The 2012 Day of Discovery will be the 13th in this annual series of communal Jewish learning events — and that, of course, means it has to celebrate its bar mitzvah.
And so it will during the event, to be held at the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center on Sunday, Jan. 15, 8:30 a.m.-3:15 p.m. In fact, according to Alice Jacobson, director of the Creativity Center of the Coalition for Jewish Learning, DOD 2012 will do so in several ways.
Of course, the main celebration will be the concluding program, at 2:15 p.m. There will be, said Jacobson, “a big sheet cake;” a toast; some remarks by Rabbi Marc E. Berkson, who is marking his 13th year at Congregation Emanu-El B’ne Jeshurun; some music; and each guest will receive a commemorative pen.
But Jacobson also said that each of the three time slots of educational sessions — 9-10 a.m.; 11 a.m.-noon; and 1-2 p.m. — will include among its selections one offering that relates to b’nai mitzvah ceremonies.
Among the 12 offerings in the first session is scheduled one on “Make Your Own Tallit.” The nine offerings in session two include a discussion of the Torah portion “Lech l’cha as a Metaphor for a Bar/Bat Mitzvah Process.”
The ten offerings in the final session include one on “Designing Meaningful Social Action Projects for You and Your Family,” presumably with an eye toward mitzvah projects that often are included in b’nai mitzvah ceremonies today.
The b’nai mitzvah items won’t be the only new or distinctive features, said Jacobson. “For the first time in probably many years, we’re going to have special programming for kids,” she said, both for families with pre-school children, and for children 7- to 12-years-old.
That is in addition to the varied and new educational offerings during the three sessions, all presented by members of the Milwaukee-area Jewish community, and ranging in subject from politics to culture, religion to sports, mysticism to music.
See the rest of this article in the January edition.
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