7A Holocaust and Human Behavior

We have been reading the book "Maus" in class. "Maus" is an award winning book written by Art Spiegelman whose father is a Holocaust survivor. The book is written in cartoon form (the Nazis are cats, the Jews are mice). Maus tells the story of Spiegelman's father's account of how he and his wife survived Hitler's Europe. Students are able to see the progression of the Holocaust from Kristallnacht (the night of broken glass) to the ghettoization of the Jews, to the concentration camps. There have been many questions and students now have a greater understanding of the progression of events that led to the Holocaust. There are a lot of questions about why the Jews stayed put; why they just didn't leave. Some of the answers are, "they didn't think it could get worse", or "they didn't want to leave their whole families" or "it was so difficult for them to believe that this was happening that they denied it themselves until it was too late." The questions students ask are thought provoking and open-ended. They will continue to learn the answers throughout the year.

7th Grade Telem

Happy Chanukah!
We've been having a great time in the TELEM program. Students have become so comfortable at First Parish that they are volunteering for jobs and trying new tasks all the time! It's wonderful to see students sitting down and talking to the guests who come to eat there. On weeks that we don't travel to FP, students talk about their conversations with the guests. We are also continuing the conversation on poverty and homelessness and students have begun to understand what a budget is and how it works. We've begun to talk about food stamps and housing issues. It was very eye opening for them to see how quickly $1500.00/month goes. In upcoming classes, students will be working on budgets and will complete a food stamp application.

This week, 7th graders made beautiful holiday cards!

This beautiful card was given to the Temple Beth Shalom staff!

And this will hang in my office!

Happy Chanukah!!

Sculpey Hamsas!

Last week, 7th graders in the Israel & Art class learned about the Israeli city of Tzvat, one of the four holiest cities in Judaism. They learned about the history of the city and why it is an important place for Jewish mysticism and Kabbalah. Then they created their very own clay hamsas from Sculpey. These hamsas can hang in their homes for protection and good luck!

Some hamsas, ready to be baked!

JR BESTY Hibachi & Havdallah 11.19

A Saturday night out with our Jr BESTY besties. We were joined by the BESTY board. While there, we discovered that:
Ice sizzles when you toss it on to a hot hibachi grill
No amount of Fried Rice is TOO much
And only half of us eat our veggies--more for me!

A new take on Latkes

Check out this article from the blog the Jew and the Carrot:
A new take on latkes

BESTY Bagel Day!

Our Youth Leadership heads up an annual fundraiser in honor of former BESTY-ite David Aaronson. As a generation of leaders have done before them, our teens deliver bagels right to your door. And all the proceeds went to support our youth programs.





we had a Board Bonding Shul-in the night before so we were awake and alert to pick up all these bagels at 6am

Sammy Lerner, our Financial VP of BESTY, organizes our cream cheese stash while advertising the event by donning a BESTY Bagel Day crown

7th Graders working at First Parish Soup Kitchen

What is TELEM?

Mission Statement:

TELEM works to build the next generation of Jewish leaders, civic activists and advocates for change by forging a compelling connection between community-based social action and Judaism. TELEM integrates volunteer service with classroom learning and reflection, enabling students to build meaningful relationships with their Jewish peer group as well as the broader community.

TELEM is an acronym in Hebrew for tenuah l'tzi'rim mitnadvim, Movement for Youth Volunteers! Join with a group of your friends and see what a difference you can make!

Making a Difference:

TELEM is about making a difference. It's an innovative program for Boston area Jewish teens that integrates community service, learning, and reflection—and provides opportunities to effect real change. In addition to helping others, teens learn about values that have guided Jews for thousands of years—and gain understanding of how you can work for change.

TELEM is about building relationships: people helping people. To teens who want to explore the city beyond your own community and have an impact in greater Boston, here is your chance.

TELEM is about changing lives—yours and others.

In the Hunger and Homelessness track, TELEM our students have the opportunity to learn about the issue of poverty. Students in this track participate in classroom-based learning and direct service activities with people who are struggling with issues related to poverty and homelessness. Our students are also given the opportunity to reflect upon and share their experiences with their peers and supervisors to round out a meaningful personal and learning experience. Our students learn the many issues and dimensions related to poverty, hunger and homelessness to develop insight and strategies to help fight poverty.

Chagall Windows

Last week, 7th graders learned about the famous Jewish artist, Marc Chagall! Did you know his birth name was Moishe Shagal? To the right, Chagall's 1914 painting the Praying Jew:










We were especially inspired by Chagall's stained glass windows at the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem (left). So we made our own "stained glass" using tissue paper, Mod Podge, and plastic sleeves. These beautiful creations can hang in the window so light will shine through!

Alison's Sixth Grade Class

In our sixth grade class, we have been learning stories of the Torah, one major story at a time. Last week, we focused on the story of Moses and Pharaoh, the ten plagues, and the eventual release of the Israelites from slavery. After each plague, Pharaoh's heart was hardened: the first five by himself, and the latter five by God. We talked about what it meant to have someone's heart hardened (emotionally, not literally), and how that may be a synonym for selfishness. We then talked about moments in our lives when our hearts had been hardened, and we built them out of playdough as a way to show them to the class.



Max made a time when he was watching the Cowboys on television and his sister wanted to change the channel but he refused.


The girls trying to come up with the moment they were going to create.

Greg talking about one day when he refused to take his hat off despite being asked several times.

I think that the kids really got a lot out of the conversations we had and realized that everyone has selfish moments.

-Alison

Alison's Sixth Grade Classes

This weekend was all about Chanukah. In my sixth grade Judaica classes, we talked about the associations that the students made with Chanukah, and then we acted out a play instead of sitting around and reading the play. During our associations, a conversation of dreidel came up. The classes talked about what the letters on the dreidel stood for, and what each word meant! They know the difference between dreidels in Israel and everywhere else, and know the rules for dreidel too!!

-Alison

Mosaics!

The 7th grade Israel & Art class has been busy! Remember our first project? During our second week together, we made paper mosaics inspired by ancient Israeli mosaics, like the Lod mosaic (now on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York).

These mosaics are made by gluing small pieces of different colored paper (torn or cut) to create shapes, patterns, letters, etc. Mosaics trick the eye into seeing one complete picture that's actually made of lots of little separate pieces!

Aren't they beautiful?

Preparing Children for the Challenges of Life After High School

How does camp help prepare children for the challenges of life after high school?

"...we live in a society that sometimes suggests to children that they are only safe within eyeshot of their parents. Yet, we parents want our children to grow in confidence and independence so that they can live productive, fulfilling and joyous lives. Camp enables children to experience successful independence. Like college, they are away-from-home. Unlike college, they are in a community committed to their physical and emotional safety."

Read the full article, "Creating Advantages in College," from Psychology Today here!

Summer Program Spotlight: URJ Kutz Camp!

This Summer Program Spotlight features the URJ Kutz Camp! Don’t forget- first time campers may be eligible for the One Happy Camper grant from the Foundation for Jewish Camp and Combined Jewish Philanthropies! For more information about the grant or these and any other camps, please email Leah King at lking@tbsneedham.org.

The Kutz Camp is the Union for Reform Judaism’s camp just for high schoolers in Warwick, NY. Every summer, Kutz is home to the NFTY (National Federation of Temple Youth) Leadership Experience, a program designed to strengthen teen leadership skills in a variety of areas, including creative arts, youth group leadership, digital media, Jewish studies, social action, and more. Participants choose their own major and minors, and create a summer experience that’s entirely personalized. Everyone participates in t’fillah every day, often led by teens themselves, song sessions, and evening programs. Teens come to Kutz from across the United States as well as Europe, Israel, and other parts of the world to create a unique and close-knit community. Kutz is part of the wider URJ camp system, which includes Camp Eisner and Crane Lake Camp in the North East, and often attracts campers who have never been to camp before as well as campers who have attended URJ camps their entire lives. For more information about the Kutz Camp and to read the fantastic camp blog, see their website!

More information about TBS’s camping initiative can be found on the TBS website.

Let's Be Thankful... for CAMP!

6th Grade Jewish Studies - Mindy

What great discussions we have been having about the dynamic stories and characters in the book of Genesis. We read about Abraham (the first Biblical character who displayed hospitality) and Isaac (who was surprisingly silent, even as he was about to be sacrificed by his own father) and most recently, Jacob and Esau (who tricked Isaac on his old age before receiving blessings). Jewish values permeate these stories and your children added their own valuable insights in an attempt to make them more contemporary. How great it is to watch the Torah come alive in this way!
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Sand Art Projects

7th graders rotated to new Israel classes this week. It was sad to see old students go, but it was so nice to have new faces in the classroom! In Israel & Art, we made sand "portraits" of Israel to remind us of the great amount of desert that makes up the geography of Israel!

Proud artists pose with their work!

The final products look great, drying on my office floor!

I'm looking forward to getting to know my new students! Have a great Thanksgiving!

Maus: A Survivor's Tale

Yesterday in 7th grade we began our in-class reading of Maus: A Survivor's Tale, by Art Spiegelman. The story is a graphic novel documenting the relationship between an aging Holocaust survivor and his son, Artie. Told in two time periods, Artie is finally starting to hear of his father's breath-taking experience of the Holocaust. In the present, Artie periodically visits his fathers Rego Park, Brooklyn, NY home. During each visit, Vladek recalls his life as a Polish Jew, soldier, businessman, father and husband in gripping detail.

While we will not have class next week, our reading will continue after Thanksgiving as we dive deeper into this portrait of one family, and their experience surviving and remembering the Shoah.

Summer Program Spotlight!

Welcome to TBS' Summer Program Spotlight! We love summer camps and the fantastic options they provide for teens to be campers, counselors in training, and eventually full-fledged counselors. But there are lots of programs out there for older campers who have never been to camp or who are ready for something new. We'll periodically highlight some of the great Jewish overnight programs designed specifically for teens, right here on the blog, to help you and your families learn more about the fantastic summer options available to you.

Programs you can expect to read more about include:
URJ Kutz Camp
NFTY Mitzvah Corps
NFTY in Israel
BIMA & Genesis at Brandeis
Passport NYC
and more!

For information about summer camps for all ages, see our Elementary Learning blog's Camp Spotlights! If you'd like to participate in a summer program spotlight to show everyone how awesome YOUR program is, feel free to send stories or photos, or just contact me at lking@tbsneedham.org. And I'm always available to answer your questions or just chat about camp at any time!