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Mitzvah Corps program offers opportunities for seventh and eighth graders to perform acts of tikkun olam (repairing the world). We developed this program because we believe it is a Jewish responsibility to help repair the parts of the world that are broken. In addition, it is an authentic form of religious practice that is appealing to students of this age; it is an effective way to build community; and it is an important part of their development toward becoming caring, committed adults. Moreover, engaging in service learning through our Mitzvah Corps program will provide a means for students to receive community-service credit from their
secular school.
ABOUT THE PROGRAM:
Participants in Mitzvah Corps will become a traveling group of “Mitzvah Messengers,” led by our coordinator of Youth and Young Adult Informal Learning and accompanied by teachers from the Religious School.
Program objectives are three-fold:
- To study values-laden Jewish texts that help us identify ways in which the world is in need of repair.
- To volunteer in hands-on social-action projects based around these values. Mitzvah Corps participants will work with capable and trustworthy organizations that already have made a difference in the world.
- To reflect critically upon these experiences and examine the role that a mitzvah orientation can play in the daily lives of contemporary Jewish Americans.
The year is divided into six units, each one focusing on a different mitzvah and with an associated social-action project. Each unit features three separate components, all of which are an integral part of the program:
- A learning component occurring during Religious School hours on Wednesdays and Sundays approximately once per month over the course of the year. For seventh graders, on those dates when Mitzvah Corps meets, the learning component will be in place of the regular school program for participating students. Students also will study texts relating to the mitzvah and learn about the selected cause or community.
- An action component scheduled outside of school hours on selected dates, during which students will volunteer with organizations to assist their efforts in helping a population or cause.
- An online reflection component, which occurs in an ongoing fashion in-between the sessions when students meet in person. Mitzvah Corps participants will share their impressions of their volunteering work and relate it both to the values they have studied and their lives as a whole.
We hope that many seventh and eighth graders will join Mitzvah Corps and enjoy making the world a better place. Students who participate in four or more units of the program will be eligible to be honored by the congregation publicly as “Mitzvah Messengers.” In addition, the congregation’s Web site will post student reflections upon the social-action experiences in which they have engaged. Students must attend the learning components in order to participate in the action components.
REGISTRATION INFORMATION:
Complete the Religious School registration form (available in Word and PDF formats) — making sure to indicate your preference for the Sunday or Wednesday session — and return it to the Department of Lifelong Learning. Students will be registered for all six units. If a student does not wish to register for the Mitzvah Corps program but would like to attend a particular unit, contact our coordinator of Youth & Young Adult Informal Learning prior to the educational session of that unit. Click here to view the Mitzvah Corps calendar of activities.
Participation in Mitzvah Corps is available only to students whose families are members of Congregation Emanu-El. For seventh graders enrolled in Religious School, there is no additional fee to participate in the Mitzvah Corps program. For all other students, the fee is $750 for the year.
Please note that students may need to provide their own transportation to the sites for some of the action sessions.
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