Photo by Liora London
opportunities). This flexibility allows victim expressing her frustration that the teens who might ordinarily not fit in to Federal Emergency Management Agenfind their way. One high school sophocy (FEMA) doesn’t see her as an individmore at risk of expulsion from private ual, but a case number. The only identischool reached out to the TBE youth fying information in the letter is that case professional overseeing Havayah’s Jew number. Shortly thereafter, the woman Man Group, where male teens explore committed suicide. how Jewish values can help guide deci“I figured a group of Jews would sion-making. Through one-to-one conknow better than anyone what it versations as well as Jew Man Group means to be reduced to a number,” the meetings, the sophomore developed director says. deeper relationships that helped him We were “dumbstruck silent,” says express himself, make better decisions, Rabbi Jack Paskoff (photo #3). connect his growth to Jewish values, and The teens spend that night in a ultimately stay in school. Quonset hut on a campground. Another key Havayah component is Unplugged, without electronics or TV, its non-competitive inclusiveness: Every they light Hanukkah candles, play teen who wants to be a leader becomes a board games, and reflect on what leader. The incoming TBE’s BELY youth they’ve witnessed. group board includes 36 teens because Moving on to Waveland, Mississippi, 36 teens sought leadership positions. At the group helps clean up the home of a the same man who lost time, TBE’s virtually youth team everything in works indiKatrina. That vidually with night, the each teen, teens talk empowering about Jewish him/her to history, and take on the when they particular light the leadership menorah, opportunities they reflect BETH EMET AND SECOND BAPTIST CHURCH TEENS JOIN HANDS IN A MOMENT OF REFLECTION. that seem the on its symmost exciting, challenging, and reward- bolism. While most of their peers are on ing to him/her. vacation enjoying the holiday season, The retention statistics are revealthey realize that they are bringing “dediing. When Havayah began in 2003, cation and light” to others. 23% of TBE teens were continuing in Rabbi Paskoff attributes the temple’s a Jewish engagement program after high Confirmation retention rate— becoming bar/bat mitzvah; in 2012–13, approximately 85%—to five factors: it’s 70%. This past year, 130 students offering meaningful social action trips, participated in Havayah, and for the treating teens as adults, taking into coming year, TBE leaders expect the account the individual needs of each number to grow to nearly 200. teen, bringing the community together to support teens, and offering them ♦♦♦ many ways to be engaged. Eleven teens at Congregation Shaarai Treating teens like equals, he Shomayim in Lancaster, Pennsylvania involves them not only in creating youth programs, but programs for everyone, (shaarai.org) are on a social action trip including a congregational retreat and a to the Gulf Coast to help clean up the Rosh Hashanah service. And, like their destruction left by Hurricane Katrina. adult counterparts, throughout the year They listen as the director of a recovery agency reads a letter written by a Katrina continued on next page reform judaism
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QUOTABLE from p. 52 toward life and death. When the Jerusalem Temple was under siege by the Romans in 69 C .E., Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai had himself smuggled out of the doomed city to negotiate with the Roman general Vespasian for the survival of the rabbinic academy at Yavne. He recognized that the survival of Torah and the saving of many lives outweighed the loss even of the Temple and acceptance of Roman rule. That perspective has reasserted itself in a more mature state of Israel. Masada still has power as a symbol for Israelis, and the line of tourists waiting for the cable cars to ride up to the top still is long. However, the symbol is tempered by an awareness that ours is a tradition of life, not death, and that we have more to live for than we have to die for. —Rabbi Jeff Goldwasser, Temple Beit HaYam, Stuart, Florida, on reformjudaism.org/blog
NOTEWORTHY Jewish Research Made Easier The Berman Jewish DataBank (jewishdatabank .org) now offers the public open access to more than 375 national, local, and topical studies and reports on North American and world Jewry. Surveys can be browsed by topic, geographic coverage, publisher, or investigator. In addition, for help in phrasing survey questions, consult the Jewish Survey Question Bank (JSQB; jewishquestions.bjpa.org). A project of the Berman Jewish Policy Archive at NYU Wagner and the Berman Jewish DataBank, this online database is an amalgamation of survey questions used in Jewish social research, searchable by topic.
winter 2013
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