It has been some time since Jesse Brooks was involved at Congregation Beth Am. For a different perspective, here are some thoughts from Beth Am students who also are now in college:
“The teachers and classes encouraged me to wrestle with my beliefs, find meaning in tradition and embrace the joy of Jewish culture. They have made me proud of who I am and have helped me realize how much the tradition lives in me and is applicable to my own life.”
— Ariele Greenfield, UCLA
“I still look at my confirmation year as one of the most instrumental to my development as a Jew. In that year I was given the resources to question my faith and learn from some of the greatest teachers. This type of education and support was constant throughout my religious growth at Beth Am.”
— Katie Harter, George Washington University
“Beth Am’s emphasis on community, far from being a distancing factor for me, was the reason I kept coming back. While Beth Am’s Hebrew School and Sunday School programs were not my 10-year-old self’s first choice for my free time, without even realizing it, I made some of my closest friends then, who I am still in touch with today. Judaism, for me, has always been about the community, not the community of business transactions or dates, while those can occur too, but the inexplicable bond I feel with my Jewish friends and the support I know I have from my congregation. Without that community to begin with, the history and traditions of Judaism would be meaningless.
“In 10th grade, I entered Beth Am’s confirmation class. For the first time, I was allowed to really ask questions about what Reform Judaism was and foster close relationships with my rabbis and peers in a comfortable setting. It was during these discussions that I really began to understand the actual premises of the religion and why I was at Beth Am, aside from the weekly shmoozing over bagels. We talked about the Messiah, Israel, social justice and God, and I began to see how the games in Sunday school to learn biblical names and Hebrew letters could actually help me piece together the complexity of Judaism.
Now, in college, I find myself pursuing it even more, as a religion major and co-president of Hillel at my school. Judaism, for me, is not political. It is, and, I realize, has always been, a place for me to question and practice the deepest parts of my identity, and to participate in a warm, inclusive community. And that journey began at Beth Am.”
— Sarah Lauing, Middlebury College
At Congregation Beth Am we believe that Jewish education should be a partnership between the synagogue and our member families. We strive to give students the tools, the inspiration and the opportunities to continue study into adulthood so that they can ask increasingly complex questions of our tradition. We do in fact emphasize community in all our learning. We explicitly encourage friendships among children and among families to create communities of practice so that Judaism isn’t just something that our congregants do in our buildings but something that extends into our homes and into our lives. Our education programs are nationally recognized and studied, and we were one of four out of approximately 900 congregations to receive a biannual Congregation of Learners award from the Union for Reform Judaism.
What does this mean practically? In our pre-kindergarten through fifth-grade Shabbaton program more than 60 families celebrate weekly on Shabbat afternoon and study in family and age-based groups. Toledot courses engage parents of first- through12th-grade students in studying what their children are learning but at an adult level. Our Tzavta program brings sixth-grade Hebrew program families together monthly to study, attend Shabbat services and join together in Shabbat meals. Hundreds of adults at Beth Am are learning in a wide variety of levels and subjects, including weekly classes in Talmud, Jewish mysticism, Jewish history, prophets, Jewish spirituality and Torah.
Our culture around money is guided by a commitment to being an egalitarian and accessible congregation, a house of all the people, not just the elite. Special seats in our sanctuary have never been reserved for those who pay more. There are no names on plaques or the walls of our building recognizing congregants who were able to make large donations; in fact, donors are recognized in a very low-key manner and never by announcing the level of their gift. While many of our congregants have been unemployed or underemployed in the past few years, none have been asked to leave the congregation or pull their children from religious school because of financial difficulties.
I am sorry that Jesse Brooks has not felt comfortable enough at Beth Am to be an active congregant in his high school years and early 20s. I personally invite him, and others struggling with the same issues, to reacquaint themselves with Beth Am or other Bay Area congregations that are seeking to build real communities of Jewish living and learning. His essay has sparked an important conversation, in which we hope to include him, and we are dreaming up new ways to help college-aged young adults to connect in more meaningful ways.
Amy Asin is president of Congregation Beth Am in Los Altos Hills.
TWO VIEWS:
Does Jewish education pass the test?