CJLTeen News
CJLTeen News
Area
Jewish Teens Reach Out to the Needy at Teen Day of Social Action 2008
On Sunday, April
13, thirty-one Jewish teens from the general community and several area
congregational schools and organizations joined forces to help
The day began as
buses and cars dropped teens at the Kosher Meat Klub warehouse, where they
assembled to pack packages of Passover staples. A long line of people—most
of them elderly Russian immigrants—was wrapped around the block as the teens
arrived. The teens quickly went to work, forming themselves into an assembly
line in order to put together the food packages. Three hundred and forty-three
packages of food were picked up at the Kosher Meat Klub warehouse, and
leftover packages were distributed to needy homes as well. All told,
over 500 families received packages of Passover food.
When they finished packing, the teens discussed the impact the morning had on them. It was obvious that it had been a moving experience. One teen said, “I enjoyed knowing that I was able to help and give back to the community.” Another liked “just seeing the people receive the bags. We saw the impact we made.” Another felt satisfied by “the comfort of knowing that I helped someone have a great Passover.” Others said, “I enjoyed seeing us help our fellow Jews. I felt that I connected with them when I gave them their bags.” and “The rewarding thing was knowing that I helped.”
Coalition for
Jewish Learning and Tikkun Ha-Ir of
Coming soon…
Kipp Friedman’s photos
of this event.
View photos of other
exciting CJL events.
See Wisconsin
Jewish Chronicle coverage
of Teen Day of Social Action.
For
further information about this or any other CJL teen activity, contact JoAnne
Gaudynski or call (414) 963-2728.
Cold Weather and Warm Feelings at Coalition for
Jewish Learning's Fourth Annual Jewish Teen Day of Discovery
On
Sunday, January 20th,
JTDOD
brought together teachers and learners from all over the community for an
exciting day of Jewish study and shmoozing. The day began with the premiere of
Two
Walks, a
co-production of the Coalition for Jewish Learning’s Young Jewish
Filmmakers’ Project and docUWM, a division of the UW-M School of Fine Arts
Film Department. Two Walks juxtaposes the Milwaukee
Jewish community’s Walk for
During
the first class session, teens attended a special presentation by Rabbi Mark
Borovitz, the spiritual leader of Beit
T’Shuvah of
View
Kipp Friedman’s photos
of this event.
View
photos of other
exciting CJL events.
See
Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle coverage
of Jewish Teen Day of Discovery 2008.
Two Walks, CJL’s Young
Jewish
Filmmaker’s
Project’s New Film, Debuts at Jewish Teen Day of
Discovery
Two Walks, a joint production of CJL’s Young Jewish Filmmaker’s
Project and docUWM, a division of the
The program, which one student said prepared him well to
attend Universal Studios film camp, allowed graduate students in film to
meet with the teens one and a half hours once a week at UWM. Using
professional grade equipment, students acquired skills in pre-production
(brainstorming/research/ storyboarding), production (filming and lighting)
and post-production (editing). The film has been uploaded to the Internet
and will be screened publicly in various venues and entered
in various student competitions later
this year.
The student filmmakers included Rachel Herman, Noah Rowlett, Ari Rothenberg, Maddie Mandel, Eric Hagen, Hannah Musickant, and Noah Laufer. Claire Tipton and Max Fantle also participated.
Read Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle coverage
of the Young Jewish Filmmaker’s Project.
View Two Walks at YouTube.com, or JewTube.com.
Exciting New Program! The Young Jewish
Writers' Project
The Coalition for Jewish for Jewish Learning is proud to announce its Young Jewish Writers' Project –coming early this spring. Poet and former university professor, Mitch Lechter, will facilitate this project. Mitch holds a MA in English Literature and Creative Writing. He co-founded and co-edited both the Madison Review and the Cream City Review, both of which still exist today. Mitch will be working with teens to produce an anthology of Jewish-themed student work that will be published. There will be a poetry reading/party to celebrate the debut of the anthology.
For further information, contact JoAnne Gaudynski at (414) 963-2728 or joanneg@milwaukeejewish.org.
Area Jewish Teens
Make a Difference at Teen Day
of Social Action 2007
On Sunday, March 25, approximately forty Jewish teens gathered to help the needy at the second annual Jewish Teen Day of Social Action, a joint project of Coalition for Jewish Learning and Tikkun Ha-Ir of Milwaukee.
The day began at the Kosher
Meat Klub warehouse, where teens gathered to pack Passover food to
distribute to Milwaukee's poor Jewish families. As teens arrived, they were
greeted by a long line of people—most of them elderly Russian
immigrants—who were waiting in the fog to receive packages of kosher
chicken and other Passover staples. The
teens quickly went to work, forming themselves into an assembly line in
order to put together the food packages. About 300
people came to pick up food for Passover, and leftover packages were
distributed to needy homes as well.
But
the day did not end there. The
teens stopped for lunch at Lake Park Synagogue and then split into groups to
travel to various social agencies around the city.
Teens could chose from several locations, depending on their
interests. Volunteers who liked to work with children went to the La Causa
Emergency Nursery, a shelter with social services and programs for families.
Others went to the Guest House, an emergency men's shelter that
offers meals, counseling and free classes.
There they worked in the kitchen and helped sort food.
At Meta House, the teens ran a treasure hunt and made collages to hang up
in people’s apartments. At
Pathfinders, they joined the clientele in making a peace banner.
Teens later returned to Lake Park Synagogue to discuss
the events of the day. It was
clear that they felt both gratified and challenged.
Many said, “The helping just felt good!” and “It was fun to see children smile.” Some teens were surprised to find the children they met at
the various agencies to be so strong and resilient. Others found knowing that they could make a difference just
be being there and being friendly to be the biggest lesson of the day.
They were truly surprised at how little they had to do to make an
impact.
Coalition for Jewish Learning and Tikkun Ha-Ir of
Milwaukee would like to thank all the teen volunteers, adult mentors and
agencies who helped make this day so meaningful.
View Kipp Friedman’s photos
of this event.
View photos of other
exciting CJL events.
See Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle coverage
of Teen Day of Social Action.
For further information about this or any other CJL teen activity, contact JoAnne Gaudynski or call (414) 963-2728.
Jewish
Teen Day of Discovery 2007 –A Resounding Success!
On Sunday, January 28th,
over 150 students attended Jewish Teen Day of Discovery 2007.
It was a phenomenal day!
Planned with teen input,
Jewish Teen Day of Discovery 2007 was an exciting day of Jewish study and
shmoozing. During the first session, teens enthusiastically participated in
eight different educational workshops lead by a variety of local educators.
This year's topics included Israeli teen
life, Jewish life on college campuses, Jewish humor and the media, dealing
with the stresses of teen life, women in the Bible and what Judaism has to say
about abortion and contraception, love and marriage and alcohol.
(For more details, see our on line program
book.)
Then, they socialized over
a kosher lunch, followed by a special presentation by Rabbi Tovia Singer of
Outreach Judaism and four lighter, interactive activities—Israeli dancing
and self-defense, Jewish cooking, and a special break-out session with
Rabbi Singer. Rabbi Singer’s presentation, which focused on tactics used by
missionary groups to convert young Jews and dancing
and self-defense featured an interactive role-playing session in which
the teens actually believed that they were speaking with a real Jews for Jesus
missionary, had a tremendous emotional impact on the audience. It was amazing
to see the teens debating with the “missionary.”
Teen response to the event
has been overwhelmingly positive. A walk around the building on Sunday morning
revealed all our classrooms filled with laughter and learning. During meal and
social times, there were smiles all around as the teens enjoyed the day and
each other’s company.
View Kipp Friedman’s
photos of this event.
View
photos of other
exciting CJL events.
Read
Chana Ellman and Julie D.’s article about Jewish Teen Day of Discovery in
JVIBE
Magazine.
See the Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle coverage of Jewish Teen Day of Discovery.
For
further information about this or any other CJL teen activity, contact JoAnne
Gaudynski
or
call (414) 963-2728.
On
Sunday, October 22, 2006, Milwaukee area teens explored their Jewish
identities through the arts at Coalition for Jewish Learning’s Jewish
Teen Day of the Arts. The event took place at Bucketworks,
a
playground for big kids with performance space, a gallery, art workshops,
computer labs, recording studio, woodshop, and more. Bucketworks
created a value gathering especially for CJL to help Jewish
teens bring their values and reflections about Judaism to life through
performance and creative play. And play the teens did!
The teens began with
an exercise called Flow, which developed their awareness of two
different kinds of energy—yang, the kind for getting
things done, and yin, the kind for discovering what to
do. They then created You Costumes, wearable creations that helped the
teens from various schools to get to know themselves and each other.
Finally, they had the core value gathering experience--brainstorming
questions they would ask Judaism if they could interview it. They generated
dozens of questions
including, "What's your favorite food?" "Where do you see
yourself in 100 years?" and "What languages do you speak?"
After picking a favorite few to answer, each group made use of the nearly
limitless art supplies to produce skits and presentations that answered those
questions. Finally, the day ended with the teens sharing what
they learned. In the meantime, Bucketworks
created a webpage and
video that recorded the events of the day.
According to
Riverside University High School senior, Chana Ellman, “the best parts were
the creativity, the originality, and the chance to run wild in a huge
playground of art and expression.” And from the looks of things, everyone
else agreed!
Read Chana
Ellman’s article about her experience at Jewish Teen Day of the Artsin JVIBE
Magazine.
Visit
Bucketworks’ photo-gallery
of the event.
Read the Wisconsin
Jewish Chronicle coverage of Jewish Teen Day of the Arts.
See pictures of this
event and other fun CJLTeens
events.
For further information about this or any other CJL teen activity,
contact JoAnne Gaudynski or
call (414) 963-2728.
Teens live their Judaism at...
Teen Day of Social Action 2006
On Sunday, April 2, forty-one Milwaukee area Jewish teens lived out their Jewish values at the Teen Day of Social Action, a joint program of Tikkun Ha-Ir of Milwaukee and the Coalition for Jewish Learning.
Teens earned credit for service hours while learning about social action from a Jewish perspective. The morning program began with welcome speeches and a discussion of poverty and the environment by Rabbi Shlomo Levin. Teens then participated in their choice of two activities. Some learned how families survive on a drastically limited budget at the Hunger Task Force’s simulation "Food for Today." One teen called the most challenging part of this session “imagining having to feed a family of eight with only $11.00 a day in real life.” Other teens identified how their talents could be used to help others at a workshop with playwright and director Sherri Williams-Pannell and David McKinney, Vice President of Alumni Programs for Public Allies.
After a vegetarian and dairy kosher lunch, the teens volunteered at seven different agencies that work in the areas of poverty, hunger, shelter, health issues and the environment. They painted, helped with indoor and outdoor cleanup of the agency sites, packed boxes of kitchen supplies for formerly homeless people moving into apartments, and did an art project with homeless children and their mothers. Each of the work assignments at the various agencies was linked to a Jewish value.
The day opened the eyes of many of the participants. Some teens learned about “how the poor manage their money” and “what life is like as an adult.” Others realized “through the Hunger Task Force simulation that hunger is real.” By “seeing how hard it was for people to …be homeless” and “seeing what the [homeless] women went through,” teens understood “how hard the poor’s life is.”
Nonetheless, it was an enjoyable day. One teen had a great time “playing Connect Four with a young boy and seeing how we both had fun.” Another was moved at “seeing how happy they were to see us.” Everyone loved “the feeling of helping others” or “helping the community.” One teen was proud of “the fact that I helped someone start new.” Another said, “The environment was friendly and peaceful, [and there were] nice leaders and staff members.”
Students will be able to continue these service-learning relationships with the people and agencies they meet that day. In fact, the teens that went to Meta House had such a great time that they are already planning to return for another visit!
Read Michelle Langer's article in JVIBE Magazine about her experience at Teen Day of Social Action.
See pictures of this event and other fun CJLTeens events.
Also click here to read Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle coverage of this event.
What had 23 sessions, 20 topics, 19 presenters,
and 169 Jewish teens in the same place at one time?
Coalition for Jewish Learning's Teen Day of
Discovery!
Read national teen publication JVIBE Magazine's coverage of the event ONLINE, featuring the writing of Milwaukee teens Gerad Bandos, Samantha Bass, and Michelle Langer by clicking here.
From the desk of JoAnne Gaudynski, CJL's Teen Enrichment Coordinator:
Teens Enjoy a Day of Food, Fun, Friends and Learning at the
Second Annual Jewish Teen Day of Discovery
Planned with teen input, it brought together teachers and learners from all over the community for an exciting day of Jewish study and socializing. They were joined by teens that came from as far as Green Bay, De Pere, Beloit, Egg Harbor, and the greater Madison area. Presenters came from all walks of Jewish life. From Chassidus to Reform, the various streams of Judaism were represented by teachers, rabbis, community workers, authors, Israeli emissaries, entertainers and journalists.
The teens enjoyed icebreakers and brunch, followed by a wide variety of learning sessions. They were offered 23 different sessions on 20 topics-some topics were so popular that we had to repeat them! This year's topics included Jewish art and cooking, Israeli teen life, music, dancing and self-defense, anti-Semitism, Jewish humor and the media, and what Judaism has to say about sexuality, love and marriage and alcohol. Teens told us that there were almost too many choices! The sessions were followed by a delicious gourmet kosher pasta lunch and a hilarious performance of ComedySportz tailored just for Jewish teens.
Channel 18 News cameras recorded all our classrooms filled with enthusiastic students actively involved in learning and doing. The Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle also covered the event. Click here to read it; view our gallery of Kipp Friedman's photos of Jewish Teen Day of Discovery 2006.
© Copyright, 2006 Coalition for Jewish Learning