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New Year, Take Two: A Second Chance for a Conscious Year Ahead

By Barrie Sueskind, ReformJudiasm.org

The new year is a time associated with revitalization, a chance for new beginnings, the opportunity to create healthier habits and stronger relationships. - and for Jews, the new year comes not once but twice a year.

As summer days draw to a close and fall's first gusts blow through the air, we celebrate Rosh HaShanah, the Jewish new year, and one week later, Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. These holy days, arguably the most important in the Jewish calendar, offer the opportunity to revisit the year that has passed and take stock of the way we have engaged with the world in the last 12 months. Our tradition implores us to use the Days of Awe to honestly assess our behavior and determine how we may do better next year.

Three months later, the Gregorian calendar offers us the opportunity to check our progress toward the goals we set as January 1 ^st approaches. Have we been living up to our vow to be slower to judge or to avoid gossip? Have we worked to support friends, family, and community even when it was inconvenient? Have we demonstrated love and respect for our parents and children? Instead of waiting another year, we have the chance to correct course early in the journey, before we have gone too far astray from our chosen destination.

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The Perils of Over-Parenting

An Interview with Dr. Wendy Mogel

BY:

ARON HIRT-MANHEIMER

, ReformJudiasm.org

When I was 12, I drove my 8-year-old sister to our Los Angeles elementary school on my bike. As parents, my wife and I allowed our sons, ages 7 and 3, to play outside with other kids who lived on our block in the town of Port Washington, N.Y.

In those days, neighbors kept an eye on the kids; these days, they call the cops at the sight of an unguarded child.

A concurrent trend is the increasing busyness of children, keeping them occupied with tasks and activities meant to give them an advantage in the race to get into a good college.

How things have changed!

I asked Dr. Wendy Mogel, a clinical psychologist and author of The Blessing of a Skinned Knee and The Blessing of a B Minus, to explain what's behind this shift in parenting strategies.

Read More more

Over the course of the weekend, get-to-know you games turned strangers into friends. Technology-obsessed teens who initially ached for their smartphones during Shabbat services found themselves experiencing prayer with new and undistracted perspective, engaging in innovative, peer-led worship. Discussions were Jewishly focused, centered around which Jewish values most impact the teens' day-to-day lives, what it's like to be the only Jewish kid in a big group of friends, and how to address global sociopolitical issues - including hunger, global illness, and civil rights - from a Jewish perspective. They took a break from talking in order to put their hands to work in a social action project that directly impacted the local community, laughing and enjoying one another's company the whole time. By the time the weekend ended, strangers had become friends who had ultimately become a community.

Scenes like this one are a reality across the U.S. and Canada thanks to NFTY - The Reform Jewish Youth Movement. For more than 75 years, Reform Jewish teens from across North America have come together to make new friends, learn about Judaism and the world around them, and live out their Jewish values. While the promise of fun may be the first motivator to join, the long-term effects of the youth group experience drive NFTY's teens to stay involved in Jewish communal life long after high school has ended.

Not sure if NFTY is right for your teen? Read more and then decide.