Youth Activities
Every study that has been done about Jewish identity development
demonstrates that intensive Jewish experiences such as summer camps,
youth groups, and Israel are critical factors that determine a young
person's Jewish commitment and identity. Religious school must be
supplemented by some combination of these other experiences to
reinforce and strengthen what your child gains from our school program.
To that end, we offer two youth groups, one for 6th and 7th graders,
the other for the high school community. Each group meets monthly for
social, recreational and educational events and activities. Our goals
are to strengthen our students' connections to each other, to provide
opportunities for friendship to develop and to create a youth community
in the congregation.
There are many additional opportunities available to your child,
both within and beyond Beth Elohim. Many of these programs are popular
and in demand. Many local Jewish summer camps, for example, fill up in
December or January. Students are encouraged to attend:
- The Prozdor High School for Jewish studies in Newton
- Jewish summer camps
- Summer programs such as Genesis at Brandeis University
- Panim el Panim (Face to Face), a program of the Washington Institute for Jewish Leadership and Values
- March of Living, a semi-annual pilgrimages to Poland and Israel for Jewish teenagers from around the world
- A wide array of Israel experiences, including summer trips and academic programs. An increasingly popular option is Israel family trips
- Winter Camp in Dnepropetrovsk, during which Boston area students run a camp program for day school children in our Ukranian "sister city"
Because we believe that these experiences are critical to our young people's Jewish development, Beth Elohim is committed to:
- provide such experiences whenever possible
- provide our families with information and material about such programs; and
- assist our families when necessary to find subsidies or scholarships to defray the cost of these programs.
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