Upcoming Youth and Family Events
Youth Engagement: Welcoming students from diverse backgrounds including those from multicultural and interfaith families
Tot Shabbat & Shabbat B'Yachad
Families with children of all ages are warmly welcome to join together (b'yachad) for a uniquely different Shabbat experience specifically geared toward children and youth. This event will happen once a month and will include a 45 minute Tot Shabbat Service lead by Rabbi Katie, Hal Aqua, and Hannah Niederman.
Following Tot Shabbat, we will have a Shabbat B'Yachad that offers a chance to engage with Torah in new exciting ways, while also having simulatneous childcare full of fun activities provided. These and many other children friendly events can be found on our calendar.
My Mitzvah
My Mitzvah is a one-year B’nai (Bar/Bat) Mitzvah program open to all Jewish youth and their families, providing them with the identity and skills needed to be Jewish in today’s world.
Students from diverse backgrounds and levels of knowledge train together toward individual and shared goals, while families find a welcoming, non-judgmental place in which to grow Jewishly in community with others.
My Mitzvah's role at B'nai Havurah has recently changed. If you are interested in this program, reach out to Risa at risaaqua25@gmail.com for more information about these programs.
Teen Board
Teen Board is a recently introduced program here at B'nai that focuses on engaging 13-19 year olds in Jewish community. This board will be held once a month on Saturday's at 12 pm and will be an opportunity for Jewish teens to engage with one another. This board is a great way to earn volunteer hours, make friends, engage with Judaism, and help create the type of programs you want to see!
This program is lead by Hannah, our Youth and Family Community Organizer. For more information, please email them at youthandfamily@bnaihavurah.org!
Monthly Baking
We have begun a monthly baking program for people of all ages! This offers a chance to meet others, make something tasty, and learn a new skill. We have experts on hand to direct and help throughout the process as well. These sessions happen the third week of the month.
B'nai Havurah is an inclusive community and welcomes students from diverse backgrounds including those from multicultural and interfaith families.
Want to get updates about Youth and Family programs?
We have a newsletter just for that! To be added to the Youth and Family newsletter, click here.
Recent Events
Our programming for kids has had great success over the past months. We have welcomed members of B'nai's community and other Jewish families in Denver to our monthly Tot Shabbat, and has specialized kids programming for holidays like Tu B'Shevat. Our Tu B'Shevat/Tot Shabbat celebration was a great example of the amazing energy families are bringing to our community. We had a community art project made with recycled materials, a seder with a designated kids table, and a full selection of ways for kids to engage with this important holiday and understand their connection to the environment.
Purim was a huge success- with kids of all ages showing up to experience our carnival and the games, which were mainly run by teens in the community. We sang, ate pizza, learned the Purim story, and many kids went to provided childcare when it was time for our shpiel. This event showed a fantastic model of volunteerism within B'nai, and how that can propel programming for kids into a bright future.
Our retreat, the first in many years, had 15 kids ages 1.5-14 attending. We had kids programming, family programming, and childcare provided- allowing for families to choose their own schedule while in the beautiful mountain setting. Volunteers and our newest childcare support staff, Yael, allowed for this model to thrive and for us to navigate all of the challenges of working with a group of kids with such a large age range.
Currently, we are working on our more long term project- a mural within a new youth lounge. A group of teens and tweens and parents lended their ideas for what symbols remind them of their Jewish journey here at B'nai- and those ideas will be integrated into the final mural product. Painting and updates to come!
Additionally, we have started a monthly baking and crafting event. This is a great way to come and meet other families and community members in a low stress setting- while getting to leave with a Jewish baked good and a topical craft. We have made challahs and babkas so far, so who knows what exciting creations the future will hold!
The goal of all of our family programming is to provide creative and hands-on ways for families to engage with Judaism, and we hope to expand our offerings even more in the near future.
I am always looking for suggestions from those with kids on ways to improve youth education. If you have any comments or suggestions, please reach out to me at youthandfamily@bnaihavurah.org.
With gratitude,
Hannah (they/them), Youth and Family Community Organizer
