Post bar mitzvah dropout

Local organizations use innovative techniques to hook teens

BETH OLSON
Staff Writer

Hebrew High brings together teens to do social action work through its annual Care-a-van trip. Pictured, from left, are Dan Wallace, Stephanie Jerzy, Josh Steinberg, Stephanie Cohen, Kara Zucker and Adam Reinsten enjoying a break at Yellowstone National Park. Photo courtesy of Myra Shindler

Synagogues try to reverse drop-out trend

Throughout the 20th century, the focus of most Jewish congregational schools seemed to be b'nai mitzvah preparation, a fact which often led to an "I've done my duty, now I'm free" attitude for many seventh graders. However, local organizations are making huge strides toward combating the post-bar mitzvah dropout phenomenon.

From synagogues to the Bureau of Jewish Education's Phoenix High School of Jewish Studies (Hebrew High) to the public schools, the Jewish community is reaching out to teens to keep them active and excited about Jewish life.

While youth groups strive to pull in high school-age members, many organizations are using educational programs, clubs, social action work and madrichim (counselor) programs to prevent young teens from leaving the Jewish scene in the first place.

The BJE's Hebrew High program has been around more than 30 years. Students meet once or twice a week for classes on a variety of Jewish topics, including "Coping in Today's World," "Holocaust," "Jewish Cooking," "Jews in the Media," "Comparative Religions" and "Jewish Ethics in Love and Relationships." According to Hebrew High Principal Myra Shindler, Hebrew High brings together teens from all denominations and levels of affiliation.

"Students (who) attend Hebrew High have an opportunity to meet and interact socially with hundreds of their Jewish peers each and every week," she says. "They develop more fully a positive Jewish identity and sense of community."

Hebrew High classes are held at the Ina Levine Jewish Community Campus, with a satellite campus at the Tri-City Jewish Community Center. In addition, Hebrew High sponsors a summer Care-a-van trip that takes teens on a whirlwind trip across the West, doing community service projects along the way (see related story, Page 3).

Some synagogues have confirmation programs to create a commitment to Jewish learning from their teens. Confirmation is traditionally held at the end of 10th grade, and often culminates in the students leading a teen-created service. According to Susan Schanerman, director of education at Temple Emanuel, students must have satisfactory attendance in eighth through 10th grade in order to be confirmed.

Emanuel has taken confirmation one step further in creating a monthly post-confirmation program for 11th- and 12th-grade students. The meetings alternate between a class at the temple and a social action project.

"There is a sense now in our congregation that religious education no longer ends after a bar/bat mitzvah celebration," says Schanerman. "Our new 11th- and 12th-grade program has redefined our educational mission to include programming through high school."

Schanerman says that they expect 85 percent of last year's seventh graders to return in eighth grade.

Several schools have madrichim programs that allow eighth-grade and older students to become teaching assistants in the classroom.

"Our Teaching Assistant program, which teaches our students to become religious school teachers through participation in a mentoring partnership with a teacher (and) with an older teen, also incorporates some formal learning," says Janette Silverman, director of education at Temple Beth Sholom. In addition, the synagogue offers a Monday night class for students in eighth grade.

Fran Richter, director of education at Har Zion Congregation, feels it is essential to have an eighth-grade program that motivates students to stay involved. A highlight of the Har Zion program is the synagogue's eighth-grade trip. Last year's trip took students to Los Angeles, where students stayed in the dormitories at the University of Judaism, and participated in museum visits, a trip to Universal Studios and dining at Los Angeles' many kosher eateries. She reports that 100 percent of the seventh-grade students from the past two years have continued on at Har Zion.

This year, a community service component has been added to the eighth-grade program - students will help make and serve lunch on Sundays for students in kindergarten through second grade.

"They'll have lunch with the younger kids," says Richter. "It will be a great experience for the older and younger kids to bond."

At Temple Beth Israel, a new program will combine the seventh- and eighth-grade classes into a Thursday evening junior high religious school program. Rabbi Stephen Kahn anticipates an enrollment of about 110 students in the new program for the upcoming school year. Kahn says Beth Israel's program stands out in that the temple's three rabbis - Kahn, Rabbi Erica Burech and Rabbi Jessica Zimmerman - will teach the program.

"That's my favorite age group," says Kahn, "because they are capable of doing the deepest work."

Kahn says the program focuses on contemporary moral and ethical issues. The course will include "everything from the bioethics of cloning to things they see in the news such as the death penalty and abortion and substance abuse and the ethics of war, which I think is important to discuss with them in a Jewish context," says Kahn. "Our goal is to create discussion, debate, argument and some way of giving them the opportunity to talk about things in a Jewish context that's really safe and nurturing for them."

Today's teens, says Kahn, are very interested in learning about issues that relate to the self.

"More and more kids want to know about things like tattooing and piercing and premarital sex and capital punishment and euthanasia," Kahn says.

Rabbi Laibel Blotner also feels teens are searching for Jewish answers to ethical questions. In his Mishmar program, 25-30 teens gather on Wednesday evenings to explore ethical issues from a Jewish standpoint. An important element of the program, Blotner says, is that the students are able to ask questions.

"I put a box on the table and the kids are able to ask anonymously questions about Judaism or behavioral issues or ethics that they might not want to ask to my face - they're too embarrassed," he says.

Many of the teens who come to him are unaffiliated and never attended religious school or day school, and Blotner believes it is essential to reach out to this group.

"I want them to appreciate Judaism. I want them to realize that Judaism is not just sitting in a synagogue with a prayer shawl over their heads," he says. "I want them to feel that Judaism is fun."

Chabad of the East Valley is starting a new program where teens will teach at their Hebrew school, and also participate in a weekly discussion group that will delve into topics of interest to teens.

"We feel that by giving a teenager a sense of responsibility and a sense of accomplishment, there is a much better chance for them to remain involved with good friends," says Rabbi Mendy Deitsch.

And the friendship aspect is key to hooking kids, says Silverman.

"I think that first and foremost our students are looking for ways to engage socially. If we can manage to incorporate learning into that social involvement and also a framework for volunteering, we help to set the stage for lifelong learning and volunteering while encouraging our teens to develop social groups with other Jewish teens, including dating other Jews and ultimately marrying other Jews," she says.

Ava Keenen, director of education at Temple Chai, also believes that the social aspect allows teens to feel connected. The Tuesday night eighth-grade program at Temple Chai includes a pizza social along with classes.

"I think they stay involved because they're connected to their friends and their parents are connected here," Keenen says.

Rabbi Raphael Landesman of the Phoenix Community Kollel, agrees that connecting kids socially is an essential component to programs for teens. He runs programs at places where even unaffiliated teens can be found daily - the Valley's public schools. The longest-running club is the Jewish Student Union at Chaparral High School, which is also the largest with about 50 members.

The other clubs are Arizona Students for Israel at Horizon High School, J Crew of Central High School, and a new club at Arcadia High School. In addition, Landesman is working with students to start clubs at Pinnacle and Desert Mountain high schools.

"It really is a school club, which means that about once every other week, the kids get together and the idea is to promote Jewish identity," says Landesman, who provides a kosher lunch to the students during the meeting. "A lot of it is Jewish kids hanging out with other Jewish kids in the school."

Rabbi Jordan Goldson of Temple Kol Ami says his temple has discovered the key to hooking teens is to get the parents involved. At Kol Ami, at least one parent is required to attend the Sunday evening program with their eighth grader. The discussion-based program pairs teens with parents (not their own) to address a variety of topics.

"We've found that it's a very engaging, exciting process to have the students interact with their parents and with other people's parents," he says.

Goldson says Kol Ami places a heavy emphasis on community service work, which gives teens a sense of their own value.

"What we find is that when kids feel like they matter, that what they do makes a difference, then they want to be involved."

Contact the writer at beth_olson@jewishaz.com.