Synagogue Updates

At a recent kiddush, one of our seventh graders turned and spontaneously greeted my husband.  In a class a few days earlier, one of our seventh graders referred to one of the senior Better Together participants by her first name.  Another senior recently shared that after an initial directed conversation, she and the seventh grader with whom she was paired shared stories and pictures with each other.  Prior to the Better Together experience, none of these congregants knew each other.  What began with the questions about how we create intergenerational relationships and foster synagogue engagement has become an ongoing initiative and Better Together was born.   
 

I recently had the privilege of working with our seventh graders.  (You can take the teacher out of the classroom but you can never take the classroom out of the teacher.)  I walked in with a cart filled with all different small house plants.  Each student received a plant and was instructed to use their cellphones (Yes, they do have their benefits!) to learn the name of the plant, its kingdom, the watering instructions, the care instructions and the propagating instructions.  The information about the plants differed greatly.  We talked about the need for more sunlight as opposed to less, less water as opposed to more.  The students then saw a series of slides of elderly individuals.  We talked about the care instructions for the elderly they observed on each of the slides.
 

The Hebrew phrase הדור פני זקן loosely means enhancing the lives of the elderly.  While I by no means consider our non-student Better Together participants elderly (I’m one of them!) I wanted to impart the value of learning to care for them.  I showed them slides of signs on most public transportation in Israel, which read “מפני שיבה תקום”, literally, before white hair, stand.   
 

What is Better Together?  If you ask a youngster the last time they spoke to an older adult other than a relative, they have to think for a moment.  It’s the same with older adults.  When do they have the chance to speak to young people other than their grandchildren?  Better Together is an intergenerational program that meets at least once a month.  It is open to anyone AARP eligible and above and to middle and high schoolers.  We sing together, we learn, we discuss hot topics, we laugh, we play games, we dance, we cook and we eat, all while following covid protocol.  The participants are all congregants.  That’s why the aforementioned interactions were able to occur.  Each session is a self-contained program.  You can come once or you can come monthly.  We usually meet one Sunday a month, from 11 am - 12pm, and we have some zoom sessions scheduled for those more comfortable participating from a distance.  Interested?  Please consider coming to one of our next sessions!  Our next meeting is January 23 although we’re exploring joining forces for Tu BiShvat and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on Sunday, January 16.  For information, please email lrichman@tbhbe.org. 
 

Do you have an idea for intergenerational programming that we can be doing or is there a special “care instruction” that we should know of right now to help you out?  Please let us know.   
 

I look forward to seeing many of you this weekend at the Rabbinic Search Weekend – and don’t forget, you will be able to view many of the services and sessions online if you are not able to be here in person,

Bivracha,

Lisa