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February 15, 2002/Adar 3 5762, Vol. 54, No. 22
Tempe Hebrew High class travels to Washington
BETH OLSON
Staff Writer
In an effort to bring real-world significance to a Jewish civics course, a group of Hebrew High students recently traveled to Washington, D.C., to see civics in action in the nation's capital.
The students, participants in the Bureau of Jewish Education's Phoenix High School of Jewish Studies (Hebrew High), attend a satellite program at the Tri-City Jewish Community Center. The current course offering, Jewish Civics Initiative, is a tri-fold program, developed by the Washington Institute for Jewish Leadership and Values: a year-long civics curriculum, the four-day retreat in Washington, and a service learning project, to be completed this spring.
Of the 11 students in the class, seven attended the retreat Jan. 20-23, along with the course's instructor, Jeffrey Frankel.
Several students mentioned that a portion of the program called Street Torah left the biggest impression on them. The program involved visiting a Washington park and bringing food and warm clothing to homeless people who gather there. Noam Lee said he was surprised to meet a homeless doctor and an aspiring author.
"They were just regular people," Lee said.
Likewise, Lauren Sgro felt moved by the people they visited.
"I really saw what a difference people can make. Not just hear about it and be taught it, but actually do it," Sgro said.
In addition to Street Torah, students chose a community service project to participate in and then had the opportunity to visit with advocacy groups that correlated with the service learning project.
"My group went to a place called Washington Parks and People and their mission was to create positive neighborhoods through creating positive environments in parks - refurbishing the park and showing how a refurbished, revitalized park can revitalize all of the community surrounding it," Frankel explained. "The following day we went to the National Coalition for Low Income Housing - (they) speak to how the neighborhoods would be revitalized. (The students) got to not only see and experience, but they got the correlation."
Participant Jonathan Berkley said that although he was impressed by the opportunity to work directly with people in need, he was enlightened in other ways to pursue tikkun olam (repairing the world).
"My eyes were opened to not just help people individually, but affect change over all," explained Berkley. "The advocacy groups and how they lobby to affect changes in policy or law ... helps people on a broader scale."
Frankel hopes the retreat will leave a lasting impression on the students that attended.
"They spent time working with people to make a better place for them, but by no stretch of the imagination is four days going to create a better world. We're all going to have to continue to work to create that better world."
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