Club 34 and Club 56 are the informal components of our 3rd-6th grade group of children here at Beth Am. In the past, and truly all over the country, this age group is often neglected on an informal level, because the children are mostly already involved in the religious school, so therefore it sometimes seems unnecessary for any additional attention. I hope that the parents of these children can agree to disagree with that philosophy and really help me build up more attention for this age group than has ever been given before. I believe that this is a crucial age for these children, in terms of their exposure to youth activity at the synagogue. A child between the ages of 8-13 is more impressionable now than he or she ever will be again, so I say again, this is the time to get them interested. This is the time to show them how much fun, being Jewish can truly be.

Our hope is to be able to do fun informal activities with these two groups (3rd-4th grade and 5th-6th grade) at least once every two months, maybe even more. Since most of my attention is unfortunately often enough taken up by the older youth programs, it is essential that we have as much parent support as we can possibly provide. What that means is that outside of logistical arrangements (which I am happy to take care of) we will need parents to program, plan out, and chaperone/supervise such events. To me the first step in making this happen is getting everyone who’s interested in helping out together for a meeting, and from there we’ll plan out a calendar, month to month, making sure that we give the necessary, consistent attention to this age group that it certainly deserves. So please let me know if you are interested, and together we can start making Temple Beth Am even more fun for our younger children.