Hello Again!
We did a lot of wonderful things in Judaica Week 1. Younger campers learned what "Jewish" looks like at CSL, and practiced the Birkat HaMazon. Then they engaged in a brain and hands-on activity. Middle Onondaga and Cayuga designed their model Jewish communities, youngest Cayuga learned about the Jewish tradition of saying 100 blessings each day and made murals depicting the many opportunities to say blessings at CSL, and Oldest Onondaga answered questions about themselves and shared with the group, questions such as "I am happiest when..." or "If I could ask God one thing it would be..." All programs provided great opportunities to learn a bit more each other and our thoughts on the world. Oldest Seneca explored whether they "hide" or "highlight" their Judaism through an arts activity. Youngest Seneca and Mohawk ranked traditional Jewish values in order of importance (as they saw it), first in groups and then by themselves, and Oldest Mohawk played Middot-opoly, learning about Jewish values or "middot!" Middle Seneca explored what Jewish looks like after watching a short film called The Tribe. The Tribe tells the history of the Barbie doll, created by a Jewish woman and named after her daughter, Barbara, yet made to look like a German doll. What does that say about what she thought Jewish "looked like?" And finally Tusc engaged in a full group discussion about identity, evaluating whether they first saw themselves as a "Jewish American" or an "American Jew."
A huge thank you to all of the staff who made these programs so successful, and to our campers for being so willing to share and learn!
Shavua Tov,
Joy Getnick
CSL Judaic Educator
