Photos by Bill Hansen

Up Front

Family Values

Temple Kol Ami starts its second year of Shabbat school
and is looking to expand

JULIE WIENER

Staff Writer

D

avid Feenstra's favorite part
of religious school is learn-
ing Hebrew letters and
words. Emily Felsenfeld
likes working on projects with her par-
ents, Laurel and Mark. And while he
can't quite articulate it yet, the high
point for 1-year-old Aaron Felsenfeld
is clearly the ,challah and grape juice
that comes after the Shabbat service.
The Feenstras, Felsenfelds and two
other families are pioneers in a pilot
program Temple Kol Ami launched
last year: the Shabbat Family School.
Meeting every other Saturday
throughout the year, the school brings
four families together for services and

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16 Detroit Jewish News

learning. Kol Ami, a Reform temple in
West Bloomfield, also offers a regular
Sunday school.
"We're pretty firm about making
Shabbat a family time," said Laurel
Felsenfeld. "During the week, we're all
scattered with different activities, but
Shabbat is something we do together.
With Sunday school, you have no clue
what your kids are doing, you get no
feedback from your kids. This way we
know what's going on, and it's nice to
find something all of us can do
together."
The two-hour session generally
begins with family services and kid-
dush. Then children and parents break -
into separate groups for study periods
— addressing the same topic but on
different levels — and come together

again for joint projects and discus-
sions. Over the summer,-the parents
and children spent the entire session
together, but as the new school year
begins, the program will return to the
breakout model.
Rabbi Amy Brodsky,
who coordinates the pro-
gram, sees it as an effec-
tive way to show children
that Jewish learning is a
family value. "Every per-
son working in Jewish
education tries to get
parents involved, and
here kids see parents in
the temple, not just
dropping them off," she
said. "Kids see this is
important enough for

their parents to join them. Also, it's on
Shabbat, so kids are learning that
Saturday is a special day."
In addition to bringing children
and their parents together, the pro-
gram has sparked
friendships among the
families.
"These are all our
friends," said one par-
ent, Rick Ng, looking
around the classroom
on a Saturday morning
two weeks ago. "I look
forward to this — it's a
time for us to share
worship and education."
Ng, who attends the
class with his wife Rosa
Schindler and their chil-