DEAR
ANNABEL

Maze! Tov! Penn is so
lucky to have you for
the next four years.
We will miss you
(A LOT), but will always
be happy cheering
your success.

Love,
Mimi and Papa

Leaders on the project: Constructing the compost bin at Great Lakes
Landscape Design in Oak Park, Carly Sugar and Sam Katz pair up on building
a section

Teens Go Green

Temple Emanu-El youth embark
on composting project.

Carly Sugar
Special to the Jewish News

Congratulations!
We are so proud of you!

T

raditionally, Jewish religious
school has an intellectual focus.
Focusing exclusively on the
intellectual, however, can leave students
a step removed from their individual
interests and their personal Jewish jour-
ney.
For most young adult students at any
Jewish congregational school, atten-
dance is reluctant and, for some, it's
downright involuntary "My parents are
making me or "So I can put it on my
college application:' or "So I can get con-
firmed, whatever that means; are com-
mon responses to "Why are you here?"
Very seldom do students arrive with the
eagerness for learning that comes from
actually wanting to be there.

Finding A Practical Solution

You light up our lives and have
made us so proud since
day one!
May all your dreams come true!
Go Blue!

Ivan Katz, owner of Great Lakes
Landscape Design, volunteered his
expertise for the project with his
daughter, Sam.

108

May 21 • 2015

Getting Down To Earth

At Temple Emanu-El in Oak Park,
Rabbi Arturo Kalfus enlisted Director of
Congregational Learning Sue Salinger
and me, Youth Director Carly Sugar, to
build a new post-b'nai mitzvah curricu-
lum — from the ground up.
Through a Jewish lens, students
have spent the year examining societal
systems that have created vast injus-
tices worldwide. Learning to ask tough
questions while struggling with the
discomfort of how these systems benefit
or oppress them, the group has become
more aware and concerned about the
issues around common resources —
clean water, clean air, sustainable energy,
healthy food, the accessibility of these
resources for all — issues that are ulti-
mately of environmental and social con-
cern to everyone. Moreover, they have
explored ways to take action.
"It's been a great experience learn-
ing about these issues ... along with
the potential that we have to make a
change said 11th-grader Samantha
Katz.

On a cool, rainy Sunday in April, stu-
dents of Temple Emanu-El's Young
Adult Program gathered at Great Lakes
Landscape Design in Oak Park to build
a compost system for the temple as their
final project for the year.
A student-conceived and student-led
project, the three-bin system will serve
to convert food, paper and yard waste