It’s considered 75 percent social and 75 percent educational.
At least that’s how Rabbi Jessica Barolsky, director of lifelong learning at Congregation Emanu-El B’ne Jeshurun wants everyone to view Kulanu, a newly formed, collaborative program made up of teenagers from three area congregations.
Kulanu, which means “all of us,” is held every Tuesday evening to bring teens together to not only learn more about their faith, but also to eat a meal together and engage in conversation about common interests.
It is the brainchild of Barolsky, Sherry Blumberg, the interim education director at Congregation Beth Israel Ner Tamid, and Barbara Shimansky, director of youth education at Congregation Sinai.
The program will rotate locations throughout the year. It started at Emanu-El in September.
Students have the option to gather before classes to do homework, have dinner and socialize. They first attend a core class, and then their chosen elective.
Each semester four different electives are offered. This semester’s electives were “God Talk,” photography, “Jews in the News” and cooking.
Maya Goldbaum, 15, loves the elective part of the program. She said it was most interesting to explore faith and hear about what others have to say. She recalled an activity that challenged her.
“One time we were given a bunch of pieces of paper that had the entire Friday night service on them but all the page numbers were crossed out and we had to try to put it in order.”
Goldbaum was excited to participate to meet new people with similar interests. “I know everyone that’s in here from my temple, but I didn’t know the ones from the other temples, so it was nice to meet people more my age,” she said.
Aviva Silverman, 14, was making connections with others, not only on a social level, but also on an intellectual one.
“I learned that sharing your thoughts really benefits others and really benefits yourself because you can learn so much more from learning from other people,” she said.
Silverman chose “Jews in the News” as her elective this semester.
“We talk about famous Jews who are from…sports or in entertainment,” she said.” We usually learn about it and then watch a video or listen to a song or look at lyrics of songs and relate them to other stuff.”
The goal of the program is to give teens a safe and fun place to go after school that will not only enrich their social lives, but also to strengthen their faith.
Parents have been supportive of the program and encouraging of their students to attend. Larry Wexler, parent of sophomore participant Ryan Wexler, said it offers his son a good place to decompress after a long day at school and his son is getting more than just a faith-based education.
“I like the idea that there’s more to it than just going to an academic situation,” Wexler said. “I like the social aspects, I like the fact that he’s connecting with other kids that he wouldn’t have necessarily met. He likes to come here and hang out.”
The idea for the program began about three years ago when Shimansky heard congregants talk about getting teens together for this reason.
“I guess it was during my first year [at Congregation Sinai] that I caught wind that there had been talk on and off for years to do a combined teen program,” she said. “We just kind of more seriously started talking about it at the beginning of last year. We had a couple of meetings with families to get their input.”
The three congregations are of similar sizes and each has a curriculum and approach to education that is aligned with the others. All three women decided that strengthening the teen program and developing these classes were important ways for the congregations to work together.
The program replaces the previous religious schooling for teenagers and attendance is part of each synagogue’s tenth grade program leading to affirmation, Bikkurim and Kabbalat Torah.
The program runs the same time as the school year. It costs $300 each year and is open to students age 13 to 18 in all three congregations, with certain exceptions for students from other synagogues.
For more information, contact any of the three participating congregations.
Rebecca Levine is a freelance writer living in Menomonee Falls.
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