Case Study: Congregation Beth Am, Los Altos Hills, CA

Beginning of the Innovation Stream Strategic planning session in 1989 What would it look like if we had really excellent education programs? Led to start of Beth Am Education Council, a task force, charged with setting a vision for education – precursor to the ECE

The primary goal of our lifelong learning program is to create a community at Beth Am in which our congregants will value Jewish education highly and engage in it regularly so that they may become committed, knowledgeable, participating, Reform Jews. They will be able to make informed Jewish choices and will live up to the highest ideals of our tradition. Using our lifelong Jewish learning map as a content guide, we will employ a variety of teaching methods designed to attract, engage, and challenge learners of all ages, interests, backgrounds, and abilities. We will create a program that is integrated, enabling our congregants to make connections among various Jewish content areas and experiences. We commit ourselves to recruiting and retaining lay leaders, teachers, and staff of the highest caliber. We will continuously identify and address obstacles and barriers to learning so that no congregant will be inhibited from participating fully in our programs. Congregation Beth Am Education Vision Written 1992, Revised by Board of Directors 2000

The first initiative…Shabbaton Started with a series of pilots – snack and story time at different times during the week Now finishing its 12 th year

Ongoing Innovation BAEC Shabbaton Working Group Adult Learning Task Force Sunday Program Task Force B’nai Mitzvah Task Force Worship Task Force Hebrew Working Group Teen Education Task Force Early 90’sLate 90’s Toledot Weekly classes Morasha Re-envisioned Shabbat worship Retreats and trips Community building Integration (Tzavta) Social Action Modern language Family learning New High School Program Mandatory pairing

What’s next? Long term goal of eliminating most B’nei Mitzvah preparation Challenge: Local JCC has Hebrew immersion pre-school Adult education milestone

Other applications Search committees for: –Senior rabbi –Cantor –Educators –Executive Director Board meetings and retreats Committees

Current Shabbaton Goals Written by participants during feedback session, 2002 A Jewish family education program committed to providing a nurturing and engaging environment in which high quality, relevant content stimulates all family members to pursue a path of lifelong Jewish learning and living. Family learning every Shabbat afternoon during school year 3:45-4:00 – Shira 4:00-4:50 – Mishpacha learning 4:50-5:00 – snack 5:00-5:45 – Age based kitot, including adult kitah 5:45-6:00 - Havdallah Innovation within a program:

YEAR 1: Limited family education. Traditional curriculum PILOT: 6-8 Snack and storytelling sessions YEAR 2: Full parent attendance. Theme based education. Family projects QUESTION: When is it best for families to spend Jewish time together? LEARNING: 4-6PM on Shabbat afternoon LEARNING: Underestimated interest in families learning together LEARNING: Themes work. Community building needs help QUESTION: How do you structure the experience so that families will learn together? QUESTION: How will theme based education work? QUESTION: How can we build stronger community? Innovations: Pilot – Year 2

YEAR 5: Congregant teachers YEAR 6: Advanced adult learners QUESTION: How do we create learning experiences for all levels of adult learners? LEARNING: Small group adult learning satisfies some but not all QUESTION: How do we create and sustain a teaching staff that understands goals? LEARNING: Teacher training and relationship building YEARS 3/4: Community building LEARNING: Community building works when it’s planned QUESTION: How can we build stronger community? Innovations: Years 3-6

YEAR 9: Lay leadership/ administration QUESTIONS: How do we encourage more lay ownership of the program? How do we engage the next generation of families? LEARNING: Work is divisible with lay people playing big role. Parent orientation helps. YEAR 10: Rebalancing social and learning time QUESTION: How do we create more opportunities for community building? LEARNING: Return to more all- school learning days with social time. Add all-school potluck dinners YEAR 7/8: Graduating students and parents QUESTION: How do we integrate graduates into other programs? LEARNING: Need to work in cooperation with other programs Innovations: Years 7-10

And on and on and on… Other experiments over the years Length and scope of family take-home projects Amount of adult reading between sessions Age-based class potlucks Next year adding 15 minutes of Hebrew Still wrestling with Advanced adult learners Tefillah beyond Havdallah Adding Tikkun Olam opportunities in addition to post-Shabbat tzedakah Moving some sessions to Shabbat morning/interdependency with Shabbat morning Hebrew program Creating a community for older siblings In Year 12 Steady enrollment of close to 70 families (at capacity) Experiment with adding Russian speaking mishpacha Joint professional/lay leadership of program Five of seven mishpachot taught by congregants