- (646) 416-4674

Ellen Lippmann, Rabbi- (718) 633-6377

Communication

You will be receiving a weekly email update from the teachers of the Bnei Mitzvah Program (Ariel or Tehila).  Please make sure to read this weekly email to stay updated on what your children are learning and what we are asking for you to do to support this learning.  Feel free to email us with any questions or ideas you have throughout the year!

Helping Out

This year we are trying to focus more on EVERYONE in the Kolot community helping do the not-as-fun work of cleaning up after our events.  So please talk with your children about the expectation of them helping pick garbage up off the floor and put away chairs and materials for a couple of minutes before taking off at the end of class.  Being a part of a community in which everyone takes responsibility is a part of our learning process!

Hebrew Curriculum

First year students will learn vocabulary and basic grammar found in Shabbat morning prayers and brachot (blessings) while exploring the meaning of prayer and trying it out for themselves. 

Second year students will learn grammar, pronouns, and important vocabulary through studying Torah- what Torah means, the service surrounding the reading of Torah and parts of the actual sidrot (portions) they’ll be reading during their own bar/bat mitzvah services. 

In addition to these Hebrew Study Sessions, there will be three curriculum units throughout the year.  Students from both years will go through this curriculum together.  One unit will focus on ethics, another on ritual/religion, and the third on history/culture.

Bnei Mitzvah 5772 Core Curriculum

Unit 1: Jews Around the World 12 sessions (last day is Dec 13)

Unit 2: Make Your Own Talit 11 sessions (last day is April 3)
Unit 3: Tzedakah as Social Justice 8 sessions (last day is June 5)

From Baghdad to Warsaw: Jews Around the World
Goals
- Students will develop a sense of Judaism as having multiple and diverse centers of history and culture.
- Students will examine Jewish history through a positive lens- learning not just about histories of displacement and discrimination but also the ways Jewish communities have thrived in, been influenced by, and contributed to different societies.
- Students will have a broader understanding of the many ways people are Jewish.

Wrap Yourself in Light: Make Your Own Talit
Goals
- Students will make their own talit that can be used as part of their bar/bat mitzvah service.
- Students will go deep into a Jewish ritual and come out with a sense of ownership around it and their own way of interacting with it.
- Wearing a talit during their bar/bat mitzvah service and beyond will have deeper meaning given the students’ understanding of the brachot and text connected to tallitot.
- Students will make choices around what they want their talit to look like that express their developing sense of themselves and Judaism.

Tzedakah: A Legacy of Social Justice

Goals
- Students will understand tzedakah to involve action to change systems of inequality, not just the giving of funds or alleviating the suffering of individual people.
- Students will explore Jewish tradition and history to discover different responses to injustice and poverty.
- Students will think critically about their own relationship to issues of racial and economic justice.
- Students will develop a foundational understanding that will better prepare them to participate in the What’s Up?!#jewishyouthartjustice in a meaningful way.

Bnei Mitzvah Family Class

The required Bnei Mitzvah Family Class is a time for parents and children to learn and talk together about being Jewish, becoming bar/bat mitzvah, prayer, God, community, and more.  The curriculum includes the Jewish calendar and holidays, Torah and how to interpret it, the prayers of the Shabbat service, and the Torah service specifically.   We meet for one hour once a month. The Family Class is facilitated by Rabbi Lippmann and may sometimes be taught by Cantor Lisa B. Segal, Student Rabbi Scott Fox, or others. It is held at M.S. 88 on the first Tuesday of every month, 6:30-7:30pm.

Bnei Mitzvah Responsibilities

Every student in the bnei mitzvah program at Kolot Chayeinu is also expected to:

1)   Participate in Shabbat services 12 times during a year, with 10 of those times being at Shabbat morning services.  There is a sign-in sheet at services for them; they should please sign in when they arrive.  We call on them to be part of the service in various ways, often by helping to walk the Torah around the room in a hakafah before it is read.  They are expected to turn off cell phones or other devices and participate actively in the service, ideally helped by sitting toward the front of the sanctuary with a parent or other adult.

2)   Join their parents in setting up and cleaning up the sanctuary and social hall for services with bnei mitzvah; every family signs up for this task with the year’s bnei mitzvah team coordinators.

3)   Work with a tutor to prepare for bar/bat mitzvah service and do the assigned work from that tutor

4)   Meet with the rabbi about the d’var Torah that the student will deliver; the rabbi sends notes to student and tutor to help that process develop

5)   Send an e-mail invitation to the entire congregation inviting them to come to their service honoring becoming bar/bat mitzvah. This should include some comments on their Torah portion (divrei Torah) and a photograph so Kolotniks can know and celebrate them

6)   Be part of the required third year What’s Up?!#jewishyouthartjustice program (during the year of their service or the year after, depending on scheduling). This program fulfills Kolot’s requirement for bnei mitzvah to do tzedakah (social work) learning and work

Every parent whose child is in the program is expected to:

1)   Participate with your child in services as often as possible, sitting with your child and helping them to follow the service.  We can also match your family with a Shabbat regular who can sit with you and help you to follow if it is new knowledge for you as well as for your child.  Try to come either early to be part of breakfast conversations  or stay after services for Kiddush and conversation, so that you and the Shabbat regular community can continue to get to know one another

2)   Sign up to do set up and clean up for the services with bnei mitzvah, to avoid burdening the year’s team leaders with more calls and e-mails; you are also asked to bring your child to share in this community task

3)   Make an arrangement with the assigned tutor that works well financially and logistically and be sure your child has done the assigned work for the tutor

4)   Meet with the rabbi as a family to plan the service for your bar/bat mitzvah service

5)   Meet with the rabbi as part of a seasonal group of parents to discuss this major life event in your family’s life

6)   Send invitations to family and friends that let them know that “Rachel Yonkel and Ofrah Bat Chava and the congregation of Kolot Chayeinu/Voices of Our Lives invites you to…”

7)   Be part of a scheduled rehearsal usually 10 days or so before the bar/bat mitzvah service

8)   Have a tallit and kippah for your child for the bar/bat mitzvah, ideally one your child makes in class

9)   Provide breakfast and a post-service Kiddush meal for the day of the bar/bat mitzvah