Jason Oppenheimer
Welcome to Temple Beth Am

Hello, my name is Jason Oppenheimer, and I’m absolutely elated to begin my service to your community as Temple Beth Am’s new Youth Educator. 

I’ve just recently moved up to Boston from Atlanta and I can’t begin to express how tremendously excited I am to be a part of such a vibrant and passionate youth culture.

Even before I interviewed for this position, it was clear to me that this community has a real devotion to the success and growth of its children, and that more than anything else is what brought me here. I am so extremely proud to be on board with this terrific professional staff, and I have every confidence that I will be able to contribute something wonderful to what is already an incredible socio-cultural dynamic. 

It is my great belief that to firmly establish a functional and successful youth program, there must be a concentrated effort to integrate both formal and informal education.  And as far as I am concerned there is no greater goal that I have for myself and for this program, than to oversee that integration and to really provide consistent exposure to everything that Beth Am has to offer its children.  But I am not an idealist, and I have a very wide-stretching experience with this kind of work, so I can admit to you now that it will take much more than even the best of youth educators (I’m working on it) to really make an impact, individually and collectively, on these children.  I can promise you that I will do everything in my power to guide your youth, to act as a tool for them to use toward making the kind of decisions that you would have them make as responsible young Jews and as compassionate human beings.  I can promise you that I will put forth every effort to serve the best interest of this community, by engendering a sense of social commitment based on community-supported values.  But I am not an idealist.  I know already, that I will need your help and support along the way, because you, as parents to these wonderful children, possess the greatest source of potential influence on each and every one of their lives. 

The difficulty of positively engaging children (particularly older children) is a challenge that both parents and youth workers are forced to share.  It is a burden that cannot be managed by one or the other as well as it might be managed by both parties working together, constantly striving to reinforce what the other is teaching, unceasingly pressing our youth toward being all that they can possibly be, but perhaps more importantly, all that they truly want to be and dream of becoming.  Together we have the ability to really create something wonderful for these children, and I look forward to every opportunity to make that shared experience truly remarkable, not just for them but for you, and for me as well. 

So in the spirit of working together; in the spirit or really working hard to create our own kehilla kedosha, our own sacred community, I want to say, thank you for letting me be a part of what I’m sure will be a fantastic process of growth and positive, educational exchange.  I can’t wait to meet all of you and your children, and I look forward to working with the entire community toward making Beth Am the place where children not only should be, but actually want to be involved, and engaged.  I’m just so excited to get started and I hope you will join me in this terrific endeavor.

L’shalom,

Jason Oppenheimer
Youth Educator      

Please feel free to stop by any time, and do not hesitate to call me at 508-872-8300 or email me. I look forward to meeting you!