Educator at B'nai Zion in Shreveport

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B'nai Zion Educator
Helaine Braunig

The calendar tells me that we are in the middle of winter, but the temperature outside, as well as the buds bursting into bloom on the Japanese magnolia tree outside my office, tell me that sometimes things don�t happen as we expect. Sometimes those out-of-the-ordinary occurrences are a welcome surprise, and sometimes they present many challenges. For the moment I�d like to focus on a surprise that has made me happy. I teach a wonderful group of 8^th and 9^th graders on Sunday afternoons � a kind of pre-Confirmation class that recognizes the growing maturity of our students after they achieve B�nai Mitzvah. The surprise: we spend an hour and a half together and no one ever asks if we can have a �break.� My students stay focused on our topics of discussion, ask lots of questions, and enjoy being together. The time flies by, and we all learn a lot. Meeting with the kids in that class is so good for me�it makes me study to prepare to teach, and it keeps me in touch with what they are thinking and doing. It also shows me how (or if) being Jewish impacts the decisions they make.

Nonetheless, I must also admit that the post B�nai Mitzvah kids present a challenge, not just for me or for their teachers, but for the congregation. At the recent URJ Biennial that the Rabbi and I attended, we heard a shocking statistic: 80% of the students who celebrate Bar or Bat Mitzvah, and in doing so, pledge themselves to further study and to maintain a Jewish future, drop out of congregational life by the time they finish high school. In other words, many of them leave us after B�nai Mitzvah � an occurrence that is out-of-the-ordinary for my generation that simply assumed Confirmation and Youth Group to be the next steps. Happily, that 80% statistic does not apply to us at B�nai Zion�at least not at this time. However, just as the URJ has chosen to make this challenge its focal point for the next ten years (it�s called the Youth Engagement Initiative), we must do the same. We must work to be sure that our kids want to stay involved post-B�nai Mitzvah, and we must be ready to commit ourselves to that responsibility in all ways, with our creativity and with our dollars. Not all students need the same things: opportunities for involvement must be varied, and we must reach our kids wherever they are�in our building or someplace else. We must make use of social media and technology, but we must never see those things as substitutes for the personal mentoring that will keep our teenagers connected to us.

I hope you will join me in the years to come as we think about ways to make B�nai Zion and being Jewish integral to the lives of our young people. We simply cannot afford to lose them in high school and assume that they will return when they are married and have children of their own. We cannot afford to send them off to college thinking that what they learned by the age of 13 is all that they need to learn. We cannot afford to deny them the opportunities to see the rewards of living Jewishly within their families, their congregation, and their community. Whether you are a parent, a grandparent, or an adult who values being Jewish, we need your input and your assistance in making B�nai Zion a place where young people want to be.

Please be reminded that we will be in session on February 5, 12, and 26. There will be NO Religious School on Sunday, Feb. 19 because of the Presidents� Day holiday for public school students. Also, here�s a Purim heads-up: We will celebrate Purim with costumes and merriment and listen to the Megilla at Shabbat Services Friday evening March 9 and then at the Purim Community Carnival on Sunday, March 11, and we�ll need lots of help. I can ask you for your help, or you can call or email me before I ask! That would be one of those out-of-the-ordinary, but much appreciated surprises, just like the flowers outside my window!

L�shalom,

Helaine

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