Kehillat+Ramot+Zion

** Kehillat Ramot Zion **  is a Conservative (Masorti) congregation in French Hill, Jerusalem. Since its establishment 35 years ago, the congregation has for the most part been run by volunteers, doing astoundingly well at that. It is a vibrant community, whose mem bers were the founders of the first TALI school, the first chapter of the NOAM youth movement, and other Masorti institutions.

In recent years members have felt the need for "new blood", younger families and reaching out to the native Israeli population. To that end the congregation hired a rabbi, for the first time in 20 years, and set out on the important mission of offering positive Jewish experiences to the mostly non-religious population of French Hill and the surrounding areas.

The population of these neighborhoods is largely identified as secular and has been "turned off" over the years by Jewish tradition as practiced by the Orthodox establishment in Israel. Ramot Zion is one of only two non-Orthodox Synagogues in all of Northern Jerusalem, providing an alternative Jewish approach to life and tradition.

Our Legacy Heritage Innovation Project initiative focuses on two groups: The first is young families in which the parents were brought up in secular environments with minimal Jewish education, and feel frustrated and incompetent when it comes to their children's Jewish education. The second is the post bar/bat-mitzvah age group, who are developing their self-identity and relationship to Judaism, and mostly end up estranged to tradition and look elsewhere for role-models.

Our project aims to help these target groups reclaim vibrant synagogue and Shabbat experiences, empower them and integrate them into the community. We hope to do this by offering the teens frameworks which strengthen them as a group of peers with relevant activities geared specifically towards them; strengthening the ties within the family by providing stimulating joint activities for parents and teens; and offering families with young children an array of high-quality, exciting family activities in which they can spend quality time together while learning and experiencing engaging Jewish values, ideas, and traditions they can adopt in their homes.

These activities include: 1) Monthly educational activities in the five local kindergartens, all of which are defined as secular, around Jewish values such as //kibbud horim//, //bikkur holim//, loving our fellow human, //tza'ar ba'alei hayim// and others.

2) Dedication of Kabbalat Shabbat services once a month to a special family experience, preceded by a family candle-lighting and a story or skit on Jewish themes for the children and parents (//tzedakah//, Shabbat, weekly Torah portion, //aggada// etc.) and followed by a special activity just for the children.

3) Bi-monthly Shabbat morning services for ages 3-6, for children and parents together, running parallel to our main service.

4) Moadon MIKI (in Hebrew stands for //Masorti Kehillati//): Bi-monthly midweek afternoon workshops for parents and children of ages 4-7 at the synagogue. The workshops focus on joint activity, around Shabbat, holidays, various traditions, and values, and are always engaging, through story-tellers, plays, music, cooking, dance, art, etc. There is almost always a practical component the families can take home and put to use together.

5) Post bar/bat-mitzvah group, meeting once or twice a month for study sessions and social events. Study sessions are based on movies and Jewish sources. Topics include: Truth-telling and lying, relationships with parents, the search for independence, smoking and drug abuse, love, beauty as an ideal and self-image, peer pressure etc. We hope to expand these groups to joint parent-teen learning later this year. In addition, this group is in charge of leading the congregation in three events: Simchat Torah, Purim and Shavuot.

6) Integration of all these groups into the current congregational life, through an array of joint activities, the work of a special committee, and professional guidance.

. Publicity: ** Invitations to Moadon MIKI 2008-9: Invitations to Moadon MIKI 2009-10: High Holidays year plan pamphlets: Handout to kindergarten teachers: Generic invitation to special Kabbalat-Shabbat programs: Generic invitation to family Shabbat morning services: Generic invitation to KEN LaTzippor:  Invitations to integrative synagogue activities: Programs reaching out to target population: August Shabbat retreat:

** Syllabi and educational materials: ** Syllabus and materials for kindergarten activities Generic plan for Moadon MIKI meetings: MIKI materials: Mini MIKI materials: Chug Gilgulim materials: Korczak school curriculum: (Torah ceremony bookmarks)  Generic plan for special Kabbalat Shabbat: Family Shabbat texts: Generic plan and materials for family Shabbat morning services: media type="file" key="tefillat yeladim songs and directions.mp3" width="240" height="20" Congregational dinner program (welcoming new families): Teen group study materials: Teen plan for Simchat Torah: Shavuot teen schedule: Schedule for family Shabbat retreat: Parashat shavua activities for children (with parents):

**Process and systemic congregational change:** First evaluation: Committee communications: Committee work: Congregation principles/base lines: Involving congregation at large: Newsletter messages from rabbi: Presentation at annual meeting: Plan for meeting with executive committee and with board: Shabbat retreat materials: