Teen Activities - Dor Hadash ("New Generation")

This year we have launched Dor Hadash ("New Generation"), an exciting new opportunity for teens in grades 8-12 at West End Synagogue.  The program is open to non-West End teens as well.  Dor Hadash meets every Tuesday from 6-7:30 pm, and includes a light supper (usually falafel or pizza).

Tuition is $360 for WES and non-WES teens and $180 for WES teens serving as madrichim/madrichot in the JFLL program. No teen will be left out for financial reasons.  Click here to download the registration form.

See below for details about the four series; click here to download the calendar for 2012-13.

• Oral History Project with Susan Schorr (first Tuesday): Now in its seventh year, West End's Oral History Project has conducted more than 50 videotaped interviews with senior members of the congregation about their lives. We've heard stories about partying with Eleanor Roosevelt, marching with Martin Luther King Jr., growing up during the Depression, Holocaust survival and Haganah training in secret. The teens are delighted to recognize and greet past interviewees at services, and have paid shiva calls to the families of those they interviewed.
• "Storahtelling" with Hazzan Ayelet Piatigorsky (second Tuesday): So the Bar/Bat Mitzvah is in the past and so is Torah study, right? Wrong! Using the Storahtelling method, Hazzan Ayelet will be turning Torah into theater. Weaving traditional and contemporary midrash, her monthly sessions will explore the unheard voices in Torah. The sessions will culminate on May 19, 2012, in a Shabbat morning Storahtelling experience written and performed by the teen participants.
• "AP Judaism: Reconstructing Jewish Tradition for Today," with Rabbi Marc Margolius (third Tuesday): This class will review all the basics of Jewish tradition with an eye to reinterpreting these elements to make them relevant for the lives of the participants. We will be following the same curriculum Rabbi Marc will use for Na'aleh, the Adult Bar/Bat Mitzvah program, but looking at each topic through the eyes of sophisticated teens.
• "Israel Today: Why Should I Care?" with JFLL Director Mike Wikes (fourth Tuesday): A look at some of the organizations reaching out to Diaspora Jews to make an impression. What do they have in common? What are the differences? Do they make you want to visit? Do they make you care about Israel? Should you care?