Family Engagement Community

From the pages of Kadima, the Newsletter of Congregation Adas Emuno:

Religious School News from

Annice Benamy, Religious School Director

Family Engagement Community

(More information can be found in my weekly newsletter Ma Chadash: What’s New at Congregation Adas Emuno Temple and Religious School. If you are not receiving it, please email me immediately so I can put you on the email list.)

As many of you know, Board of Trustee member and parent, Rebecca Kind Slater and I wrote an application to be part of an URJ (Union of Reform Judaism) Community of Practice [see our previous post, Communities of Practice]. This is a new concept for URJ because in the past, there were regional offices throughout the United States helping synagogues. Now, through an application process, synagogues are able to apply to be part of a community of practice on a subject important to the congregation.

What is a community of practice? Communities of practice are formed by people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly. Congregation Adas Emuno is one of 11 congregations from the United States in "Successfully Engaging Young Families."

At first I went into this project thinking it was all about how to increase our Temple membership and create great programming. However, towards the middle of my weekend in Chicago at the inaugural Communities of Practice meetings, I discovered it was about something much different. Our goal is: Families with young children will develop strong, deep, long-lasting connections to Jewish life. For the young families, it is about relationships and making connections, an impact to do things differently, and meaning to change or add something to understand the world. Membership is not the priority.

Where do we go from here? If you would like to be part of the Young Families Task Force, please send me an email at adasschool at gmail.com. We will meet in March to get this project off the ground. This will take a commitment from everyone to get the word out that Congregation Adas Emuno is alive and well and in Leonia, New Jersey. Let's share our successes and engage with others.

L'shalom,

Annice Upcoming Religious School Calendar:

• March 3 – Grade 2 Family Enrichment
• March 10 – Model Seders for K-3 and 4-10
• March 22 – Grade 2 Family Shabbat
• March 31 – No Religious School for Passover vacation
• April 7 – Yom HaShoah program grades 6-7
• April 14 – Yom Haaztmaut School-wide program
• April 19 – K/1 Family Shabbat
• April 21 – K/1 Family Enrichment