TALI provides pluralistic Jewish curricular resources, professional development, and experiential education programs all over Israel and around the globe. TALI helps young people and educators think about the development of Judaism from our past to our present, providing an engaging narrative that tells the story of the Jewish people in Israel and around the world.
Our work addresses the mind and the heart: What do we want our society to look like? How do we ensure continuity of the Jewish tradition and people, and show that being Jewish can mean so many different things?
Over six sessions TALI’s Jewish Threads-Ha’Beged HaYehudi program is an opportunity to explore Jewish identity. When you choose an outfit for a bar/bat mitzvah event, you focus on the color, fit or style. In addition to choosing the actual clothing to wear – which is definitely important – we should also focus on the meaning of the occasion.
Being Jewish is made up of lots of elements: history, values, ideas, texts, food, etc. (the threads of the outfit). During the program we will be focusing on different parts of Jewish culture – the raw materials that make up Jewish identity. Once we have examined some of these elements you will be able to put together your own personal ‘Jewish outfit’ – what being Jewish means to you.
Using film clips, games, interactive activities and discussion, our journey draws connections between Jews around the world, Jewish history and participants from different communities. We will end the program by designing our personal, unique “Beged Yehudi-Jewish threads” and wear our hearts (and other values) ‘on our sleeves.’
The Jewish Threads Program will take place on six Sundays over a period of eight weeks. A TALI facilitator will guide each participant through the program.
Individual sessions will take place between 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM EST based on sign up.
Group sessions will start at 11:00 AM EST.
Free
8 Weeks
Participants will have a TALI facilitator who will guide them through the program and be available for additional workshops and/or preparations for the bar/bat mitzvah if families are interested in an additional personalized package.
Individual session (*can be participant with parents): Embarking on a journey.
Which elements form our Jewish identity? How is this birthday different from all other birthdays? What is important to me at this stage of life? What are we actually marking and celebrating?
Small group session: Who Am I?
Using online tools and games we will explore the many threads that make up who we are, and ask ourselves how the different parts of our identity are expressed in our day-to-day lives. Which of these elements do we want to incorporate and strengthen in our identities as we grow up?
Large group session: Meeting with leading Israeli cultural figure (from one of the following fields).
Small group session: Jews around the world.
From Argentina to Serbia and from Ukraine to Australia, we will meet different Jewish kids around the world through video interviews. We will look at commonalities and well as dissimilarities, explore in what ways we feel connected to Jews around the world, and examine whether the concept of “All Jews are responsible for one another” is still relevant to us.
Large group session:
Meeting with leading Israeli cultural figure (from list above)
Individual session (*can be participant with parents): What do we do now?
Bar/bat mitzvah marks a change in our status. From this point forward, we are obliged to take responsibility for our actions, for our choices, and for our Jewish identity. Having gone through a process of examining some of the different elements in Jewish culture, each participant will now design their unique “Jewish garment,” their Jewish identity as they see it at this moment in time – one that we have designed, take pride in, want to exhibit to the world, and one that will change and grow with us.
