Recently in youth Category

The youth in our congregations and even those a little bit younger than that who are attending our camps, our youth programs in North America, and our programs in Israel are having experiences in many of those settings where they are living in the time and space of Shabbat; living the whole week in anticipation of that moment. Many of us who work with these teens offer them these opportunities; we encourage them to explore their Judaism, and to explore their relationship with God. With our kids who get further and further into our programs, the ones who go to EIE and the ones who come to our programs at KUTZ, they are crying out for more of theose kinds of experiences. We find ways to give these experiences to them, and then they go back home. It is very disappointing and a big letdown for a lot of them, for a number of reasons. One obviously is the basic; home is not camp. We have probably all heard the story about the little boy who goes to camp and comes home and tells his mom about how much he loved Havdallah. And she says, "Well, we can do that here." And he says, "But we don't have a lake!" We are succeeding with a lot of these kids. They are having these moments, experiences and connections. But then there is a disconnect between that and what is happening in our institutions and in the Movement as a whole.

(Caryn Roman)

So what can we do?