By Bonnie Sikowitz (4-26-09)

Today is seventeen days, which is two weeks and three days of the Omer.

 

It is a tradition to count the days between Passover and Shavuot, as we mark our freedom from slavery and celebrate our freedom to accept Torah. This is called "counting the omer." This year we will observe the tradition of "counting the omer" by sharing stories about the many different ways that we have been turned on to Jewish learning, and through Jewish learning to Torah.

I loved Religious School growing up.  Our temple had a unique program wherein each student was assigned to one of the 12 Tribes of Israel.  Our Sundays began with a morning assembly where you sat with your tribe.  Each tribe included students from pre-K to 12th grade, so there was a great opportunity for the older students to mentor and role-model for the younger students.   The Tribes also helped foster a sense of school-wide community, so you knew many more kids than just those in your class.

 

Each week a different tribe might lead the tribal meeting in songs and games in anticipation of holidays or community service activities that were coming up.  We also took the 4th Sunday of each month off, and left the temple for a "community-building project," a service project in our community - visiting the elderly or sick, cleaning the beach, or painting over anti-Semitic graffiti that had been scrawled on the outside of our synagogue.  Parents were required to participate in a minimum of 3 community-building days per month.

 

On a monthly basis, 2 members of each tribe (of any age) rotated onto a special Tribal leadership council, working with the rabbinate to plan the community-building days and working to plan our end of the year "Tribal Games" (an Olympics of sorts).   This was the highlight of the year, and each tribe wrote special cheers and designed banners and t-shirts.  All the parents came to watch.

 

I would love to see a program as dynamic as this at Temple Emanuel.

 

By Bonnie Sikowitz

These stories are brought to you by the Temple Emanuel RE-IMAGINE project, an 18-month initiative sponsored by Hebrew Union College, devoted to re-thinking and re-structuring our religious school.