Confirmation

Confirmation class is for students who have completed their Bar or Bat Mitzvahs -- for students in eighth and ninth grades. It is a two-year class leading to the Confirmation Service on Shavuot.

The class is taught by Rabbi Weiner and Cantor Jamie, and it meets on Thursday evenings from 6:30pm to 7:30pm.

This class provides the student with an opportunity to apply the values of Judaism that they have learned in prior years to events in everyday life.

Students who enter the confirmation class will examine and study the laws and customs of the Jewish life cycle. They will also examine and study the Jewish philosophy of current social issues. These issues include: drugs, alcohol, cults, abuse, suicide, disabilities, the elderly, charity, Israel, US-Israeli relations, Israeli-Arab relations, Eastern European Jewry and Comparative Judaism.

It is through these highly personalized discussions that our teenagers get a stronger sense of their own personal Jewish identity, thus helping to prepare them for adult life.

                                   Confirmands and Pre-Confirmands 2009

Shevat Achim is a new program (as of October 2012) for 8th and 9th grade boys. It will meet once a month, from 5:30 to 7:30.   We realize that Confirmation meets during this same period.  Boys who are enrolled in both programs will attend Shevet Achim once a month, in lieu of Confirmation Class, but it is not necessary to be enrolled in Confirmation class to attend Shevat Achim.

Many young, teenage boys tend to disconnect from the Jewish community after their Bar Mitzvah, just at a time in their lives when they most need the guidance, friendship and sense of purpose that the community can provide.  Shevet Achim was designed for teen boys by a group of rabbis, educators, psychologists, parents, and teens themselves, and is modeled after the successful Rosh Hodesh program for girls, which Temple Beth Am began last year.
The program promises to be a lot of fun for the guys ‑ they'll be playing various competitive and collaborative games, talking about pop culture, studying great Jewish texts, eating, and sharing stories. But they will also have an opportunity to discuss, in a confidential setting, critical issues in their lives as teens and young men.

Our goal is to guide teen boys to think critically about the social pressures that weigh on them, to develop their ability to turn to one another and to turn to wisdom from the Jewish tradition to navigate through their challenges.  In answering the core question, “What does it mean to be man?” we will advance an approach to Jewish life that connects the character development of this generation of teenagers to the ongoing effort to build a Jewish community where both women and men experience spiritual, intellectual and moral growth.