Birkat Chaverim
Recently my friend David Curwin shared this post about David Daube on facebook and I felt that given Birkat Chaverim's connection to Bnei Akiva, and informal education, it was appropriate to share here. I thought David's commemorating David Daube was thoughtful as well as interesting to those who grew up in Bnei Akiva as well as a note to how educators ...
We are happy to have a guest post by Marcia Goldlist as part of Mitzvot Unplugged, discussing using her Bible in Rhyme series as a way of teaching Bar and Bat Mitzvah. A common question asked of b’nai mitzva is, “What are you doing for your bar/bat mitzva?” Everyone knows that what people really mean is “What kind of party are you having?”. But, ...
In honor of Character Counts Week, here is a guest post by Laurie Rappeport about the Irena Sendler Project that both is an example of the piller of citizenship as well as an example of the type of project bnai mitzvah could do. In the Jewish World celebrating Bar Mitzvahs and Bat Mitzvahs often involves encouraging a young person to accept a new res ...
Character Counts Week begins October 20th. Building character is something we tend to agonize about in our family (are we modeling appropriate behaviours? do our kids understand our values and have they internalized them? are they being mentchen when we are not around? are they interacting with their friends in appropriate manners? are we putting them i ...
This is version one of a free template to make Kamtza and Bar Kamtza puppets. Children can color them, cut them out and attach them to popsicle sticks. There is a small script, a version of the story if you will, on the template page. You are welcome to use this with small children. However, it is in no way intended as a definitive telling of the story. ...
I'm very thankful to everyone who participated in the Mitzvot Unplugged series. We had a wide variety of topics in the series and personally, I am grateful for all the different perspectives. I know that I personally tend to focus on certain types of activities and themes, so its nice to hear from others and ask myself how I can incorporate these appr ...
This is by no means a comprehensive roundup. This post focuses on topics that are not typical for inclusion in teaching about values. Nevertheless, they are topics which definitely need discussing. And from the perspective of your own family values, rather than via mass media. I am always looking for additional links. Please do continue to submit links ...
The Mitzvot Unplugged Series has to do with teaching kids Jewish values in a creative way. One of the ways of doing that is through music. I want to thank Julian/Chaim Horowitz from the Maccabeats for agreeing to an interview, as part of this series. How does being representatives of Orthodoxy and the concept of Torah uMadda come out in your song ...
As part of Mitzvot Unplugged I am happy to review Stanley Fischman's Seven Steps to ''Mentschhood'' - How to Help Your Child Become a Mentsch: An Interactive Guide for Parents, published by Urim Publications. Mentschhood at Home In our home we are constantly telling our children that we want them to grow up to be mentchen. However, we did not have a def ...
As part of the Mitzvot Unplugged series we are happy to welcome Jennifer from Adventures in MamaLand. She will be talking about teaching Pirkei Avot. It’s spring… time to learn Pirkei Avot! Traditionally, that’s every Shabbat afternoon between Pesach and Shavuot, one of six chapters per week. Many people keep going until Rosh Hashanah, but that’s ge ...