Kitah Vav Update

Dear Parents!

I hope that you had a FANTASTIC winter break!  The kids were all back and excited to be in the building.  Instead of our regularly scheduled programming, the kids helped to organize some of our items that we will be using at CSZ in Action: our day of service coming up on January 17th.  We began by framing the day with some quotes from famous rabbis and Talmud sources on the importance of Tikkun Olam (repairing the world).  The students were surprised that it is an OBLIGATION of Jews to give Tzedakah and not a "good deed."

We then went on to talk AT LENGTH about homelessness and shelters and what domestic violence shelters were.  I was so impressed by the kids' level of engagement.  I kept the discussion as light as it can be, but we talked about emotional abuse and physical abuse (surface level talk) and spent the majority of the time discussing SAFETY and that some families live in fear, and need to be somewhere where they feel safe.  We also discussed how homelessness in this day and age is not defined by people living on the streets who seem so different from us. Next week we will discuss the working poor and talk a bit about hunger issues and "food insecurity," which is an epidemic in our country.

Actually, I expected to spend 5 minutes on the discussion and move into the "doing," but the kids were so interested and they had such insightful questions.  We spent a good 20 minutes talking about serious issues of homelessness and how children are impacted by being uprooted from "home."  I was really proud of them.

We then sorted stuffed animals, sorted blankets, rolled and tied blankets, assessed what donations were appropriate to give (many items donated are sub par and not something that we want to give to someone else).  The kids worked furiously for the last 30 minutes to help get everything ready for the big day: Jan 17.

Sunday, we will move into another arena of service by helping to make soup for the homeless.  Please consider letting your child stay until the end of the program, which is at 1:30, but we should be winding down around 1:15.  You are, of course, most welcome to pick up at the regular time of 12:15.  We will be learning about cooking, watch a demonstration, making soup and cornbread and eating a kosher pizza lunch.

 

The following week we will continue doing service work on Tuesday and then on the 17th, we will all come together - families and children - to participate in CSZ in Action.  Please sign up for a service project soon. Allison mailed out information on this process on Wednesday.

Thanks for all you do and see you soon,

Morah Leah