Tikun Midot Project 5775 Congregation Beth Evergreen Evergreen, CO Funded by IJS Tikkun Middot Grant

About CBE  Congregation of about 200 households  one-shul town, 45 minutes from Denver  Diverse membership, mostly interfaith  Weekly mussar class in its 6 th year  Co-chairs implementing grant are…  Rabbi Jamie Arnold  Marilyn Saltzman  Bonnie Houghton  Tara Saltzman

Highlights from TM Project Successes  Leadership Group  The Word’s Out  “Our Turn to Learn”  “ Mitzvah-Middah Tour”  Scholar-in-residence Challenges  Interval between meeting times  Reluctant Leaders  Seeding new groups  Engaging teens

Leadership Group Success  Group requested more frequent meetings, from monthly, to every 3 weeks  Recent vaad, cavod- practice of sharing words of praise!  Group is bonding  Participants now leading pieces during meetings (e.g. meditation, study, song)

The Word’s Out…Success  Midah of the month  Phone message  Newsletters and poster  Religious School Curricula  In divrei torah at meetings and services  Appeal letter “ midah menorah”  Raised in casual conversations in halls

“Our Turn to Learn” Success  Monthly Intergenerational ‘Family Ed’  Tapping a preexisting Havurah  Meets Shabbat Mornings before services  Child programing concurrent with adult study (parents, grandparents, plus)  Using adapted IJS curriculum, new midah each month, handouts, homework

“Mitzvah-Midah Tour” Success  Tu Bishvat Community Service Stations as stops on the “Magical Mitzvah-Midah Tour”  Sorting cans for food pantry – seder  Making soup packs – hesed  Visiting residence of eldercare facility – savlanut  Making cat toys for animal shelter -- cavod

“Embodied Spirituality” success?  Scholar-in-Residence visit with Rabbi Myriam Klotz, scheduled for March  Yoga and Mussar class  Workshop with kids with mussar and movement  “Body Language” Seminar

Challenge#1: Intervals between meetings  Symptoms:  Lose momentum  Missed meeting leaves large gaps  Harder to measure and experience ‘soul- growth’ and shared connections  Solutions?  More frequent meetings  Weekly hevruta  Vaad groups meet between meetings

Challenge #2: Reluctant Leaders  Symptoms:  Still in ‘learning mode’  Reluctance to lead new initiatives  Struggling to seed new groups  Solutions?  Sessions devoted to “Leadership”  Small steps, lead pieces within our group  Savlanut

Challenge #3: Seeding New Groups  Symptoms:  Interest not translated into action  Over-reliance on over-committed rabbi and co-chairs to organize and lead  New groups not self-sustaining  Solutions?  Offer Tikun Midot 101 classes  Sign-up Forms, contact lists  Hire a “coordinator”

Challenge #4: Engaging Teens  Symptoms:  Hard to reach, coordinate, and engage  RoHo [girls] and BroHo [guys] groups not interface  Solutions?  Teen Retreat: “Jew’s Line is it Anyway?”  Improv and Mussar  Teens co-facilitate program

Tikun Midot Project 5775 Congregation Beth Evergreen Created by Rabbi Jamie Arnold For IJS Webinar, February 2015