TOP

COMMUNITEEN
The Board of Jewish Education of Metropolitan Chicago will be sponsoring the Florence Melton Communiteen High School beginning fall 2007. This program provides a text based, pluralistic, student-centered curriculum for Jewish teens.

Communiteen stimulates students intellectually, spiritually, emotionally and socially.

Communiteen is designed as a weekly two hours school that meets for 25 sessions throughout the year. Students take two courses a year. Year 1 is The Big Ideas of Being Jewish - One and American Jewish Experience and Year 2 is The Big Ideas of Being Jewish - Two and Facts, Faces and Facets of Israel.

The Communiteen curriculum helps students explore their Jewish identity. Each course provides an opportunity for students to relate the material to issues of personal identity, family history, critical adolescent life issues and their personal relationship with the Jewish people.

For more information, contact Linda Kupfer, Communiteen Director .
Click here for more information on Communiteen.
Click here to download the Communiteen registration form.

TOP

ADULT EDUCATION
The learning process at WSTHZ is not limited to our youth. We believe that Jewish education is a continuous process of learning and growth. To that end, we offer diverse programs and lectures:

• Weekly classes study Bible, Talmud, Zohar
• Synagogue skills
• Independent study with Rabbi Mirelman
• Conversational Yiddish and Hebrew and Hebrew literacy
• Sunday morning lecture series with guest lecturers from around the world.
• A winter lecture series by Rabbi Mirelman
• Holiday workshops
• Book reviews
• Jewish film festival
• Courses in conjunction with the Dawn Schuman Institute for Jewish learning.
• Scholar-in-residence weekend, sponsored by the Jewish Council of the Western Suburbs.
• Monthly adult study group

Check our announcement page for special lectures and classes.

Adult Education Network Seminar:
The Adult Education Initiative for Chicago Leaders of Adult Jewish Learning

This is a 7-meeting monthly series of 90 minute programs led by leaders in adult Jewish education, specifically focused at the lay leaders who organize and coordinate adult learning programming in synagogues. It assumes NO prior knowledge, just a love of learning & a desire to do better. The speakers are good, the content is solid, and you finish the series with a binder full of notes, ideas, and mind-expanding challenges and sharing with others. Participants come from reform, conservative, city, suburban, large/small congregations.... from Aurora to south suburbs to far north. It's held at the CFJE offices next door to Old Orchard in Skokie, right off the highway.

Next year it will be on these dates:
Nov 16
Dec 14
Jan 18 2006
Feb 15
Mar 22
Apr 26
May 17

If you complete the series and develop an application for a collaborative adult learning program with another congregation, you can potentially be awarded up to $1000 per synagogue to implement the program. The whole point is to develop collaboration & improve sophistication & creativity of programming. It would really, really help if we can send a WST member next year. This is a significant financial resource and offers some great didactic & discussion material to open up our thinking and plan new and innovative adult education programs.

This year's course was taken by Laurel Saltzman and Fay Bomberg, along with Cindy Barnard, all of whom recommend it highly. Please contact them with specific questions or for more information.

* from last year's DSI brochure * http://www.dawnschuman.org/pdf/dsi_catalog_w05.pdf

Exciting monthly instructional seminar of 7 evening sessions Designed to assist institutional lay leadership and professionals in the development of their own Adult Educational programming Trains individuals to become knowledgeable and skilled in state-of-the-art Adult Education For further information, please call Yaffa Berman, Director of Educational Development and Management yberman@cfje.org This project has been funded by a grant from the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago

WSTHZ also sponsors community-wide workshops with our neighbor, Oak Park Temple:

For more information about OPT's education programs, please visit http://oakparktemple.com/adulted.htm.

TOP

SENIOR FELLOWSHIP GUILD
An informal gathering of seniors meets weekly to attend the rabbi's morning Bible class, followed by a light lunch and/or other social and cultural outings. Seniors are active in all aspects of temple life as morning minyaneers, volunteers, ushers and studnets in the educational process.

FILM SERIES
The generous donation of a television and VCR with a 60" screen has made it possible for the Temple to offer the presentation of films of interest to our community. These films are sometimes followed by discussions led by the Rabbi or other individuals familiar with the themes presented.

The third film in our Israeli Film Festival, "Shanghai Ghetto" (2002), will be shown at WSTHZ on February 17, 2007. Actor Martin Landau narrates this riveting documentary about Shanghai's little-known Jewish ghetto, settled in the 1930s by Jews who fled Nazi Germany. The filmmakers head to Shanghai with two ex-residents, who relate tales of life in the squalid enclave. Through interviews, letters, archival and modern-day footage, and family photos, the saga chronicles the survivors' escape, relocation, life in Shanghai and ultimate exodus to the United States. Havdalah and a light dinner of soup, salad, and bread will begin at 6 pm, followed by the film at 7 pm. Admission to the film is only $5.00 and dinner is an additional $5.00. Please RSVP to the synagogue office.

KALLAH/RETREAT

Our annual springtime retreat is held at Camp Chi in the Wisconsin Dells. It is a perfect backdrop for a weekend of prayer, learning, reflection and fun for families and individuals.

This year's annual temple retreat is new and improved. Our new location at the Olin-Sang-Ruby Union Institute (OSRUI) is closer, cheaper, and allows you more choices in residential options to suit your needs. Kallah weekend, March 9 - 11, is an opportunity for temple members of all ages to really have a chance to get to know each other. It is also the quintessential Shabbat experience, with no cooking or other responsibilities, just a chance to relax, learn and schmooze. In addition to the services and seminars, there will be plenty of free time to visit the gym, hang out, and of course eat delicious Kosher food. The Kallah Committee is still working on programming, which will include the usual array of thought-provoking lectures and discussions. A guest speaker who is an expert on Muslim-Jewish relations is being considered. Cindy Banai will lead a discussion on a Jewish short story, Ruben and Mary Harris will discuss a topic related to medical ethics, and Marc Stopeck has agreed to share one of his many areas of expertise. New - dorms for kids. Because OSRUI is a Jewish camp during the summer, there are small dorms with bunk beds available for kids in the third grade and up. Boys and girls will have separate rooms, and the pre- and post-B'nai Mitzvah age kids will have their own space too. There will be an adult on the premises at all times, to make sure everyone is safe and gets at least some sleep. Kids in second grade and younger, and older kids who aren't into dorm life, are free to stay in their parents' rooms. There are 36 rooms available in the lodge. Half come with an in-room bath, the other half use a shared bath in the hall (at a discounted cost). Sign up early to get your first choice! The complete Kallah packet came with your February Bulletin. If you have any questions, or need a copy of the reservation form, please call the temple office.

TOP