Posted by Sam T

Program Host	Chapter
Host Region and Chapter	Cotton States RABBI ISAAC WINICK AZA
Program Type	Education Hebrew Israel Israeli Culture Judaic Movie/Film Social
Time Required	2-5 hours
Target Population(s)	Girls (BBG) Boys (AZA) Members Freshmen Sophomores Juniors Seniors Parents
Folds Targeted	Judaic Education Social
People Participating	10-30

Program Summary:

Along with an amazing guest speaker, our chapter and guests learned about our judaism within ourselves and how to become better jews, people, friends, sons, and students through an interactive and eye-opening program.

Full Description:

ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
On Sunday Winick members cleaned our room for our big guest and first major program of the year. Short introductions were given by Sam Talman prior to the speeches. Rivka Ribak, our special guest speaker, her husband Yair, and their three girls came to speak to Winick, Weinstein, and parents about how to make Judaism one's own. Ribak is a visiting professor at UT. She teaches communication and its importance at the University of Haifa, and is visiting as head of the Judaic studies department at UT. It began with Yair speaking about how he is Jewish. He mentioned and mostly spoke about his job, a photojournalist in Israel, and the family's recent trip to Poland. Also he had been working on a short documentary about Judaism and their trip, which was shown on a big screen for the members (seated in chairs around the room). After his inspiring and touching piece on Poland and their exposure to the Concentration Camps, Dr. Ribak came up to talk. Dr. Ribak spoke on the three main aspects of her life that are Judaic: being a mom, politics, and teaching. She focused on how in Israel being Jewish is much more transparent, whereas in the US Jews have to try to eat Kosher, observe Shabbat and other Judaic practices. She noted how we don't really think about raising our children Jewish, but in Israel it is understood based upon the sole fact that Israel is a Jewish state. She mentioned how being an active member in the community and keeping up with politics also influences her Judaism. Supporting some issues ties her closer to Israel.

ADD IN DISCUSSION:
Throughout the presentation and speeches questions were asked by members and discussion was sparked. The speeches and presentations last about an hour.

BEFORE THE GUESTS/PARENTS (not chapter members) LEFT:
Afterward, the guests stayed about thirty more minutes to ask and answer questions from the members about politics, life in Israel, and other miscellaneous topics.

INTERACTIVE PROGRAM:
After they left, Sam Talman (program leader) led a "lights-down" serious portion of the event.
Sheets of poster board (legal sized paper) were handed out to all the members. They were also given a glue stick and a pencil.

Talman asked certain questions about Judaism (do you believe in God, how to raise children, observe Shabbat later in life, pray/go to synagogue several times a week later in life, etc.).

After each questions, depending on their answer, the members and guests came up to the table and received a different object. For example, for the question "do you want to keep kosher later in life?" If you answered (silently) yes, than you received an apple sticker, but if you thought no, you received a sticker of a pig. Although all the objects were not stickers, the members had to glue some of the items on their board. By the end of the program all members had filled their board with objects, making a collage.

Lastly, participants were asked to write on their board the three most important ideals in Judaism to them. Then asked if they learned anything from this program about themselves.

SOMETHING TO CHANGE THEIR LIFE FOR THE FUTURE:
All members after answering the questions and finishing gluing all their objects, they were given bags of seeds of unidentified bags of flowers and random seeds. They were told to grow from this program and to become a better Jew, person, citizen, friend, student, son/daughter, parent, and overall member of society.

FINAL DISCUSSION AND WRAP-UP:
Afterward, a discussion was led and people had a chance to see how different their poster board was from everyone else's. This proved how we may seem similar because of our Judaism, we are all different people and have different feelings. The event was highly successful and lasted total of about 2 1/2 hours.

Submitter's Suggestions:

Make sure all ideas, and parts of the program are completely ironed out before the guest speaker and that your audience is quiet and respectful.

Comments:

Gabbi B said (Apr 26, 2009):

This sounds AMAZING!

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