Beth+Am-+Shabbat+B'Yachad

//Sharing Shabbat// will provide another opportunity for families to choose an intergenerational learning experience in the context of learning and services happening on Saturday mornings. We have various constituencies who come to Beth Am on Shabbat morning. Torah study with Rabbi Janet Marder consistently has around 100 adults who are making their way through the entire Five Books of Torah. Tzavta families come about once a month for Shabbat morning learning and services. Junior Congregation students come once a year to lead a Shabbat morning service for their families. Young families come about twice a month for Shabbat morning services and play. //Sharing Shabbat// will offer a single place of connection for each of these constituencies.
 * //__Sharing Shabbat__//**

- For families with children in Pre – K through 5th grade (however, adult study and worship will be open to the entire community) - It will meet 25 times during the school year. - Proposed Schedule: 9:00 – 9:15 Schmoozing and Bagels
 * //Sharing Shabbat// Schedule:**

9:15 – 10:15 __Adult Learning opportunities__: a choice between Torah Study with Rabbi Marder or study based on the curricular theme with a member of the program team.

__Student learning__ in grade level classes based on a curricular theme.

10:30 – 11:30 Family-friendly worship service together with Tzavta families, Junior Congregation families, and young families.

This program is essentially an extension of both Shabbaton and Tzavta programming. Sharing Shabbat offers families an opportunity to come learn and celebrate Shabbat with a built in community of friends.


 * Adult Learning:** A major strength of our current Shabbaton program is a serious, engaging, and intellectually stimulating adult study program. Our clergy and educators offer a high level of text study that enables adults to explore topics in depth.Sharing Shabbat would continue this high level of learning with this adult community. Clergy and educators would alternate teaching this group of adult learners as is the current model in Shabbaton. Not only does this ensure the quality of learning, but offers yet another opportunity for adults to connect with members of the program team on a regular basis.

1. //Parshat HaShavua (focus on ‘p’shat’—more literary approach)// 2. Life cycle/Jewish Home/Jewish identity 3. Middot/Mitzvot/Ethics 4. //Parshat HaShavua (focus on commentaries/midrash to the parasha)// 5. Holiday/Prayers 6. Israel
 * Children’s Learning:** As parents are learning, children will be in grade level based classes. Sharing Shabbat will follow the same curricular theme as Shabbaton. The children’s and adults’ learning will be based on that theme. The program director provides curricular guides for the teachers. Our current cycle of curriculum in Shabbaton is:

Due to the fact that there are very few family schools such as Shabbaton in existence, the cost for developing a new curriculum each year is considerable. The addition of Sharing Shabbat enables us to leverage existing curricula in this new setting, thereby reducing the cost of curriculum development. Additionally, we get many calls each year from around the country asking for support and resources for setting up programs like Shabbaton. We hope to publish and share these curricula in order to promote the start of similar family education programs.

A few times a year, Shabbaton organizes potluck meals for families to informally schmooze and share a meal. At the conclusion of all of the other Shabbaton sessions, at least one group of families gets together for dinner. Sharing Shabbat will also allow for families to come together for lunch either at Beth Am or on their own. It is an organic outcome of the community that is built among the families who come together on a regular basis.
 * Shabbat Services:** Our vision of worship at Congregation Beth Am is to create a “warm, welcoming, participatory worship services that help us to connect with Judaism, deepen our learning, and experience the spiritual renewal, peace, joy and sense of celebration that Shabbat can bring.” Therefore, we envision a musical service with a learning component based on the weekly Torah portion. With the participation of our Hebrew and Tzavta students in this family-friendly service, the students will not only be engaged in services but will also be modeling for the youngest learners present what their Jewish learning will be in just a few short years. This service is a stepping-stone towards joining the service where our students celebrate becoming Bar/Bat Mitzvah. Our clergy will also alternate leading this Shabbat morning service and facilitating the Torah learning that takes place during services.


 * __Impact congregants by:__**
 * 1) Spending more quality Jewish time together as a family
 * 2) Celebrating Shabbat on a consistent basis
 * 3) Families will have a strong Shabbat prayer experience
 * 4) Our Shabbaton program has consistently produced very committed lay leaders; we predict that Sharing Shabbat will also generate dedicated and committed lay leaders.
 * 5) Our Shabbaton families have built wonderful friendships with other Beth Am families. Another consistent, community family experience will enable more families to build deep and meaningful friendships at the synagogue.
 * 6) Systemic: building a Shabbat morning prayer culture – congregants will see and be a part of a vibrant prayer community on Saturday mornings.


 * __Challenges:__**
 * 1) We are concerned about taking congregants out of the “regular” Shabbat morning service, which generally is a service which celebrates a student(s) becoming B’nai Mitzvah. This service has not, historically, generated a regular Shabbat morning prayer community.
 * 2) The regular conflicts of family life, getting people to shul on a Saturday morning – We are piloting the program in the upcoming year to give people a taste of the program.
 * 3) Staff: Our program team members all have very full loads, we strongly believe in all of our staff participating in our family programs. We, therefore, are working on sharing the leadership of this program.
 * 4) Teachers: Focusing on recruiting and training congregant teachers.

One of the significant challenges to serious, ongoing family education is the lack of trained teachers. In this first year of Sharing Shabbat, we will focus our efforts on recruiting and training from within; targeting Beth Am members (especially Shabbaton graduates). In addition, we will use this preparatory year to further develop and adapt the Shabbaton curriculum. The preparatory year will also include new programmatic experiences designed to build a Shabbat morning worship culture that will be attractive to families with children in this age cohort. An obvious place to begin is with our Junior Congregation and Tzavta communities. In the preparatory year, we will create four-six Sharing Shabbat services that will expose families to a joyous, upbeat, and engaging Shabbat morning worship experience. This will increase the likelihood that families like these will enroll in Sharing Shabbat in year two. We will promote Sharing Shabbat by inviting specific cohorts of Sunday program and Shabbaton families to these Sharing Shabbat services. We will develop a training program designed to help participants in family education programs understand their role as teachers to the children in the program and to each other. Our experience in Shabbaton has taught us that setting these expectations early makes for a much more successful experience for everyone. Finally, the preparatory year will include opportunities for staff development and capacity expansion through coaching and mentoring by Organizational Development consultant.
 * __Next Steps:__**
 * Year One: Development Phase**

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