Jewish Teen Central

Jewish Teen Central is a website open to Jewish teens of all backgrounds:

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There are sections on Ask-theTeen, Ask Our Rabbi, the weekly Torah portion as well as topics on Jewish Law, holidays, summer camp and a forum for members only where you can ask anything.  Spread the word.

Jewish Student Connection’s Clubs Achieving Success

Teens Increasingly Create their own Jewish Experiences and Communities

San Francisco – Entering its fourth year of offering in-school educational experiences for Jewish teens, a new study released today demonstrates that Jewish Student Connection (JSC) is achieving positive outcomes as a catalyst for Jewish teens to take ownership of their Jewish future. The study, conducted by BTW informing change, looked specifically at the programmatic and organizational growth of JSC in Chicago, South Florida, Westchester/Connecticut and Denver from 2010 - 2012.

“JSC has changed my life in so many ways,” says Cali Willis of George Washington High School in Denver. “From helping me map out my future decisions, to helping me grow as a Jew, JSC has proven to be my main support. It was not long ago that I walked through the halls at my public school feeling slightly different from the rest of my peers. Whether this feeling came from the Jewish Star I wear around my neck, I always felt different. I never walked through the halls of my school feeling confident in my Jewish identity. But JSC has been the most positive and motivating experience of my life.”

In each region, JSC’s network of Jewish culture clubs in public and private high schools are guided by full-time Jewish educator-advisers who focus their attention on building one-on-one relationships with participants. Unlike other Jewish education offerings for teens, JSC’s network of 65 school-based clubs meets conveniently on their high school campuses and require no membership or up front commitment.

Key findings show that JSC helps to shape the teens’ Jewish journeys:

Participants

60% report a positive change in their understanding of Judaism and Jewish life.
67% have increased their interest in learning more about Israel
71% report an increase in wanting to learn more about Judaism or what it means to be Jewish.
Read the full study here.

“The results from this evaluation are very promising for a young organization,” says Ellen Irie, principal of BTW informing change. “JSC’s ability to touch so many Jewish and non-Jewish teens speaks to how well aligned the program is with today’s youth. The findings show that regular participation in JSC provides Jewish teens with an ongoing Jewish learning experience and a Jewish community. The excellent program staff is a key to this, as they relate exceptionally well to students, develop students’ trust, and cultivate student leadership.”

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Taylor Swift's Wisdom

I ask myself: What will my kids think?

We all have those moments, those choices in our teens or early 20s that we wish we could take back. Some of us were lucky and the consequences weren’t so severe. Others were less fortunate. We thought we were immortal. We thought that nothing matter but the here and now. We thought we were rebels and that our tastes and values would never change. We believed our parents were old and over-protective. The future seemed so far way.

I thought of our younger selves the other day when I came across a quote from the famous 22-year-old singer, Taylor Swift. While the details of her (heretofore unsuccessful) love life seem to constantly grace the covers of the tabloids and celebrity magazines, she seems to have avoided some of the excesses of her peers. What’s her secret? “I want to be a mom someday, which governs my decisions…I ask myself: What will my kids think when they read about what I did at this age?"
Brilliant. What a great tool. It can apply to anything – and it really gives perspective. Even if our children won’t actually be reading about us, even if we won’t be front page news, the example still holds. They will ask about our lives. They will be curious about our choices.

What will my kids think? This is a question that could be asked at any phase of life. We can ask it, as Ms. Swift did, in anticipation of the future. We can ask it when our children are young, (especially) when they are teens, and even when they are adults who have left home. They are still watching. It helps us gauge the appropriateness of our behavior, it keeps us in line (and yes we need it).

Now, of course, the ultimate check on our actions should be the knowledge that the Almighty sees and knows everything. As it says in the Talmud: “Reflect upon three things and you will not come into the clutches of sin. Know what is above you: an eye that sees, an ear that hears, and a book in which all your deeds are recorded.” (Avot 2:1)
But sometimes that’s too difficult, too abstract. Thinking about our children is more tangible. It keeps us real. It keeps us grounded.

Would I want my daughter to see me yelling at the sales clerk for her incompetence? Do I want my son to witness me lying about our ages to get cheaper tickets? Do I want my daughter to emulate my bad eating habits and obsession with physical appearance? Do I want my son to “floor it” the way I do when the streets seem empty? Would I like to see my daughter order her husband around the way I do mine? (These are sample questions, not personal disclosures!) Do I want my son to bully his subordinates the way his father does at the office? Do I want my daughter to wear those short tight skirts I favor? You get the picture.

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Your Hebrew Name and Birthday

Have you ever wondered about the meaning and origin of your Hebrew name and Hebrew birthday or thought about what happened on your birthday in Jewish history?

About Jewish Names:

A Jewish name is profoundly spiritual. In Hebrew, a name is not merely a convenient conglomeration of letters. Rather the name reveals its essential characteristic. The Midrash tells us that the first man, Adam, looked into the essence of every creature and named it accordingly. The same idea applies to names of people. For example, Leah named her fourth son Judah (in Hebrew, Yehudah). This comes from the same root as the word "thanks." The letters can also be rearranged to spell out the holy Name of God. The significance is that Leah wanted to particularly express her "thanks to God." (Genesis 29:35)

Ashkenazi Jews have the custom of naming a child after a relative who has passed away. This keeps the name and memory alive, and in a metaphysical way forms a bond between the soul of the baby and the deceased relative. Sefardi Jews also name children after relatives who are still alive.
Some customarily choose a name based on the Jewish holiday coinciding with the birth. Similarly, names are sometimes chosen from the Torah portion corresponding to the week of the birth. Many names and events are mentioned in each Torah portion, offering a spiritual connection between the baby and that particular biblical figure.
Ultimately, it's what you make of your name that counts. For at the beginning we are given a name, and at the end of life a "good name" is all we take with us.

Aish.com now has an app where you can enter your name and birthday and find out what your name means and what happened in Jewish history on the day you were born.

The Late-Blooming Sage

Though genius is often equated with precocity, a quick search of "famous late bloomers" turns up David Sedaris, Julia Child, Alfred Hitchcock, and Laura Ingalls Wilder, to name a very few.

Though he didn’t make the Google cut, Rabbi Akiva was a late-bloomer par excellence. A Talmudic scholar in the late-first/early-second century, Rabbi Akiva is said to have started his formal education at age 40. Story has it that he was a poor shepherd working for the wealthiest man in Jerusalem whose daughter, Rachel, took a liking to him. Rachel saw something more in him though, and encouraged him to pursue formal Jewish study – which he did, though it kept them apart for 24 years.

Yeshiva children everywhere learn the story of Rabbi Akiva coming across a stone that had been hollowed out over time by drops of water and being heartened by the prospect of his own mind’s ability to adapt new knowledge, even though he knew it would take some time and hard work. As Malcom Gladwell wrote in The New Yorker: "Sometimes genius is anything but rarefied; sometimes it’s just the thing that emerges after twenty years of working at your kitchen table."

A Visit To North Carolina's ‘Jewish Exeter’

The American Hebrew Academy is impressive, yet has trouble attracting students.

The boldest experiment in American Jewish high school education and leadership, unknown to most of us, is taking place on a beautiful 100-acre campus in Greensboro, N.C., that has to be seen to be believed.

Since its founding 11 years ago, I’d read and heard about the American Hebrew Academy, the country’s only co-ed and pluralistic college-prep boarding school, dubbed by some “the Jewish Exeter.” (The Jewish Week’s education writer Carolyn Slutsky visited the school for a feature we published in 2008.) But only after visiting recently and speaking to, and with, its students, faculty and administration, have I come to appreciate just how impressive it is physically, educationally and conceptually.

“We’re an elite high school that doesn’t want to be elitist,” explained executive director Glenn Drew, who described the academy as “a new paradigm in Jewish education.”

But one with serious challenges in terms of attracting students.

Founded by Drew’s uncle, Maurice “Chico” Sabbah, a wealthy, self-made American businessman who made aliyah as a young man, returned to the U.S. to fight in the Korean War and later settled in Greensboro, the school is an attempt to blend the warmth and cultural depth of Jewish life best represented by summer camps, with the academic excellence of the finest New England college-prep boarding schools.

In addition to faculty in both secular and Judaic subjects, the academy offers a full-time Jewish life staff — the four rabbis represent Modern Orthodox, Chabad, Conservative and Reform streams — to provide experiences for all of the non-class time throughout the week, and Shabbat and holidays during the course of the 10-month academic year.

Drew noted that Sabbah, who died in 2006, was concerned about Jewish continuity and wanted the school to instill leadership skills in its students. Based on the model of several top secular prep boarding schools, the academy seeks to create an environment that encourages students to take an active role in their own education.

Classes are limited to 12 students; they sit around a large, wooden oval “learning table” with their teacher so that they face each other.

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THE EIGHT DAYS OF HANUKKAH

A new song for the holiday:

(Note: The words "my true love" can be replaced with the Yiddish "mein Liebhen.")

On the first night of Hanukkah my true love gave to me
      Lox, bagels and some cream cheese

On the second night of Hanukkah, my true love gave to me
      2 Kosher pickles and
      Lox, bagels and some cream cheese

On the third night of Hanukkah, my true love gave to me
      3 pounds of corned beef
      2 Kosher pickles and
      Lox, bagels and some cream cheese

On the fourth night of Hanukkah, my true love gave to me
      4 potato latkes
      3 pounds of corned beef
      2 Kosher pickles and
      Lox, bagels and some cream cheese

On the fifth night of Hanukkah, my true love gave to me
      5 bowls of chicken soup
      4 potato latkes
      3 pounds of corned beef
      2 Kosher pickles and
      Lox, bagels and some cream cheese

On the sixth night of Hanukkah, my true love gave to me
      6 pickled herrings
      5 bowls of chicken soup
      4 potato latkes
      3 pounds of corned beef
      2 Kosher pickles and
      Lox, bagels and some cream cheese

Continue here for the rest of the song and more humor such as the High Tech Dreidel Operator's Manual and Xmas vs. Chanukah.