Suburban+Temple+--+Kol+Ami+(Beachwood,+OH)

**Suburban Temple-Kol Ami, University Heights, OH (Reform, 450 household units)**
Using its education vision, Suburban Temple - Kol Ami will train connector families to lead six different neighborhoods in Jewish learning and celebrating Jewish life. Each neighborhood will be guided by a professional staff person but lay lead by the connector families and eventually the neighborhood participants themselves. Each neighborhood will meet once a month or every six weeks. The topics for learning and celebration are derived from the congregational educational vision. Connector families will receive on-going educational development through the congregation, community resources and the Reform movement.

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22401 Chagrin Blvd Beachwood, OH 44122

Rabbi Eric Bram rabbibram@suburbantemple.org Debbie Bram dbram@suburbantemple.org Lisa Kollins lkollins@suburbantemple.org

JANUARY 2008 Another cross-neighborhood program is scheduled for January. Using grant funding, Suburban Temple-Kol Ami is bringing in singer/songwriter Dan Nichols. He will be the Music Scholar in Residence for a weekend, and will lead a special workshop for neighborhoods, helping them incorporate Jewish music into their dinners, picnics and programs. The neighborhood families will also be hosting a Havdalah service with Dan, inviting congregational families to join them for a special evening.

DECEMBER 2007 Rabbi Sam Joseph visited Cleveland to lead two sessions. The first was with the connector families (the leaders of the neighborhoods). They did a text study workshop, both increasing their knowledge and helping them become more comfortable using texts in their neighborhood events. An ongoing challenge is the apprehension families feel about teaching texts to their peers; to help ease this concern, we will be providing workbooks of suggested texts and connected activities for them. The following day, adults from ALL the neighborhood families were invited to join in another session with Rabbi Joseph: "Can Jews read the National Enquirer? Gossip and Scandal in Jewish Tradition." This was the first cross-neighborhood event, one that attracted approximately 40 people. The lively workshop and discussion was enjoyed by all.

NOVEMBER 2007 Currently we have five neighborhoods (of between 4 and 8 families each) that are active. As neighborhoods, they have:
 * celebrated Shabbat together at various homes; done a creative havdalah ceremony at an outdoor concert venue and watched a show together; combined a Shabbat dinner with a hot air balloon glow
 * had picnics together in the summer and early fall
 * gone apple picking for Sukkot and decorated/eaten in home sukkot
 * planned Chanukah dinners and parties for next month, here at Temple and in homes
 * participated together in congregational Tikkun Olam projects
 * participated together in community-wide family programs in various venues, including the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage

The families report that they enjoy the increased sense of community, the camaraderie of meeting in each others' homes and the sense of creating lasting Jewish memories for their kids outside the synagogue walls. We are encouraging them to continue challenging themselves to add significant Jewish learning into their programs and are pleased to see that beginning. The major challenges to the neighborhoods are not unique to this program - scheduling events at times for convenient for many families is very difficult, illnesses and travel affect attendance at various events, and sometimes older kids are reluctant to participate. Still, the creativity of families in their planning - almost completely independent of professional staff - is welcome and appreciated. One neighborhood has disbanded - this neighborhood was comprised largely of 60+ adults (couples & singles) and found that it was mostly duplicating programs already offered by the Temple for the larger seniors group. We anticipate the inception of another new neighborhood, but will take our cues from congregants' interests.

AUGUST 2007 - Reconnecting the Connector Families At the end of the summer, we convened all the connector families together for a day-long retreat. After catching up with each other (formally and informally), Rabbi Bram shared the news of our grant renewal and the expectations for this year's programming. During the summer, Jeffrey Schein and volunteers from the connector families who had conducted a survey (through Survey Monkey) of all the neighorhood families, in part as an evaluation tool for the Legacy Heritage Foundation. The results of the survey were shared and discussed. Next, connector families were mixed into small groups for discussions about their experiences in the spring, guided by the following questions: After a larger group discussion and summary, neighborhoods did some brainstorming and sharing based on our educational vision, and finished with planning time to prepare for the year ahead. Click this link to view the survey results:
 * What were the successes within your neighborhood?
 * What were the major challenges for your neighborhood?
 * What goals did your neighborhood set? How were they established?
 * How did various factors (size of the neighborhood, age range of the kids, etc.) affect the group dynamics of your neighborhood?

SPRING 2007 - Training the Connector Families The ‘connector families were chosen by the Rabbi and lead educators of the congregation. They represent the various compositions of family units belonging to Suburban Temple - Kol Ami. These ‘connector families’ are families with pre-school and elementary school aged children, empty nesters, intermarried families, and families who live in specific neighborhoods of Cleveland. These ‘connector families’ have demonstrated, through their participation in various programs at Suburban Temple - Kol Ami, that they are committed to life-long Jewish learning.

Rabbi Bram, Debbie Bram, Lisa Kollins and Rabbi Sam Joseph designed a weekend retreat to train the ‘connector families’ to be leaders of the neighborhoods. The weekend retreat provided the ‘connector families’ with information about the Legacy Heritage Innovation Project. The ‘connector families’ were trained to use the Educational Vision Statement of the congregation as the guiding principle in creating their neighborhoods. Throughout the weekend, the professional staff provided programming that served as models for the ‘connector families.’ Each program was then debriefed to enable the ‘connector families’ to synthesize the skills they learned as a result of the programs. Programming throughout the weekend involved their children in a variety of ways: we provided direct programming for the children and we designed programming with parallel learning for adults and children. Finally, on Sunday morning (while the children were either in Religious School class or child care), the adults divided themselves into groups to plan an Open House for the congregation to learn more about (and hopefully sign-up for) the Neighborhood Program. The success of this retreat was clear when the participants asked if they could form their own neighborhood! Resources used during the morning include the following:

Four work groups were created to plan the Open House: welcome, hospitality, programming and administration. Each committee worked on their part of the Open House and then shared their plans for feedback from the larger group. One more evening meeting was planned prior to the Open House. Before the Open House date, large numbers of e-mails went back and forth from each group to continue their discussions until they felt that the program was ready. The professional staff was copied on all the e-mails; however, the connectors did all the work. The professional staff designed and sent out a color brochure to the congregation about the Open House.

After the Open House, families were divided into neighborhoods by the professional staff, and connector families were given the responsibility to begin planning events and scheduling activities. Although hampered by limited time before the summer, the groups jumped in enthusiastically and began to meet with each other.

PUBLICITY INFORMATION Rabbi Eric Bram described our project and extended an invitation to the congregation in two of his monthly bulletin articles. The full texts are included below.

OUR EDUCATIONAL VISION - the cornerstone of all learning at Suburban Temple-Kol Ami We affirm that our goal is to develop forms of education that will support and challenge all learners to become educated Reform Jews who: E**ngage** with Torah as the Jewish people’s ongoing, creative and sacred search for meaning and purpose in life.
 * Develop** a living and personal Judaism by integrating the moral and spiritual values of Judaism throughout the life cycle, during times of grief, discouragement and joy.
 * Develop** a personal relationship with God that deepens their own spirituality through exploration of the full range of Jewish understandings of God.
 * Celebrate** Shabbat, festivals and life cycle events as families and as members of Suburban Temple-Kol Ami.
 * Cherish** and **Study** Hebrew, the language of the Jewish people.
 * Appreciate** the values embedded in //t’filah// (prayer) and develop the skills to comfortably pray at Suburban Temple-Kol Ami.
 * Engage** in //tikkun olam// (repair of the world) by assuming moral responsibility for the Jewish people and the global community, and by transforming that responsibility into action.
 * Proudly Celebrate** and positively express their Jewish identities as American Reform Jews and as committed members of Suburban Temple-Kol Ami.
 * Feel Personally and Historically Connected** to the people, land and State of Israel as members of //k’lal Yisrael// (the community of the Jewish people).
 * Respectfully Understand** that all expressions of Judaism enrich Jewish peoplehood.

mailto: lkollins@suburbantemple.org