Around the Shabbat Table
Vision / Description: Empowerment of parents as moral leaders in their families by connecting them to tools for fashioning meaningful Jewish family discussions
Family & Student Goals and Objectives
- Recognize Shabbat as family connection time
- Boost parents¡¦ moral leadership at home
- Know available resources for Jewish family discussions
- Build self-confidence of parents¡¦ in leading conversations around Jewish texts and values.
- Understand connection between Jewish values and texts, family and classroom conversations, and concrete actions to improve peoples¡¦ lives and communities
- Recognition that connection with Jewish texts and values provides resources for challenges facing them and their world
- Empowerment to participate and lead meaningful Jewish ethical discussions and to be validated for contributing towards building Jewish learning and Jewish life
Staff Goals and Objectives
- Recognize that family discussions and learning integrates with student learning in other settings: classroom and informal education settings
- Know available resources for Jewish values, learning and teaching
- Value and reinforce staff role as educators of families as well as of students
- Teachers, youth professionals, rabbis and other staff develop their own tools for promoting and enabling meaningful Jewish ethical conversations in families
Integration and Alignment with Other Learning, Including:
- School: Shabbat, Jewish values curriculum
- Family and parent education
- Staff learning
The Learning Experiences [customized for each session and series]
- Video clips of family Shabbat conversations (under development)
- Sample discussion triggers available (will be posted online)
- Identifying elements of successful family conversation
- Respect
- Time and space
- Available and accessible resources
- Stories: Biblical, rabbinic, secular
- Relevance to real world of families and kids
- Further learning opportunities
- Guide to family action plan - making a difference in our world
- Do it Yourself training - building your own Shabbat family discussions
- Follow up: Do It Yourself, distance family coaching, distance staff coaching or follow-up programs
Evaluation
- Video sharing of family conversations on You Tube
- Critical Friends (among staff or parents)
- Blog / VLog to share experiences
- Staff Observations (when used in program, rather than at home)
Recommended Opportunities
- Family, Parent and Adult Education
- High School & Middle School Classes
- Staff Orientation and Professional Learning
- Jewish Connectivity in Residence weekend
A Success Story
In a program founded and directed by Rabbi Samlan, thousands of individuals and families throughout the world received weekly Shabbat family discussion starters. Dozens of writers were trained in how to develop materials to empower parents to be the Jewish ethical discussion leader in their families. Writers included rabbis, educators, volunteer leaders, Federation staff, and students.
One week, a call was received from the parent of a teenager about to become a Bar Mitzvah in a Long Island synagogue. The family had been using these materials for a few years. The Bar Mitzvah boy, in honor of the occasion, requested to write the discussion materials for his weekly Torah portion. He learned the portion, developed an article about the portion¡¦s ethical teachings, and wrote discussion questions and ideas for follow up. At age 13, his Shabbat family discussion ideas were used across the world on the weekend of his becoming a Bar Mitzvah.