Out of the Mainstream
A new program is
R
teaching families

emember when you were
a kid and your parents
sent you off to Hebrew
school. By doing so, it
seemed as if your parents
had fulfilled their responsibility to
your Jewish education, and the ex-
tent of their involvement consisted
of considerable kvelling when you
reached some milestone like your
bar mitzvah.
You, in the meantime, prob-
ably received some type of Jewish
education. So why is it that you
and many of your contemporaries
are not quite comfortable with
many Jewish rituals and tradi-
tions? And why do you keep hear-
ing that Diaspora Jews are becom-
ing assimilated more rapidly than
ever and may some day fade away?
After all, you feel Jewish and
want your children to feel Jewish,
too.
According to sociologists and
researchers, most Jews apparently
want to express their Jewish iden-
tity and they want their children to
have Jewish roots. Yet many of
them, lacking the necessary skills
and knowledge, are being swept
along in mainstream American cul-
ture, which offers a variety of
choices and lifestyles but no Jewish
anchoring.
The tide may be changing, and
a catalyst for that change is right
here in metropolitan Detroit with a
one-of-a-kind program called JEFF
— Jewish Experiences for Families.
JEFF is a community
consultation-programming service
designed to reach into the family
and provide the skills and knowl-
edge necessary to live Jewishly
within a family framework.
Central to the program is an
informal, non-threatening atmos-
phere that lets you off the hook for
what you don't know and enables
you to learn and choose the ways in
which you wish to express your
Jewishness.
Coordinated by the Fresh Air
Society-Tamarack Camps in coop-
eration with the Jewish Commu-
nity Center and the United Hebrew

32

Friday, April 24, 1987

how to live Jewishly

BEVERLY WOLKIND

Special -to The Jewish News

Schools, JEFF is a three-year pilot
project, begun in August 1986, with
consultation from the Jewish Wel-
fare Federation. Funding came
from Mandell L. and Madeline Be-
rman, with matching funds from
the Max M. Fisher Jewish Com-
munity Foundation.
The program is directed by
Harlene Appelman, a former
teacher and synagogue education
director and a national leader in
Jewish family education. Appelman
works with area synagogues and
agencies to implement family life
programs. Initiated with four con-
gregations — Shaarey Zedek, Adat
Shalom, Beth Shalom and Temple
Israel — the program's cornerstone
is the idea of "ownership"; that is,
each congregation must form its
own lay committee and work to
implement programming that is re-
levant to its own constituency's
needs and interests.
As- program director, Appelman
provides consultation that ranges
from coming up with concepts to
creating printed materials to help-
ing implement the program.
How difficult was it to get the
synagogues involved? According to
Appelman, synagogues have be-
come increasingly receptive as they
see the results. She notes that
JEFF enables synagogues to "bet-
ter mobilize their constituencies.
When members get more actively
involved, institutions grow."
Irwin Alterman, president of
Adat Shalom, agrees. "This kind of
programming gives families a con-
tinuing reason to come into the

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

synagogue and participate," he
says.
Programs have been as diverse
as a pre-Rosh Hashanah apple-
picking trip for UHS pre-schoolers
and their families and a pre-Yom
Kippur discussion at Temple Israel
teaching youngsters how to say
"I'm sorry." Other events have in-
cluded Adat Shalom's "Mentch-
making," which offers parents with
young children a Jewish approach
to child-rearing; and Beth Shalom's
"A Place at the Table," which
brings families together to discuss
the relationship between Shabbat
celebration and mental health.
But these programs only hint
at JEFF's current diversity and
potential range. The UHS apple-
picking expedition, for example,
was part of a "Super Sunday"
series designed to offer a spectrum
of experiences to pre-schoolers,
kindergarteners and their families.
With four special Sundays planned
during the school year, the pro-
gram uses seasonal celebrations as
a springboard to bring parents and
children together to learn and have
fun.
Last fall, families received a
flyer for a "pioneer skills celebra-
tion" at Camp Maas' Smokier
Pioneer Village in Ortonville. Held
in November, the program offered a
pre-Thanksgiving experience with
a Jewish flavor. Parents and their
youngsters took part in making
candles, menorahs and doughnuts
and went on a hayride.
The February Super Sunday
featured a Tu b'Shevat event with

singing and storytelling. A Lag
b'Omer picnic and maccabiah at
the Jewish Community Center's
Camp Ruth in West Bloomfield is
scheduled for May.
How did such an ambitious
venture get started? It is based on
a model that was created at Cong.
Shaarey Zedek in 1982, under the
leadership of Mandell Berman. In-
volved in Jewish education on the
national level for many years, both
as the first chairman of the Council
of Jewish Federation's education
committee and as board chairman
of the Jewish Education Service of
North America, Berman says he
"got tired of hearing people talk
about problems with the quality of
Jewish life." He shared his feelings
with Rabbi Irwin Groner, and to-
gether, the two decided that the
best way to effect positive change
was to "try to change lifestyle — a
scary concept."
The result was Shaary Zedek's
Family Life Education Program, a
four-year experiment that Berman
funded and Appelman directed. It
proved to be an enormous success.
The first synagogue program of its
type in the country, FLEP created
unique ways to strengthen Jewish
family life.
So a model was created which
showed that a positive change in
the way Jewish families transmit
Jewish values was attainable.
Across the U.S., the issues of
assimilation and affiliation are
being discussed. Sociologists seem
to agree that there's a "built-in
tension" in being American and
Jewish. Professor Gerald Bubis of
Los Angeles' Hebrew Union
College-Jewish Institute of Religion
notes that the Jewish community
has had to learn how to remain
Jewish in the midst of an open
society, a first-time experience his-
torically. He says that never have
so many Jews known so much
about every subject in the world
except Judaism.
"Jews by choice" used to refer
to converts. Today, according to
Rabbi Alexander Schindler,

-J

(

