In this period between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, the Aseret Yamei Teshuva, we put specific focus on making amends between us as human beings, before we stand before our creator on Yom Kippur. As a Jewish educator, I’ve always put a strong focus on the importance of this period because, whether we realize it or not, it always helps to have a framework. While I’m particular to also point out that we should be considering our behaviors between Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashana, this set period, alongside the month of Elul for reflection, gives us an incredible launchpad for considering who we are and who we are becoming.
Flashback: January 2015.
I had just been substitute teaching at Yavneh for a few months before being asked at Winter break to start teaching seventh grade Jewish Studies, with a particular focus on the Holocaust and Israel. I sat with Rabbi Hahn Tapper to discuss and plan how I would help students craft a ceremony (tekes) and I nonchalantly asked, “but what about the community ceremony?”
Rabbi stared at me for a second and asked, “what do you mean?”
I went on to explain that in my community in Melbourne where I grew up, Jewish school students were always involved in such events, and I just presumed it was the same here. She smiled at me and said, “let’s make that happen.”
A few days later, it was confirmed that Yavneh students would participate in that ceremony and that April saw students take part in the South Bay community commemoration, which has now become a concrete part of our program and the community program.
I mention this because ten years ago, students didn’t necessarily engage with this sort of material on a level large enough to present to the community.
On Monday Morning, October 7th 2024, Yavneh Kitot Zayin v’Chet (seventh and eighth grades) co-wrote and LED the community commemorative ceremony at the JCC, and were active participants, along with the Yavneh singers and several Kitah Vav (sixth grade) students in the larger community tekes as Shir Hadash. Our shinshin (Israeli emissary), Daniel, taught students an emotive, beautiful dance, which he and our Shinshinshit, Ella, performed in the evening. Ella, a member of Kibbutz Nirim, one of the Kibbutzim infiltrated on October Seventh, shared her personal testimony. Our incredible Class of 2024 artwork, A Seat at the Table, was displayed in the foyer, alongside our whole-school new installation of Kalaniyot (poppies) in memory of those souls lost on that tragic day.
In these days of reflection, thinking back ten years ago, we have come an incredibly long way as a school and as a community. Gone are the days when we thought we couldn’t discuss hard things with kids. Today’s students are bombarded with information from every possible angle one can imagine. Being a Jew in today’s world is being an advocate for truth, for fact, for understanding, and for dialogue. We have learned to embrace the difficult in pursuit of honest education – socially, emotionally, and academically. A Yavneh education gives students not just a sense of what they need to know and understand, but also what they need to do.
-”It felt important to be part of this ceremony. It’s important for everyone to know what happened.” –Ella, Kitah Hay
“I think people needed a space to be together and I think parents want to know that kids understand this topic properly.” – Hadas, Kitah Chet.
“It felt important to be together and for us to remember what happened. You could feel the grief and feel how much people needed to be together.” – Juan, Kitah Chet.
This kind of learning, the engagement with hard things, is not just relegated to days of grief, mind you.
This Friday, our Middle School students will share their learning of Unetaneh Tokef, the devastating High Holy Day piyyiut (liturgical poem) that suggests we have the capacity to determine a better future through sincere prayer, charitable acts, and a resolve to be better. At our annual Teshuva Carnival they will run games and activities for the lower school students on these topics, taking their learning and turning it into leadership, with love and care for their school community.
Ten years after our students began to engage in community, they have become respected and respectable leaders. We have been complacent. We are in the process of waking up. We are compelled to take action. This is where we are going. This.Is.Y.
Wishing you and your families an easy fast and to be sealed in the book of life.
Gm’ar Tov and Shana Tova,
Jamie
