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{BUILDING A CONNECTION}<br />
Here is an excerpt from a parent watching their son grow, develop and build his<br />
lifelong connection to this community. During his 2-year journey in the Synagogue’s<br />
B’nei Mitzvah program, he has truly been shaped by his Bar Mitzvah process.<br />
My son had his Bar Mitzvah earlier<br />
this year at Emanuel Synagogue<br />
after attending the Bar Mitzvah<br />
program there. He doesn’t go to a<br />
Jewish School, his father isn’t Jewish,<br />
we never used to go to Synagogue,<br />
and although I have a strong Jewish<br />
identity, I would definitively put us<br />
in the ‘culturally’ Jewish category.<br />
To put it another way, he had a lot<br />
of learning to do when he went to<br />
his first class in Year 5. What I was<br />
not expecting, was for my son to find<br />
what he (and by extension we) found,<br />
when he commenced this journey<br />
to find his own Jewish identity.<br />
The Bar Mitzvah program at<br />
Emanuel has offered my son so<br />
much. It’s not perfect, but nothing<br />
is. What it is though, is warm and<br />
inclusive. Daniel Samowitz (or Samo<br />
as he is known) has been both cool<br />
and wise – a balance one can never<br />
expect to achieve as a parent. He<br />
has shown the boys how to be real<br />
men, by being both kind and strong<br />
and living the Jewish values, all with<br />
a sense of humour. The rabbis are<br />
always available, and know each<br />
child for whom they really are. There<br />
is no judgement and no criticism<br />
about how one practises Judaism<br />
at home, or the type of choices one<br />
makes. My son found the synagogue<br />
a place he could be himself, when<br />
he didn’t even know he was looking<br />
for one. And because of the Bar<br />
Mitzvah class, the way he has been<br />
taught to enjoy the community, and<br />
his experience of what it is like to<br />
be part of something bigger than<br />
himself, he has found a way of being<br />
Jewish that at age 13 he can love.<br />
Last Saturday my dad and my son<br />
went to the synagogue together,<br />
because they both like being there<br />
and sharing something of which<br />
they are both a part of. When<br />
my son started his Bar Mitzvah<br />
education, I thought that the Bar<br />
Mitzvah was the big goal, but I<br />
now realise that it was just a part<br />
of it. The lessons themselves were<br />
actually just as significant in laying<br />
the ground work for a Jewish life, in<br />
whatever exciting form it may take.<br />
With Kef Kids and the B’nei<br />
Mitzvah program both occurring<br />
on a Thursday afternoon from<br />
4:00-5:30pm, the Synagogue<br />
campus has been transformed<br />
by youthful life and energy -<br />
all of us experiencing the joy<br />
of being Jewish together.<br />
If you want more information on<br />
our youth educational programs,<br />
please contact Daniel Samowitz<br />
at daniel@emanuel.com.org.au<br />
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