lessons in culture and identity for both American and Israeli teens in the 10th grade, ongoing contact in the 11th grade, and the Americans’ continued Israel engagement in the 12th grade. Personal relationships are key: The Israeli teens come to Boston for 10 days, the American teens travel to Israel for about two weeks, and the entire congregation takes part in the interaction. Younger students want to have this experience—motivated by the emails the older teens send about their Israel experience, by hearing the older kids speak about it during teen pre-
sentations to their religious school class, and by meeting the visiting Israeli teens. And because young people must enroll in the high school in order to participate, there is a strong incentive to continue their active formal Jewish education in the post-bar/bat mitzvah years. Last year Beth El retained 95% of their seventh grade class into eighth grade, and since the program began in 2005-06, they’ve never lost more than two students. We will also look at models outside the synagogue. I’m very impressed by the way some kibbutzim in Israel
approach bar/bat mitzvah. Young people work individually, with their parents, and as a group on a year-long project they present to the community. Most have an aliyah to the Torah and a second ceremony connected to a project they’ve chosen that is meaningful in their daily lives. Some or all of this model might be useful for our own revolution. What are the revolution’s goals? Bradley: To generate new ideas and
directions for meaningful b’nai mitzvah celebrations; to create models of b’nai mitzvah preparation that engage individuals and their families; to promote more effective methods for teaching Hebrew and prayer; to engage synagogue professionals in documenting these innovations through “action research”; and sharing their findings, models, and resources within a peer network as well as an everwidening group of congregations. What is “action research”? Isa: In “action research,” practitioners
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collect data about their setting, analyze what’s working and what’s not, experiment with practices that might yield a greater success rate, and again collect necessary data. This process will be revolutionary in and of itself, as it asks synagogue leaders to conduct research on the effectiveness of their own practices. Over the past two decades many congregational innovations have gone unnoticed, or been underappreciated. Action research will help ensure that the accumulated insights gained are widely shared. We also hope that synagogue leaders will “get” the action research “bug,” and use it in other situations as well.
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Isa: Yes. I anticipate congregations will
begin to ask themselves, “What kind of Hebrew should we be teaching, and for what purpose?” as well as “What is prayer and how should we teach it?” Instruction in both areas has been driven by the expectation that the ultimate goal is for the student to perform well at his/
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Will a revolution in b’nai mitzvah have a similarly profound impact on religious school education?
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