February 2024 | Adar I 5784

8th-12th Grade

Monthly Newsletter

"Jew" York City

Our "Jew" York City program offers 8th and 9th graders 6 trips to New York City focusing on educational, cultural, and social action based themes throughout the year.

This month, we completed trip #3 as our teens visited the Jewish Museum!

Rabbi Citrin and Ryan had an amazing time with our teens on our January 28 trip to the Jewish Museum! We were very fortunate to be given a private tour of their galleries and examined what many of the works said about Judaism and identity.

We travelled from exhibit to exhibit with sketch books and special art gallery stools (the latter of which the teens were very fond of) and discussed different themes prevalent in the art. The exhibit many of us found particularly fascinating was a collection of photographs of Ruth Bader Ginsburg's iconic white collars.

Finally, we reconvened in a private studio where we made our own Jewish art using paper cut outs, glue, and water color pencils. The teens created thoughtful and beautiful pieces that reflected their identity and it was a joy to hear them discuss the distinct ideas that went into their process!

The Table

8th and 9th Grade

In the January 17 edition of The Table, we enjoyed dinner from Chipotle and continued to discuss the situation in Israel. The clergy team put together packets that explored the concept of "Pidyon Sh'vuyim", meaning "Redeeming the Captives" that included several Jewish sources including the Torah, Talmud, and Mishnah.

As we read in one of the excerpts, "there is no greater mitzvah than the redemption of captives", Cantor Kleinman explained how Israel has gone about freeing captives in the past and has continued to go about it in today's crisis.

The students eloquently discussed the impossible decisions Israel has to make in these situations whether it be risking the lives of their soldiers on rescue missions or how many prisoners they should release in a prisoner exchange.

11th and 12th Grade

Our juniors and seniors met twice since the last issue of our newsletter. On January 17, students explored the concept of "Pidyon Sh'vuyim" with sources from Torah, Talmud, and Mishnah. Rabbi Blake and the students discussed the implications of one mitzvah being more important than the other mitzvot and looked into the precautions that need to be taken when setting out to honor this responsibility.

On January 31, we were fortunate enough to attend “Safeguarding the Web: The Battle Against Online Extremists”, a talk from Dr. Tamar Mitts. Mitts, who is a WRT congregant and professor at Colombia University, taught us about how to be safe and responsible online when there are extremists groups that try to use social media against us.

Confirmation

Our Confirmands spent a meaningful weekend in Washington, DC, with Rabbi Baken, participating in the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism's L'taken Seminar. They joined several hundred teens to learn about various social justice issues and then wrote a powerful speech about Israel to share with their elected officials on Capitol Hill.

Looking Ahead