Now that the school year is underway, I thought this would be a good time to tell you all about some of the exciting things happening in our high school.  A few years ago, I put together a curriculum that has been very successful in our combined 9^th/10^th grade second hour of Monday night school.  Since the program covers both grades, it is a 2-year plan which alternates so that every student gets one year of Pop Culture & Judaism and one year of Living Life Cycle.

This is our Living Life Cycle year.  The students will begin the year studying about the Jewish rituals surrounding death.  I know that this sounds very depressing, but in fact, it is anything but.  Having the chance to study about Judaism and death when we are not actually in mourning is not only educational, but so helpful to our students in helping their friends and family through the times when they actually are in grief from the loss of a loved one.

We will be visiting a funeral chapel, seeing where caskets are chosen, taking a tour of the mikvah where the bodies are lovingly and respectfully washed before burial and speaking with the funeral directors about what happens before, during and after the funeral.  We will have mock shiva calls where our students learn about what is and is not helpful to say to mourners.  Our high schoolers will also have the opportunity to visit a cemetery where they will not only learn about the symbols we see on gravestones, but also to bury some of our old prayerbooks with the appropriate rituals.

In mid-winter, we will be moving on to some of the holidays and we’ll be cooking and baking some of the traditional Jewish foods associated with those holidays.  In a time when our kids are not always growing up with the aroma of grandma’s challah baking in the oven, this is an opportunity to experience the smells and tastes of Jewish foods that are such an important part of our culture.

And finally, the spring will be all about weddings.  Our 9^th/10^th graders will study the sheva brachot (seven wedding blessings), write and decorate a ketubah (Jewish wedding license), interview a couple, and participate in an actual wedding ceremony (albeit a second wedding) for a Temple Beth Am couple who is chosen to renew their vows.  If you are part of a couple who did not have a Jewish wedding the first time and would like to participate in this most beautiful of Jewish traditions, please contact me at cantor@tempbetham.org.

Working with our high school students is such a joy for me, and I kvell as I watch them embrace this age-old Jewish customs.

Respectfully,