Posted by Natasha M

Program Host	Chapter
Host Region and Chapter	Ohio Northern Star of David BBG
Program Type	Education Entertainment Jewish Holiday Judaic Prayer/Services Shabbat Sisterhood Social Social Action Spirituality
Target Population(s)	Girls (BBG) Members Prospective Members Members-in-Training Teen Leaders Freshmen Sophomores Juniors Seniors 8th Graders Community at-large
Folds Targeted	Social Action Jewish Heritage Creativity Sisterhood
People Participating	10-30

Program Summary:

This program was meaningful, educational, and most of all, FUN. Each member invited a non-Jewish friend from another culture for a Shabbat filled with good food, an awesome drum workshop, a taste of 'BBYO culture', and much more!

Full Description:

This program was planned by the S'ganit (Natasha Madorsky)and Program-Planning Chairwoman (Jacqueline Friedman) of Star of David BBG #673. It took place on a Friday night from 7 to 11 p.m. at the home of a member.
The idea behind this program was to give some of our non-Jewish friends a taste of Jewish culture and BBYO tradition, while learning a bit about other cultures as well.

The program was free admission, but everyone brought a traditional dish for our multi-cultural shabbat dinner. It was advertised in chapter emails, phone calls, texts, recorded messages, flyers, and on facebook.

At 7 p.m., guests began to arrive. At around 7:15, we took everyone into the living room to welcome them and explain the purpose of the evening. We then went around in a circle and each person introduced themselves with their name, grade, school, where their ancestors were from, and what foreign languages (if any) they speak. This mixer was very helpful with the amount of new people we had, and it elicited a really nice discussion and many interesting stories about family history and culture. We then moved into the kitchen to give a brief explanation of shabbas, and then light the candles, bless some delicious sparkling grape juice, and enjoy some awesome homemade challah. We got to learn more about our guests over a delicious buffet of foods from many different countries and cultures.
After dinner, we moved into the basement for a fabulous workshop by a local woman who teaches traditional styles of drumming from different cultures. Everyone sat in a circle with a drum, bell, maraca, or güiro. We learned an African song, a Brazilian song, and even had our own community drum-circle.
After the workshop, we did a concise Shabbat service. All the chapter members got involved in helping explain the significance and history of certain prayers and melodies. Our guests got exposed to traditional Shabbas services, and were able to ask questions. We ended the service with the new ONR tradition of singing Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful" with our arms around each other.
We ended our program by explaining the process and significance of a Good&Welfare, and then having one with all of our members, prospectives, and non-Jewish guests. It was a really special way to end the evening because after a few hours of celebrating cultural differences, we were able to understand how similar and connected we all are as teenage girls.

This program was a favorite among everyone in attendance, we highly recommend it to all other chapters!

Submitter's Suggestions:

Make sure everything is ready to go well ahead of time! Also, make sure to do a great job explaining the purpose of the evening, a get everyone involved in explaining their cultural traditions!

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