6 Years After Katrina

This morning, Rabbi Fred Guttman forwarded me this piece written by Rabbi David Young (Temple Sinai, North Miami Beach, FL) which is featured on the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism’s site:

http://blogs.rj.org/rac/2011/08/let_your_friends_property_be_a.html

We have been going to New Orleans since the 3rd year following the storm and its tragic aftermath.  With yesterday being the 6^th year since Katrina, I find the continuation of our work there so important: first, for the help that we continue to provide in New Orleans; also for the impact we are having on our teens at a key point in their lives.

Little mention was made of New Orleans and Katrina in the news broadcasts I was following over the weekend.  This is understandable since Hurrican Irene was making its way up the Atlantic coast.  Moreover, it is clear that most of New Orleans is “back,” that is until you visit the neighborhoods firsthand or venture to the east side of town.  The one thing I did see was this:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44305324/ns/us_news-life/

There is so much still to be done. Those working on rebuilding note that at least 10 years of work remain.  I am looking forward to our experience this year.  We will be there from December 1-4, 2011 with our friends and fellow volunteers from Temple Sinai.

Surviving the 1st Month of School: 20+ Tips & Resources

This is a posting for Temple Emanuel Religious School teachers. While we do not work in a day-to-day school, we can still learn from the best practices and ideas that our fellow educators have developed and used. Here is a posting from a teacher with many helpful hints for starting the year:

Surviving the 1st Month of School: 20+ Tips & Resources

Please email me other sites or links that you would like to share with our teaching staff.

Parenting: Why What We Do At Home and the Decisions We Make Matter

An article from the New York Jewish Week featured in this week's URJ email:

"And You Shall Teach Them Dilligently To Your Children ... And To Yourselves."

Diligence (Charitzut): Caroline Wozniacki, 2009

This past summer at URJ's 6 Point Camp, Jewish values were introduced every day or so.  During breakfast, there was a brief introduction followed by a video from the sports world to illustrate one of camp's central values. Some of the videos were taken from real events, others were produced by organizations, and a few were done at camp.  This was a very effective way to quickly enter into values discussions, something that made 6 Points more than just a sports camp.  In my view, it is one of the elements that made this experience a Jewish experience.

In its short history thus far, 6 Points has done many things right.  Their Jewish values approach is high on that list.  In my opinion, they also need to develop opportunities to delve deeper into these and other Jewish subjects, but that will come with time and more experience.  For example, I have always felt that since camp takes place during the summer, they should show the movie "Operation Thunderbolt" about the Entebbe raid which happened in the summer of 1976.

Every so often, I stumble upon a video that, like those we saw this summer, perfectly captures the values highlighted at 6 Points.  When I do, I will post them to the blog.

The value: Charitzut (diligence)
Sport: Women's Tennis
Subject: Caroline Wozniacki

September 2, 2011 – Forward.com

Balancing Sports and Life

I am reposting this article from the Jewish Daily Forward - an important message to all who play sports or have kids who play sports.

"September 2, 2011

Looking Back

Published August 25, 2011

Read more: http://forward.com/articles/141855/#ixzz1W2tmiaTG

There has always been a strong connection between Jews and baseball. In this excerpted editorial from August 6, 1903, Forverts Editor Ab Cahan offers some advice on the subject to a confounded father.

A father writes to ask advice about baseball. He thinks that baseball is a foolish and wild game. But his boy, who is already in the upper grades, is very eager to play. He’s not the only one. The majority of our immigrants have the same idea about it. They express it in such a way that it’s possible to see how the parents in the Yiddish neighborhood generally feel about baseball.

“It is said that one should teach their child how to play chess or checkers or goat & wolf [tsig un volf] or at least a game that sharpens the mind. That would be appreciated,” writes the father in his letter. “But what value does a game like baseball have? Nothing more than becoming crippled comes out of it. When I was a young boy we used to play ‘rabbits’ chasing and catching one another. But when we got older we stopped playing. Imagine a big boy in Russia playing tag, we would have treated him like he was crazy. And here in this highly educated America, adults play baseball! They run after the stupid ball made of hide and are as excited about it as little boys. I want my boy to grow up to be a mentsh not a wild American runner. He’s making me miserable, I can’t take it anymore.”**

This part of the letter captures the point of the question posed by the boy’s father. And the writer of this article has but one answer:

Let your boys play baseball and even become outstanding players as long as it doesn’t interfere with their studies and doesn’t put them in bad company.

For more on Jews and sports, including the full version of the editorial above; Douglas Stark blogging on basketball’s greatest team, and ‘Lions of Zion,’ an original novel about baseball serialized on The Arty Semite, visit www.forward.com/the-arty-semite."

What Should Be Our Focus? - Hunger and Homelessness

Last night, I spoke in Temple about hunger and poverty.  I will post my sermon and story later.  As I was reading the online version of the Greensboro News and Record, I came across this information which brings home just how severe the situation is in our state and in the Triad.

http://www.news-record.com/content/2011/08/19/article/editorial_persistent_poverty

Editorial: Persistent poverty
Saturday, August 20, 2011
(Updated 3:00 am)

Nearly one in four children in North Carolina lives in poverty and the number keeps growing.

They are the youngest casualties of the Great Recession's double-whammy of unemployment and housing foreclosures.

And the homelessness and hunger that often follow could have a lasting impact.

A study by the Annie E. Casey Foundation estimates that foreclosures have disrupted the lives of 90,000 children in the state. Another 250,000 have been hurt by one or both of their parents losing a job.

While the survey showed some progress with more children staying in school and fewer teens giving birth, the bleak economy gave our state one of the highest poverty rates in the nation. Adding pain to that misery is a new report on hunger that lists Winston-Salem as the worst metro area in the U.S. for the number of families struggling to feed their children (nearly 35 percent). Greensboro-High Point placed 17th at 28.4 percent.

When schools open next week, meals served in the cafeteria may be the best, and perhaps only food some will get all day. In many Triad schools, more than half of the students receive free or reduced-price meals.

That more are staying in school is encouraging because educating them for tomorrow's workforce is central to breaking poverty's stranglehold. Slashing school budgets and withholding funding for at-risk kids may seem the expedient thing to do, but it will have a lasting, costlier outcome.

Instead, there must be more emphasis on public education as a way out of poverty. That means identifying and mentoring children unable to keep pace with their peers. It means adequately funding the state's pre-school program. And it means helping parents better cope during hard times to hold families together.

The Rev. Mike Aiken, executive director of Urban Ministries, says the vast majority at his emergency shelter are families. And officials with the Second Harvest Food Bank, which delivers food to 18 Piedmont counties, told the Winston-Salem Journal that its shelves often are bare. The more fortunate among us can help by contributing money, food and time to any of the numerous community agencies and churches that provide assistance to people in need.

Unfortunately, hungry families may not be using all available resources. State officials say that about 500,000 North Carolinians who are eligible for the federal food stamps program have not applied. Enrolling might bring at least temporary relief.

Most importantly, politicians in Washington and Raleigh who talk a good game on job creation need to back it up with action.

Educating our young and putting the hard-core unemployed back to work are the best ways to fight poverty.

New book explores one of the shapers of American Jewish education

This appears in the August 26 edition of The Jewish Daily Forward. You can find the electronic version here:

http://forward.com/articles/141660/
I have included the complete article below:
"How One Man Shaped American Jewish Education
By Barry W. Holtz

The Benderly Boys and American EducationBy Jonathan Krasner
Brandeis University Press, 496 pages, $95


In the early years of the 20th century, Samson Benderly stood with the legendary figures of American Jewish life: He was recruited to New York by Judah Magnes; he knew Henrietta Szold and Barnett Brickner; he battled Solomon Schechter; he met regularly with his benefactor, Jacob Schiff, and his closest friend was Mordecai Kaplan. Indeed, Kaplan wrote of Benderly, “He is to me the most positive force in Jewish life today.”

Benderly, more than any other single individual, shaped the institutions of American Jewish education that we know today; but aside from historians of American Jewry and scholars of Jewish education, his name is virtually unknown. Now, Jonathan Krasner, an assistant professor of American Jewish history at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, has produced “The Benderly Boys and American Jewish Education” (Brandeis University Press, 2011), a prodigious and clear portrait of Benderly and his world.

It is not an exaggeration to say that this volume is the most important piece of historical writing about American Jewish education to have appeared in a generation. Although many fine scholars have written about various aspects of Jewish education in America, no one until now has taken such a comprehensive view of it. Krasner’s book delves deeply into the crucial period of the field — the 20th century — and contextualizes the history of American Jewish education both within Jewish life and within modern education. The wonderful collection of photographs on display throughout the book adds to its charm.

Benderly, born into a traditional Hasidic family in Safed, arrived in America in 1898 from Palestine. Though he came to Baltimore for medical studies, he was drawn to Jewish teaching and eventually left medicine to become an educator.

Benderly was a visionary and was capable of inspiring others to follow his vision. He developed around him a group of remarkable young people who shared his excitement about changing the face of American Jewish education. These were the “boys” of the book’s title: Alexander Dushkin, Isaac Berkson, Emanuel Gamoran and many others. Krasner also points out the importance of a group of “Benderly girls” (such as Rebecca Aaronson Brickner and Libbie Suchoff Berkson), many of whom had important careers in Jewish education, though most of them did not go into the work of institutional leadership, which was more characteristic of male career paths at the time. An excellent companion to this book, therefore, is the 2010 book “The Women Who Reconstructed American Jewish Education, 1910–1965” (Brandeis). Edited by Carol Ingall, it comprises portraits of influential female Jewish educators.

When Benderly began his work, Jewish education was a hodgepodge of disorganized institutions, profoundly incompetent teachers, nonexistent textbooks and undefined curricula. Studies were often conducted in “dilapidated, dark, stuffy, and often filthy conditions.” Benderly’s main mission was to organize, modernize and Americanize Jewish education. He was, despite his traditional upbringing, a cultural Jew, and he saw Jewish education in the light of Ahad Ha’am’s Zionist dream and his focus on Jewish peoplehood. Therefore, Benderly placed a strong emphasis on Hebrew-language acquisition, with a focus on the Hebrew of the modern world, not that of the synagogue and traditional texts. It was Benderly more than anyone else who promoted the “natural method” in Hebrew education, using the approach that has characterized the ulpan, or Hebrew language school, in Israel and “immersion” techniques in foreign language learning today that have a strong emphasis on conversation and comprehension in real-life situations. In addition, Benderly introduced “technology” into Jewish education, developing magic-lantern (an early type of image projector) slides to use in instruction on Jewish holidays and the Bible. (If he were alive today, it would be fair to assume that he would be promoting social media and the Internet as means for Jewish education.)

Benderly also insisted on a system for training and accrediting teachers. He wanted to apply the findings of educational “science” (what we today would call “research”) to Jewish education. And he strove to create an organized, centralized system of support for, and supervision of, Jewish education, dealing with curricula, standard hours and classroom environments. He also understood the importance of the “informal” aspects of education, and one of his disciples, Albert Schoolman, was the prime mover in creating what is arguably the greatest and most original contribution of American Jewish education: the summer educational camp. All this flowed from Benderly and his followers.

Although many of Benderly’s dreams were not fully realized, Jewish education came onto the agenda of the leadership of the American Jewish community through his efforts and those of his followers. And, if nothing else, in recent years the discussion about Jewish education has become even more prominent than ever before.

Krasner’s book is precise in documenting some of the enduring problems of Jewish education, highlighting, in Benderly’s time, some of the same issues that still haunt us today: the quality and training of teachers; the tension between students’ secular education and their Jewish education; the environment in the home and its support or lack of support for Jewish education; the eternal funding issues at the communal level; the battle over Hebrew language; the complicated relationship between Jewish community federations and Jewish education. “The Benderly Boys,” therefore, is essential preparation for seeing how we came to where we are today, for both good and ill.

Although Krasner’s work focuses on what is arguably the core narrative of 20th-century American Jewish educational history, there are many aspects of the story that the volume was not able to address — themes and events that await other works of scholarship. Education in Orthodox and Haredi communities are examples, as those worlds grapple with issues related to the education of women and to “elite” versus “folk” education. Another unaddressed event is the growth of day schools, particularly outside the Orthodox world. The book does not cover adult Jewish learning or the growth of Israeli education as a field and a focus.

Although Krasner looks at the beginnings of the communal and organizational side of Jewish education in the 20th century, no historian has comprehensively studied what has happened over the past two decades to the very system that Benderly and his boys helped create: the centralized, communitywide agencies responsible for Jewish education, whose role and function have changed radically. A striking indicator is the several name changes that have occurred: What started as the The Bureau of Education of the New York Jewish Community — the agency Benderly came to New York to create — is now, after several name changes, the Jewish Education Project. The sense of stability and authority conveyed by “bureau” has now evolved into something as ephemeral as a “project.” And the official-sounding imprimatur of “New York” (as if it was almost a quasi-governmental agency) has completely vanished. This alone says a great deal about the changes in the structure of American Jewish education today.

Finally, Krasner’s focus on the personalities of Benderly and his followers makes one long for biographical scholarship about other great figures of Jewish education whose work has not been well documented, including such individuals as Shlomo Bardin (founder of the Brandeis Camp Institute), Louis Newman (founding principal of the former Akiba Hebrew Academy in Philadelphia, among many other accomplishments) and my own teacher, Seymour Fox, both a thinker and an institution builder, quite possibly the person closest in charisma and vision to Benderly that I have ever met.

“The Benderly Boys and American Jewish Education” is an outstanding work of scholarship. It has a strong narrative drive, yet captures the big themes beyond a mere recitation of facts. Superbly documented and compelling, this work establishes Krasner as the leading historian of American Jewish education for the present generation. I eagerly look forward to what he will produce next and what his work may inspire in other scholars.

Barry W. Holtz is dean of the William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education and the Theodore and Florence Baumritter professor of Jewish education at The Jewish Theological Seminary."

“When should a child begin his/her religious education?”

This is the question posed in this Friday's electronic edition of URJ's 10 Minutes of Torah. Melanie Cole Goldberg's answer to this question appears in its entirety below:

"Like most things that seem simple at first glance, the question about when to begin religious education is more complex when we look a little deeper. When it comes to religious education, specifically Jewish education, our hearts, our souls and our minds have to be touched by what we are learning and experiencing to have any true meaning and connection. Ideally we are teaching for deep meaning and connection to our faith, our peoplehood, our values and our culture. Several Jewish sources discuss the topic of educational instruction and a daily example can be found in our siddur when we read the V’ahavta section of the Sh’ma. We are told to “Love Adonai Your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. Take to heart these instructions with which I charge you this day. Impress them upon your children.”1 Here the assumption is that religious education should begin with the parents, since parents are the first and most important teachers of their children. But what happens if parents are not equipped for the religious instruction of their children?

This is not a new problem of the 21st century. Indeed it has been a concern since the days of the Babylonian Talmud, where in Bava Batra 21a the Sages discuss how parents should teach their children, yet realize that this isn’t necessarily enough. They continue the conversation by directing parents to bring their children to local schools for learning. Here is where we recognize that religious education is a more complex issue. The good news is that the organized Jewish community can play an important supportive role to parents. Today we have the resources, and tools to bring Jewish learning to all ages.2 We know that parents and children learn from each other and when they do, they develop skills for and emotional connections to the wonderful world of Jewish life.

At a conference of Reform Jewish educators in 1987 I remember Harlene Appleman, the director of Jewish Experiences for Families in Detroit, teach, “When you educate a parent, you educate an entire generation.” She said it perfectly and was a leader of a movement that promoted parent and family educational experiences so parents could model Jewish engagement and learn something for themselves as well. Parents, especially new parents are “looking for support and connections; [and] unengaged parents are receptive to overtures from the community.”3 As a Jewish educator involved with my temple’s family Shabbat program for families of young children, I see firsthand how our supportive program has transformed the lives of the parents and children who participate. Like many such programs throughout URJ congregations, we sing, pray, eat, study and create a memory in an informal, joyous setting. The parents and children have a separate time for learning on their own level, and then reunite so the parents can teach and guide their children in a creative activity. Both parents and children look forward to sharing Shabbat and the experience together with the learning community that coalesces over time. In some cases, the child takes the lead and insists that the family never miss a scheduled meeting. Children are so smart. They feel a good thing happening and they want to be a part of it.

Learning and having experiences that touch the heart, soul and mind at a young age will pay off in later years if these efforts are continued to be nurtured. Research from the URJ’s Portraits of Learning survey describe how high retention rates in congregations correlate to places where students start their schooling earlier, where family and parents are engaged in meaningful educational content, and where community building through social interaction is fostered.4 In addition, we know that informal educational settings such as NFTY and youth groups, Jewish camps, and Israel experiences are critical to the positive identification and sense of belonging that keeps Jews connected.

The question of when to start Jewish education needs to be seriously considered. Both adults and children need to be embraced and guided throughout life. That is the simple and the complex answer all in one."

1 "V'ahavta." Mishkan T'filah. Ed. Elyse D. Frishman. New York: CCAR Press, 2007. Print.
2 For more information check out the URJ's learning, parenting, and early childhood education pages.
3 Rosen, Mark,I., Executive Summary, Jewish Engagement from Birth: A Blueprint for Outreach to First-Time Parents, Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies, Brandeis University, November 2006.
4 Schaap, Eli, Executive Summary, The Retention of Students Following B’nei Mitzvah in Reform Congregational Schools, Independent researcher for the Union for Reform Judaism and Program Officer for Education and Research, The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life, December 2008.

Additional resources:
Vogelstein, Ilene. "Early Childhood Jewish Education If Not Now When?." What We Now Know About Jewish Education. Comp. Roberta Louis Goodman, Paul A. Flexner and Linda Dale Bloomberg. Los Angeles: Torah Aura Productions, 2008. Print.

Wertlieb, Donald, and Mark Rosen. "Inspiring Jewish Connections: Outreach to Parents With Infants and Toddlers." Zero To Three. (2008): 11-17. Print.

Melanie Cole Goldberg, RJE is an Educational Specialist with the URJ working from her home office in Miami FL. She is an active member of Temple Judea in Coral Gables, FL where she teaches 5th grade Hebrew school and coordinates Shabbat programming for families of young children.

Newsletter on Jewish Camping

Within the past few days, I got an email from jdata.com titled JData Revealed. According to this email, JData "is a public repository of information about the organizations that comprise the Jewish education system in North America."
Jewish camping is the focus of their inaugural e-newsletter.
Here are links to the many of the newsletter's articles:
1. The Power of JData and Overnight Camps by Jeremy Fingerman, CEO, Foundation for Jewish Camp https://www.jdata.com/Documents/Newsletters/August2011/

2. JData Revealed: Strength of the Field https://www.jdata.com/Documents/Newsletters/August2011/CampResearch2.html

3. I Believe In Camp...But Show Me the Data, Dan Brown, Founder, eJewishPhilanthropy.comhttps://www.jdata.com/Documents/Newsletters/August2011/BrownArticle.html

4. New Insights, New Opportunities, Paul Reichenbach, Director of Camping and Israel Programs,
Union for Reform Judaismhttps://www.jdata.com/Documents/Newsletters/August2011/ReichenbachArticle.html

5. JData & The Jewish Camp Movements Steven Weinberg, Executive Director, Habonim Dror Camp Associationhttps://www.jdata.com/Documents/Newsletters/August2011/WeinbergArticle.html

There are a few more articles that do not lend themselves to easy links.  Please refer to the main site and sign up for JData Revealed if these areas are of interest to you.  Most importantly, we should do all that we can to increase the number of youth from our communities attending Jewish overnight summer experiences.

Barnabas Network - Source of Hope for Greensboro/Triad Residents Who Need Furniture

The Barnabas Network of Greensboro helps to get gently-used or restored furniture to those who truly need it.   I learned about this organization a few years ago and a Temple congregant, Merri Romberg, works for them.  Our middle school students have volunteered with them.  I highly encourage participation with this very holy organization.  The following video is worth the 15 minutes it takes to watch.  Truth in advertising: I am one of the clergy who speaks in the video.



If you are in Greensboro, consider bringing groups to volunteer with them or donate what you can to help.  If you are outside of our area and there is not an organization like this, do what you can to create one.



Link to Barnabas video:



http://vimeo.com/23655883

The best laid plans...

My every intention heading into the summer at 6 Points was to do a write-up every day.  It is now mid-August and I can only say that my experience as Camp faculty this year was equally as special as it was last year.  The days were filled with amazing activities and I returned each night to my room with so many ideas to write about - but little energy to do so.  I will say this, I was taken by the way that Camp wove key Jewish values into the daily schedule.  A big thumbs-up goes out to Alyson Bazely, 6 Points' "Coach" of Jewish Education, for her work in making this happen.

Here is a photo of me with 6 Points' 2nd Session Greensboro campers:

I also visited our youth who spent the summer at Camp Judaea in Hendersonville, NC.  Here are a few shots from that visit:

My time at Camp Coleman this summer was, with sincere regrets, quite short.  2011 was my daughter's eighth summer there (a few were as a faculty Kids' Camp camper).  While our numbers at Coleman were a bit lower this year, I am not bummed.  The campers who go love it.  AND, this summer we had two representatives from Temple on staff.  Joshua Podolle (Machon) and Jenna Schleien (2nd year Counselor) attended Coleman for many years and did us proud by taking the next step as Camp leaders!

Last Friday night (August 12, 2011) was Welcome Back From Camp Shabbat at Temple Emanuel.  I heard of this idea at the NewCAJE which was held in Greensboro this year.  We had a great showing of alumni from many camps, including some parents of young kids who attended Coleman years ago.  What appear below are my remarks from that service:

Welcome Back From Camp Shabbat

Just by show of hands… how many of us here tonight have ever been to an outdoor Shabbat service?  How many of you have ever been in a summer play?  How many of you have ever screamed at the top of your lungs during a Maccabiah?  How many have ever banged on the table during Birkat HaMazon, the after meal blessing?  How many of you have ever played sports with, been in activities with, or even lived with Israelis?

This is just a short list of questions that kids who attend Jewish camps have no trouble answering.  Jewish camps provide these experiences and so much more.

Tonight, as I mentioned earlier, we are trying something new.  It is early August, usually a quiet time for Greensboro.  Yet, it is also around now that all of our youth are back from their sleep away camp experiences.  Why not have a Shabbat where we welcome back our friends who have been away and celebrate what is so special about Jewish overnight summer camps?

When I first came to Temple back in 2003, Rabbi Guttman and I talked about the importance of Jewish summer camps.  That next summer, I was one of the faculty Rabbis at Camp Coleman, the Reform movement’s summer camp in northern Georgia.  Since then, I have spent anywhere from a week to two weeks each summer as a camp Rabbi.  Two years ago, I began working with the 6 Points Sports Academy, the Reform movement’s newest camp which operates on the campus of the American Hebrew Academy.

I love Jewish overnight camps.  I love them because they are filled with amazing activities.  Each camp boasts similar offerings; each camp also has something that separates it from the others.  Want to go to a place with a world-class art program or drool over Apple Brown Betty every Friday night?  Then Camp Coleman is for you.  Want to experience top-notch Israel programs, an amazing climbing tower and zip-line, and ride horses here in North Carolina?  Then Camp Judaea (or CJ) is for you.  Want to play sports like baseball, lacrosse, tennis, or never leave the swimming pool, all the while being guided by some of the best coaches around?  Then you’ll want to go to the 6 Points Sports Academy.

These are just a few of the camps that our kids attend each summer.  Studies have shown time and again that attended a Jewish camp is one of the most effective ways to build lifelong Jewish involvement.  Having seen this for so many years first-hand, it is not hard to understand why.  Judaism is part of everything at camp, often without being so obvious.  You make friends, you have fun, you call things by their Hebrew names, you sing, you dance, you never want to leave.  And when you do, you can’t wait to get back.

Camps supplement and complement what we do at Temple.

We go to Israel with our friends from Camp.  During our high school years, we take the next step in Jewish leadership working at a camp or even going to leadership camps such as those offered by BBYO.

I once heard a corporate recruiter remark that he looked for resumes showing a job candidate had spent the summer as a camp counselor.  He preferred these to candidates who had worked as summer interns.  I was a bit confused by this.  I always thought that summer internships were more prestigious whereas camp was too much fun, too light to be taken seriously.  His response: when you work in an office, it’s a 9-5 job.  As an intern, you may do some serious things, but it’s just a likely that you’ll spent hours as a gopher.  At summer camps, the job is 24/7.  And you are responsible for the well-being of anywhere from 8-12 kids.  Give me a camp counselor any day.

Camps have always trained the future leaders of the Jewish community; our Rabbis, Cantors, and educators.  What is also true is that most of the people who go to Jewish summer camps do not go on to work for the Jewish community.  But they do go on to make Jewish life central to who they are.  They do go on to make Judaism, Israel, and their Temple central to their families.  Shabbat is important for them.  And often-times, the friends that they make during the summer months become friends for life.

For those of us who are beyond the camp years, I encourage you to check out the websites of the camps our kids attend.  A few of them are listed in tonight’s worship handout.  To everyone here tonight who was at camp we say “welcome home.”  My hope and prayer is that you will share your stories with everyone at Temple and that you will encourage at least one friend to follow you to camp next summer.

May every summer be filled with the goodness that you experienced this summer.  May your Jewish experiences be an inspiration to all.  AMEN