GROWING THE COMMUNITY & SHRINKING DIFFERENCES: Chai Mitzvah Teens at HHAI

In teaching about G’milut Chasadim, (Acts of Lovingkindness) Rabbi Jenni Greenspan
gave all the students lollipops, but told them none of them could bend their elbows!

They soon figured out that all they had to do was feed each other.

 

Lonica Solomon, Middle School Coordinator at Hasten Hebrew Academy in Indianapolis, used her creativity, and the Chai Mitzvah Mixtape curriculum, to include the whole Indianapolis community in deepening her students’ connections to one another and their spirituality.

Ms. Solomon told us about the Chai Mitzvah Teen program in her school, what inspired her to include the broader community, and the impact this program has had.

Miriam Gettinger, HHAI principal, attended a session last spring with Matt Bar, the Bible Rapper and author of the Chai Mitzvah Mixtape curriculum.  She worked with David Helibron, Chai Mitzvah IGNITE Coordinator, to get this program to the school in order to bring more community stakeholders to Jewish education. At HHAI, Chai Mitzvah has been incorporated into the middle school advisory program. We chose to do that so that all 24 of our 6th through 8th graders would be able to participate.  We place a big emphasis on social-emotional learning and do our best to foster a safe and positive community for our middle schoolers.  We do a lot of team building activities with the students and the Chai Mitzvah curriculum has provided us with a Jewish moral scaffolding.  With a dual curriculum at our school (Judaic and secular) time is always hard to find, but we managed to get the group together after lunch in the library once a month for CM fun.

I’m a mother of two small kiddos (4 and 7) who both go to the school and a member of one of the reform synagogues in Indianapolis. And during the 12 years I have been teaching at HHAI, I have always been surprised and disappointed that more members of my community did not send their kids to our school.  I know the high quality of education we provide our students, and I also see what amazing humans matriculate out of the school.  Our students are so confident, resilient – they know who they are and no matter how they personally or culturally connect to Judaism, they have a strong Jewish identity and sense of belonging.  I tried to talk the school up in my circles over the years but to little avail.  I was sad that my own rabbi wasn’t comfortable sending his daughter because he perceived the school as theologically orthodox and not welcoming to other Jewish philosophies.  I knew he was telling this same story to other congregants.  I had heard similar comments from others.  There seemed to be several of our families who did not see our school as truly serving the entire Jewish community, and while I could respectfully disagree, I could not provide any hard data to support my position.

When the principal, Mrs. Gettinger, initially asked if I would head up the programming, I was not quite sure what it would entail.  As the middle school team liason, it made sense for me to be the one to coordinate it.   Once I read over the curriculum, I felt that while I could learn a lot from it, I may not be totally qualified to teach it.  I was no Jewish educator – I’m a science teacher 🙂    But then I thought to myself that this could be our way to connect and branch out to all of our families’ affiliations.

It would present a more diverse face of  “Jewishness” to show our students
so that they might see their own reflections in the Judaics they were being taught.
I hoped it would deepen their connections to one another and their spirituality.
I also thought it was the perfect opportunity to put to bed the notion that our school
is for only one religious group.  Our Indianapolis Jewish community
has some organizations that unify us, and I wanted our school to be one of them.

Since we began the programming, I think that we have been able to establish more positive relationships between our school and the reform and reconstructionist clergy of Indianapolis.  As time passes, I believe that will extend into better connections with their congregations and more secure enrollment among the families from those congregations.

Rabbis and Community Leaders have led the sessions.

Dori Chandler, an experienced Jewish educator from the Butler University Hillel and dear personal friend, was our first guest instructor. Associate Rabbi Scott Fox and Rabbi Brett Krichiver from Indianapolis Hebrew Congregation (Reform, Indy) each led a session. Rabbi Jennifer Greenspan from the congregation Beth El Zedek (Reconstructionist, Indy) also came.  Before our school shut its doors due to the Covid19 outbreak, Rabbi Benjamin Sendrow from Congregation Shaarey Tefilla (Conservative, Carmel) and Rabbi Justin Kerber (Reform, Carmel) were scheduled to come and teach on different dates.  Later this month, we will do a Zoom meeting with the middle schoolers and Rabbi Kerber.

The most successful activities were the ones that were led by people who had experience as Jewish educators of young people and that met with me and Hagai Moalem, who teaches middle school Judaics at HHAI, beforehand.  This way, we could plan an activity that the guest instructor would enjoy and be comfortable with as well as ensure our students would connect to the lesson.

Meeting with the person ahead of time enabled us to anchor the session with one or two of the source texts of the original lesson.  It allowed us to narrow the learning goals so we could effectively reach them in the time allotted.  We also were able to brainstorm some fun activities that would get our kids there.  For example, in teaching about G’milut Chasadim, Rabbi Jenni Greenspan gave all the students lollipops but told them none of them could bend their elbows!  They loved that.  They soon figured out that all they had to do was feed each other and the rest of the discussion on what it meant to do these “acts of love” was well received.  Another really fun and successful session was with Rabbi Fox who came to teach about Equanimity.  He had students play “cross the river,” in three teams which is a sort of obstacle course with several rules, but the biggest rule is that every last person in the group needs to be helped across the river safely.  This activity was very meaningful to the students and truly helped them to understand and connect to a difficult and abstract concept.

I think that our students’ horizons have been broadened by the Chai Mitzvah experiences they had this year.  They have shown more genuine enjoyment of Jewish learning.  And my colleagues and I really have enjoyed the sessions since we “outsourced” it.  We have all – Jewish and non Jewish alike – been able to connect better with one another and the students when we all operate under a common spiritual theme that is clearly communicated and led by a professional.

For more information about the Chai Mitzvah Teen Program, contact Nina Woldin, nina@chaimitzvah.org

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