Deutschland here we go!

Adio Kerida

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 11:58:17 +0100

Adio Kerida:

Spring Break Bulgaria, 2013

Shabbat Shalom from Belgrade

Mon, 14 Jan 2013 10:59:24 +0100

Shabbat Shalom from Belgrade

Photo

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 18:52:16 +0100

The president of Serbia, Tomislav Nikolić, along with many ambassador and members of the Islamic community of Belgrade, were special guest on the second night of Chanukah!

Potatoes + Onions = Latkas! Together with the student...

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 18:52:00 +0100

Potatoes + Onions = Latkas! Together with the student coordinator, we planned a latka activity at the Jewish students club in Belgrade, which is supported by the JDC. We made latkas from scratch and fried them using a portable camping gas stove! We don’t always have all of the proper materials here but we always find ways to improvise! here is the recipe we used! http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Potato-Latkes-104406

a pre- Chanukah activity in Novi Sad! Yesterday evening I...

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 19:57:00 +0100

our finished letters!

making the cookie dough

forming the letters

a mom jumped in, and showed them how it was done!

a pre- Chanukah activity in Novi Sad!

Yesterday evening I traveled to Novi Sad, the second largest city in Serbia, located in a northern region set on the Danube River. The Jewish community in Novi Sad is small in number but strong in spirit and inspiration. Communities in Serbia have built their kids programs based on an informal education model, so developing an activity allowed me to tap my creativity and share what I love best, baking!

With 16 kids from ages 0 to 15, some mothers, and the director of the Kids programs and her daughter, we taught the children the four different Hebrew letters on the Dreidel and explained their meaning for playing the game Dreidel. We also had the older kids explain to the younger kids the story of Chanukah and the meaning behind Nes Gadol Hayah Sham. Then we gave each group the materials to make cookie dough that they could then use to shape in the form of Hebrew letters Nun, Gimel, Hei, & Shin. We did not foresee that when the cookies would come out of the oven, they would have all melted together!

Everyone had a great time! Even the mothers, who had initially sat back, slowly came to the group and stated to participate. It turned out that they had crazy cookie shaping skills to offer us! It was truly a wonderful experience for me. Having worked in Jewish communities for over two years now in Germany and most recently in Serbia, I’ve never walked into a community blindly and alone before and been immediately welcomed.

The community holds weekly kids program from 5pm to 7pm, every Sunday evening. It is obvious that the families who come really care about their children’s Jewish identity as I am sure this is not the most convenient time as Sunday evening the week is ending and everything for the next week has already started to arrive in full force. In Serbia Jews make an active decision to be Jewish every day, every week and every year. There is not the structure or institutions in place that we are so familiar with in the US, which allow us to be Jewish in all aspect of our life and in society, with very little effort or thought required. Although I have a lot to give this year, I also have a lot to learn.

More to come on Chanukah events from Serbia!

Check out this article on my time in Deutschland!

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 10:15:17 +0100

Check out this article on my time in Deutschland! :

JDC wrote an article on my time and work in Germany from 2010 to 2012.

I lived in Germany for two years working with Jewish immigrants from the Former Soviet Union, who in the last 20 years moved to Germany and began for the first time to rediscover their Jewish identity.

Enjoy!

Photo

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 14:01:00 +0200

I'm standing on one of the Serbia/ Bosnia-Herzegovina border crossings!

Serious border control

See ya lata!

downtown Sarajevo

nice furs!

a shop in Sarajevo

A view of Belgrade from the bridge

One of the many river restaurants that line the Sava and Danube rivers, which run in and around Belgrade

Republic Square, Belgrade

Auf Wiedersehen Deutschland und дочекати Serbia!

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 13:08:00 +0200

Aufweidersehen Deutschland und дочекати Serbia!

It was really hard to leave Germany. Over the past two year, Germany became my home and my friends there became my family. I could have never imagined finding such amazing roommates over the internet that would grow to be like brothers. I learned more in Germany about myself than I ever imagined, as I was challenged in ways that I had never been tested before. I had several high points, followed by low points, which have made me the stronger individual that I am today.

Although I arrived just 3 weeks ago, I am still a spring chicken in these parts. Three weeks ago I packed up my life in Germany and moved to Belgrade, Serbia to continue working for the JDC. I will be living in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, for one year, working for the JDC on their programs in Belgrade and in smaller Jewish communities around Serbia. I will also have the opportunity to work on some JDC JRegions initiatives that take place throughout the year.

Since my arrival on October 1^st, 2012, I have been all over. Two and half days after I arrived, I set off on a night train to Sofia, Bulgaria with the leaders of the Belgrade youth club. The youth club is a JDC funded project that supports informal Jewish programming for kids, teenagers, and young adults in the Belgrade Jewish community. In Sofia we attended a JRegions weekend-long regional initiative meeting for young leaders from Balkan countries.

The train ride down was anything less than bumpy, ridiculous, and loads of fun! As expected, we met tons of nice strangers and I even had the unique opportunity of watching smugglers stuff cigarettes into the ceiling of the train! I, being naïve and new to the area, assumed the guy was fixing the lights; however, I later learned when we were stopped at the border for 5.5 hours that the train was really a smugglers express paradise…!

The meeting in Sofia was a great learning experience as I met Jewish leaders from almost every major Balkan community. Listening to people’s ideas and impressions gave me my first look into the needs and realities of Balkan Jewry.

After the Seminar the Belgrade team and I stayed to meet local community staff from the Sofia community to exchange ideas and learn about each other programs. The meetings also added to my understanding of JDC’s role and what Jewish life is today in the Balkans. It was interesting for me to learn about the different directions that these two communities had taken and why. The Belgrade youth club remains an informal center and the Sofia youth center has become a formal institution. Despite their proximity and sharing a border, the Serbian and Bulgarian Jewish communities have taken different approaches to developing Jewish life and community. I know very little about Balkan Jewish communities and I look forward this year to learning more and sharing my experiences.

3.5 days after arriving back from Sofia, we (members of the community and I) road-tripped almost 7 hours to Sarajevo, for an EX. Yugoslavian Inter-club Meeting! You are probably wondering what that is, as I was too! Every few months Ex. Yugoslavian Jewish communities organize a weekend of informal activities for young adults from 18 to 35. Jews from all over Serbia, Bosnia and Macedonia came! Similar to the notion that I picked up on in Germany, while working with Jews from the FSU, because Jewish life was for so long restricted to the community and not a part of the home family life, people today are attracted to experiences that allow them to contact and connect with other Jews. Although there may be little or no Jewish content present, the want for connection and sense of community is high.

In the mean time I have been adjusting well to life in Belgrade. I can say for certain that people here love to enjoy life and there is a very relaxed atmosphere. Belgrade is a pretty normal city beside the “expected nuances….”

More impressions to come!

Recently I was at in Berlin! If you are not familiar with Limmud, it is a place… where Jews...

Tue, 05 Jun 2012 11:18:45 +0200

Recently I was at in Berlin!

If you are not familiar with Limmud, it is a place…

where Jews of all religious and political backgrounds meet to learn, discuss and celebrate together
where you can expect to meet Jews who are different from you
where you can learn something new, whether you know nothing or you are a rabbi or professor
where participants themselves decide what they want to learn, and what they want to teach
where you can offer a presentation on any Jewish theme in which you have expertise
where you can attend or offer workshops in German, English or Russian
where there is room for the broad diversity of Jewish topics: religion, tradition, politics, society, literature, art, music and more
where everyone of all ages is welcome!

This past Limmud was a four day long festival in the center of Berlin. People, Families, and groups across Germany and Europe came to take part in the festivities. In all, more than 500 people attended. At Limmud I had the pleasure of meeting and learning from inspiring scholars on a wide variety of subjects. I also got to present myself! I led three sessions- the first on the high school boarding school I attended, the American Hebrew Academy, another on the Zadenu project, a JDC project in Germany that I helped to create last year that connects bar and bat mitzvah students from Germany and the USA and I led an informal session with Yahel (my JSC partner in action) for young adults to “chill” and to get to know each other.

Above is Ruth Calderon giving a workshop at Limmud. She is the founder of the Alma Institute in Tel Aviv, which promotes Hebrew culture through Beit Midrash study. Ruth led two incredible sessions at Limmud. Her ability to translate Torah and Midrash and at the same time remain engaging was inspiring. During her session, I was reminded of the importance of Hebrew culture and literature in order to maintain and strengthen my Jewish identity, as she pushed us to understand the relevance in Jewish and Hebrew sources in the context of our own lives today.

Here is a picture of the Bambinim Familyclub kids program.

On Shabbat morning at Limmud, a Jewish walking tour was offered in and around downtown Berlin. One of the first stops on our tour was right behind us, literally, as you turned away from the Limmud entrancement. I hadn’t noticed the memorial because it was an empty space… that clearly my mind accepted as normal, as there are many empty bombed-out spaces in Berlin from WW2. In Berlin, memorials have a reputation of being inconspicuousness; they are there, although they are not always immediately conscious in thought or in sight, even if you are looking head on. What you see in the picture below is an empty space, a place where a family apartment building was before the Second World War. This memorial remembers anyone who lived in the building. The artist researched the families who lived in the building before it was destroyed and made signs for each family and arranged them according to which floor the family had lived on. Many memorials in Berlin are not meant to be intrusive, they are designed to be thoughtful and poignant, catching the eye when you least expect it.

Jewish Lesbians, Treblinka & Miniskirts

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 14:48:00 +0200

(Susan)

Jewish Lesbians, Treblinka & Miniskirts, do you have any idea what I am getting at?

Probably not…. as neither did I and that was just the introduction…

I was praying that anyone slightly conservative or square would have already been deterred from the workshop’s title, “I Knew Nothing: Tales of a Clueless Jew,” and would have otherwise chosen the exciting reading on Родовое кольцо перчатка А.С. Пушкина Мифы и легенды or Man ist viel zu früh jung…. Since most our participants are over the age of 60 and Russian, there was not much reason to worry.

She was loud, lewd and provocative with her words, as her stream of consciousness retells her life through a funky Jewish lens. After living in Germany for a year, it is easy to forget how much I love to hear and indulge in unrefined banter… I had the pleasure to work with Susan Jane Gilman, author of Undress me in the Temple of Heaven, Hypocrite in Pouffy White Dress, and Kiss my Tiara. Susan was one of many authors invited to do a reading at a recent book festival I helped to organize in the Duisburg Jewish community in Germany.

For Jews and non-Jews alike, Susan’s voice is a fresh breath and a new perspective of what it means to be Jewish today. She is honest and undeterred even by exposing herself during her lowest of lows. As she read from her book, Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress, a collections of memories that speak to the most feverish highs, lows, and defining points of her life, I couldn’t help but think Hell! this woman has guts and I can’t get enough of her! Hearing her hash out many of the experiences that usually don’t make it into conversation was not just hysterical but inspiring. Having read her book prior, I felt as though everything she was reciting I had known and felt and at the same time was bursting with excitement to relay my own similar experiences. For me, especially living in Germany, it doesn’t happen often that I find myself in the company of stranger who feels far from strange…

As Susan clarified many times, being clueless can be a natural state of being or unconscious recurrences in life. Society convinces us that we should always pretend we are aware and never to expose our vulnerable moments, particularly the times when we fall hard. Susan let it all out, the good, the bad, and the ugly. She reminded me of the importance of doing so, as we are all human and definitely far from perfect. Everyone does stupid things and at some point in life you have to embrace it and laugh about it. Too many times in life we are convinced to remain clueless, uniformed, and simply neutral, by doing so we miss out on having a Voice and letting it be heard.

Our Voices are the greatest tools for change.

This Past week was Tu Bishwat. Check out the wonderful photos...

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 11:28:00 +0100

This Past week was Tu Bishwat. Check out the wonderful photos from our Seder in Bielefeld. Participants at the Seder were Zadenu families and in addition a few new comers welcomed us! The Seder was led by Rabbi Katz and prepared by my colleagues and me.

Chanukah in the Kita! Part of my job this year is working at...

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 19:08:00 +0100

a Sewiwon puzzel and memory cards

she is holding up a memory card

a child being interviewed on Chanukah

one of the puzzels I made

Chanukah in the Kita!

Part of my job this year is working at the local Jewish Kindergarten (Kita). For the Kita Chanukah party, I was asked to make Chanukah games that parents and children could play together. Unlike in North America or in Israel, there are very few Jewish education materials that are easily accessible in Germany… I decided to use the game that the kids love best, Memory…! I made a Chanukah memory game using symbols from Chanukah. In addition I also made several different puzzles for kids between the ages of 0 and 5. On a side note, I love that in my job I can find opportunities to be creative and make simple and functional pieces of art.

For the celebration, a TV station came to the Kita and reported on our Chanukah party. The TV crew did not lay low, they got excited quick by the festivities and before long were schmoozing with both the parents and the kids.

Enjoy the photos!

and happy 2012 :)

A year ago I was invited to join a group a people given an...

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 12:57:00 +0100

participants

participants

shabbat

program for the parents

program for the kids

saturday night dinner

saturday night bowling!

closing activity

zadenu sweatshirts hit the press

check out the sweatshirts we made!

A year ago I was invited to join a group a people given an ambitious assignment with no defined boundaries or clear goals. We wanted to create ‘something’ that would connect Bar and Bat mitzvah age students from Germany and the US. Not fully understanding our direction, we let our instincts guide us, and after months of hard work Zadenu took form. The ‘something’ that we had not predicted was a solid community of well-connected parents and teenagers from across Germany.

Last year a young boy in New York decided to do a mitzvah for his Bar mitzvah. He wanted to create a project in Germany, and from his goodwill Zadenu was born. Zadenu, a projected initiated by the Beran family of NY, supported by the JDC, connects families with Bar and Bat mitzvah students from the US and Germany. Zadenu’s main goal is participants, both parents and children, share and learn through each other’s experiences. Zadenu consists of seminars, meetings, peulot, Shabbat gatherings, attending Bar and Bat mitvahs, and most recently an international Shabbaton weekend in Berlin.

Although it has been said to me many times before, since my arrival in Germany, it was the Zadenu project that physically taught me how community work is done in German. The three vital components are personal connections, meetings and contact. Many of the participants in Zadenu were just as much estranged from each other as they were from us, the leaders behind the initiative. Hard work and contact built a community from individuals, as what began as an impossible assignment became possible. As I mentioned in my last blog, FSU Jews in Germany are learning what it means to be Jewish. And as they learn they are redefining German Jewry. It is their kids and their grandchildren who will ultimately give new meaning and life to Judaism in Germany. To have a Bar/Bat mitzvah is not only a new idea in Germany Jewish communities but an essential and defining landmark on one’s Jewish life Journey. It is not just a one day event, but rather a yearlong learning experience that impacts the whole family, prior and long after the Bar/Bat mitzvah day has come and gone.

In Jewish communities in Germany people belong to synagogues and community centers, and it is through their local communities that they become involved in nationwide German Jewish organizations and/or programs. It is rare that people join a group or club that does not already have a strong foot in their community. What the Beran Family and JDC did is unheard of in Germany. Unlike in America, in Germany people do not jump at new opportunities, instead they are more inclined to the familiar. Zadenu was anything but familiar. Zadenu is successful because it fills a unique gap in Jewish communities across Germany, as it provides a pluralistic experience for the whole family to strengthen Jewish identity. Zadenu may be unique in Germany but not to the work of JDC, as JDC supports programs that fill gaps. To learn more about the JDC visit their website at, http://www.jdc.org/

Watch out, more Zadenu stories coming soon!

Moving forward and looking back

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 00:43:00 +0100

A few weeks ago I began JSC year two. I moved across the country into a guest room above a synagogue, with no internet, in a small German town, where McDonalds is the only place open after 9pm. Although this was only temporary until I found an apartment, I experienced deja vu, and returned to September 12, 2010, the day I first arrived in Berlin. I was struck like a deer in the headlights.. (as we say in NC, because it happens so often) it finally hit me that I was staying another year in Germany.

The Jewish community I work in serves Jews from various smaller surrounding towns. The community is a myriad group from Former Soviet Union (FSU) countries. Some days I think I should be learning Russian instead of German, and most days I find myself learning more new words in Russian than German…. Over the past 20 or more years, Germany has invited approximately 200,000 Jews (almost 5 times more than the Jewish population before their arrival) from FSU countries to immigrate to Germany on the basis that they are Jewish as declared under Soviet decree (it is worth pointing out that many Jews who came to Germany that were deemed Jewish under Soviet rule are not considered Halachakli Jewish. This is a complicated discussion for another time). In the Soviet Union, to be Jewish meant to be discriminated against. On ones i.d. card “Jew” was written and consequently you were automatically victimized. As one father from Kazakhstan explained to me, “because I was a Jew I was discriminated against and even so, I was never allowed to learn what it means to be a Jew. I hope my kids can now learn.” This was from a conversation I had last year when I worked at Bambinim Familyclub, a JDC project in Berlin. The Soviet Union’s restrictions created a culture without a religion and as people started to do without knowing, slowly Jewish knowledge faded.

Recently I was in Skopje, Macedonia, and my friend (who grew up during Tito times) explained to me, “Sarah, it is we who must learn now and teach our parents,” this was from a conversation we had concerning the future of the Jewish community in Skopje, Macedonia. This is also the reality in the community I work in now. The children are pioneers, learning what it means to be Jewish and will redefine German Jewry. The process is slow and many times from an outsiders perspective self-defeating. Having already spent a year in Germany working inside the Jewish community, and observed many different Jewish groups across the religious spectrum, I can say that to be Jewish is not always what we know as American Jews. When Germany invited 200,000 Jews from former Soviet Union countries to come to Germany over the past 20 years or so, the Jewish communities were not prepared to absorb them socially, physically, economically, or politically. On both sides of the spectrum, people were and continue to be slow to new ideas and accepting that a new era of Jewish life is sprouting.

What does it mean to be Jewish? I ask myself this question a lot lately, sometime multiple times a day, as I am entering a new Jewish world that is foreign to all that I know. My Jewish identity is different from the people that I recently began to work with. When I ask myself, what does it mean to be Jewish, I am also asking myself, who am I? Where have I come from? And where am I going? My answers are not their answers. As I begin my second year in Germany, in a new community far from what is familiar, Berlin, I ask myself what it means to be Jewish in Germany today. Berlin was special, as it is an island in Germany, a cosmopolitan city that is like no other city in Germany, which creates a unique, diverse and rich Jewish community. In my new placement I work with families, children, and youth. I ask myself, what does it mean for this first generation of youth, growing up in a foreign country (Germany) where they were not born, do not have roots, their parents don’t speak the language and have little or no connection to Judaism, and they struggle to not only assimilate but understand how Judaism will be a part of their lives?

I hope in the next year that I am able to give new inspiration to Jewish life in the community. My goals are realistic, as I do not intend to change anyone or anything but I hope through my input, new concepts will be sparked and new attitudes turned. With one year behind me I have learned that my role and my purpose is not to lead but to inspire others around me to lead, to become leaders, to want more, to do more, and ultimately find their place not only in the local community but also in the larger Jewish world. I understand that I am not a permanent force here and what I contribute, I want to last after I am gone. The problems are not in lack of programing but in changing personal perceptions and stigmas about what it means to be Jewish through better education. Many people are Jewish when they come to the synagogue, but at home or with friends, the part of their identity that is Jewish is not present. This situation is complex and only time will tell how, who, and what the next generation will be. I myself wonder how they will define Judaism, what they will preserve and what will fade, only to be rediscovered by another generation. Valuing and/or prioritizing Jewish culture and tradition is also for some (the old FSU generation) a new idea, as I learned this past Sunday. For some children, last Sunday’s singing session at the synagogue about “Santa clause is coming to town” and “the Christmas market” may be the defining Jewish memory they have in 20 years from their childhood days spent at synagogue, but I hope not. When the teacher began to sing, my mouth dropped open. I was mortified. These children barley have a connection with Judaism, their parents hardly bring them to synagogue and this is what they are doing… This is just one of the many disconnects you have between the different generations.

I’ll share one more story. This coming weekend I will help to lead a seminar in Berlin. A year ago, I helped to found a project that’s goal is to bring together Bar and Bat mitzvah students from the US and Germany to connect and share experiences regarding Jewish identity. The seminar this weekend is a culmination of many day seminars, online discussions, and Shabbaton from the past year. When we began the project we considered many questions. The hardest question to explain to our American counterparts was why, in a project that focuses on identity through family programming and the Bar and Bat mitzvah process do we not ask specific questions regarding family members. In the US your Jewish identity and family members go hand in hand in conversation but for many Russian families in Germany that is not true. Many Russian families are broken, in more ways than one, and it is a sensitive subject to ask specific questions about the family. Jewish identity is less rooted in the family and more in the community and ones experiences in the community. Instead we focus on what is and how to work with the present. Only if someone willing brings forth information than is it open for discussion.

Coming back to what does it mean to be Jewish? I rarely skip a day were this question doesn’t come up in my mind or in conversation. The people I work with struggle to find their roots and to answer fundamental questions such as who am I, where have I come from and where I am going. Time will eventually tell, how they will define themselves personally and in society and whether or not it is through their past, present, or future…

This one makes three!

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 12:39:00 +0200

A lot has happened since I last blogged! In the past two months the new fellow has arrived and three generations of JSC fellows have crossed paths in Berlin. Upon Yahel’s arrival we, Molly and I, decided to do what we do best… Make a delicious breakfast! Below are photos from Yahel’s arrival!

Yahel’s Arrival, making biscuits at 7am!

the breakfast table! We are ready to eat, as always

Biscuits going into the Oven.

Biscuits in the Oven.. yumm

Machene is Amazing! I spent the last two weeks at UPJ Netzer...

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 14:40:00 +0200

The whole camp!

Our Valley

Sitting before Shabbat

My boys and I

Chilling at the pool

The Alps! Amazing!

The Madrichim

Machene is Amazing!

I spent the last two weeks at UPJ Netzer Germany’s summer camp in Radstadt, Austria (UPJ Netzer is a youth movement of liberal Judaism). Although I had received several emails prior to camp with details regarding location and climate, I had not read close enough….

Day 1: By mid-afternoon, kids and madrichim spanning all corners of Germany had finally arrived in Munich. Shortly after 3pm, we made our way onto two large buses and the final stretch of our journey began. As the bus began to roll, I fell asleep and two hours later, I woke up as we were winding into the Alps, crossing through narrow passages and steep land formations. Classic Sarah! I had forgotten to check the location, and to my surprise I was about to spend the next two weeks in the most beautiful place (something out of the Sound of Music) I had ever been before. Machene sat in a valley surrounded by stark green hills and snowcapped mountains that rolled into the Austrian Alps.

And so it began, with one thought, with one word, Machene is Amazing!

Having grown up in a Reform community and youth movement in the USA, Netzer machene was not familiar but felt like home. Over the past six years I have worked in several Jewish communities in the USA and around the world, but never did I form a connection of personal belonging. Although I entered as an outsider, I left feeling an immense sense of pride for Netzer, for their incredible work to cultivate and maintain Jewish identity for German Jews, many of whom are new to Germany and have limited social and economic means. Over twenty years prior, Germany invited about 200,000 Jews from Former Soviet Union countries to immigrate to Germany. This population continues to struggle with issues of integration not only in German society but also in the Jewish community. Netzer’s model of Liberal Judaism overcomes social, cultural, and economic barriers that traditionally divide German Jews from German Jews of Russian background. My experience at Netzer machene has empowered me to dedicate my time, skills and experience to strengthening Jewish communities. As an American Jew, growing up in a melting pot of Jewish resources and organizations, it is sometimes too easy to forget the difficulties faced in the Diaspora.

Maybe it was the liberal lens or the diverse background of madrichim and chanichim or perhaps the desire by all to create community or rather something I can’t explain, but for the first time since living in Israel, Jewish boarding school, or my family, I felt, I heard, I saw, I smelled, I tasted, and I believed I was a part of something incredible. Words cannot describe my experience with the Netzer community, as it reminded me of the feelings, smells, friendships, laughter, and love I felt during countless summers at Young Judea summer camp. During my childhood and for the children at Netzer, Machene is a powerful reminder of who you are, your community, and the values, morals, and goals that are most important in life.

This past weekend was Limmud! A four day festival of Jewish learning, at a beautiful campsite, just...

Tue, 07 Jun 2011 09:38:00 +0200

This past weekend was Limmud! A four day festival of Jewish learning, at a beautiful campsite, just north of Berlin. Early Thursday morning I set out with the Bambinim Team and some volunteers who joined us for the weekend. Bambinim Familyclub ran the kids program for children ages 0 to 6 at Limmud.

Blessing the Shabbat candles.

Making ceramics with Chaim!

Shabbat Shalom!

Afternoon Theater by the Kinder!

The Lake!

Last weekend I was invited to join a family...

Mon, 30 May 2011 14:05:00 +0200

Last weekend I was invited to join a family weekend in Donauwörth, Germany, organized by Netzer, a youth movement from the Union of Progressive Judaisms. I organized and ran the children’s program. Check out my pictures from the weekend!

Photo

Tue, 26 Apr 2011 19:23:29 +0200

Preparing the Pesach meal

Our Seder plate

The meal!

Passover in Berlin

Tue, 26 Apr 2011 19:01:18 +0200

This year we organized a Pesach Seder for young adults in Berlin. Our goal was to empower the participants to lead and organize the Seder, while we provided the necessary support and resources. Our Seder was run by volunteers. Fifteen people attended, nine of Russian background, three of German background, one Israeli, and Molly and I. The demographic of our Seder was not by accident, as it represents Germany’s changing Jewish community, as a result of 200,000 Jews who immigrated to Germany in the late 80s and early 90s from the former Soviet Union.

The Seder was hosted at our friends’ apartments, one of German background and the other of Russian background. With limited space and a lot of creativity, we made a bungalow on the ground, of pillows, blankets, and sheets, where we enjoyed the Seder. Our Hagadah was provided by the host of the party, she comes from a mixed Jewish family and had not grown up observing Passover. The Seder was conducted in German, and of course there was a lot of English and Russian floating around.

Of the people who came, several had never celebrated Passover. The Seder was led by a young man, who had immigrated at age 11 from Ukraine to Germany. He experienced his first Pesach Seder at age 17. Another young male was celebrating Passover for his first time and had just recently learned he was Jewish. One of the hosts of the evening shared that he and his family had not celebrated a Pesach Seder since his grandparents had passed. Although Berlin is bustling with Jewish life, the community lacks pluralistic options for young adults. Many of our participants expressed how excited they were to participate in a pluralistic Seder, since their families were not observing Pesach and they did not feel comfortable going to a religious institution.

The event could not of been possible without four individuals, who volunteered their time to create the vision of the Seder, coordinator the resources, and facilitate the evening. Molly and I took a back seat as we wanted the Seder to come from our peers. JDC funded half the cost of the Seder and we divided the remaining costs among all who came. The menu of the evening, which we spent a little over a day and a half preparing, wound up to be enough food for an army! Three chickens, a ton of potatoes, charoset, several salads, matza ball soup, deserts, and more…

Hag Sameach from Berlin!