Teen Programming

Teen Dinners with Rabbi Elliott and Rabbi Ariann

Teen Trips

Madrikhimot

Service Opportunities

Jewish Teen Collaborative

Teen Dinners with Rabbi Elliott and Rabbi Ariann

2024: September 27, October 25, November 22, December 13
2025: January 24, February 28, Spring date TBA
6:00pm - 8:00pm

Rabbi Elliott and Rabbi Ariann will again be offering monthly teen learning opportunities for 8th-12th graders. This year, our focus will be on the ideas of home and homeland, giving space to both the many conversations our teens are having about the land and state of Israel as well as the complexities of our own backgrounds and the many places we call our homes and homelands.

Our teen dinners are an opportunity for informal but deep learning, as well as bonding as a teen group. Teens host these pot-luck dinners in their homes (parents, please sign up to host!! It is a very light lift!), moving the learning away from the synagogue into our own living rooms.

Please sign up to host here.

Teen Trips

As in the past, Bnai Keshet and our partner Reconstructionist synagogue, SAJ, are travelling together on some amazing adventures. Mark your calendars for these trips, they are extraordinary experiences and an opportunities you do not want your teen to miss. Registration for both trips will open in the fall. Attendance at teen dinners and/or the 8th grade class are expected for both of these trips.

9th - 12th Grade Trip

March 28 -  31, 2025

Our 9th-12th graders will be traveling together to Phoenix, Arizona, to work with Uri L'Tzedek ("Rise up for justice") and their Operation Abraham program, which works daily to support asylum seekers who have recently crossed the US/Mexico border. On our trip, we will learn about the intersections of the immigration crisis and homelessness in communities close to the border, provide direct service, learn from community organizers across Native American and immigrant communities, and learn from Jewish sources and leaders about how Judaism motivates us to respond. Uri L'Tzedek is led by Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz (he is worth a google!) who I first met as a fellow participant on a trip to Mexico with the American Jewish World Service way back in rabbinical school. He and I are so glad to be able to partner again!

(Students will miss Friday, March 28th. March 31st is a day off in Montclair and in several neighboring districts for Eid.)

8th Grade Trip

February 2025
Our eighth graders traveled together to Philadelphia to connect with fellow Reconstructionist teens. They learned about the deep history of Jews in the US, and enjoyed some fun activities.

Madrikhimot

Apply to be a Madrikhimot here
We are still accepting 8th-12th grade applicants to serve as madrikhimot (teen classroom assistants) for the 2024-25 school year. All madrikhimot should plan on attending an opening session on September 9th, 7-8:30pm. 

Our Madrikhimot (guides) are teen assistants in the Bet Midrash.  Madrikhimot assist teachers with executing their lessons, which includes helping students with projects, individual and group work, and Hebrew reading and writing, making photocopies, taking attendance, and other duties as agreed upon with your supervising teacher and Rabbi Ariann. Madrikhimot are role models for younger students, demonstrating an enthusiastic and joyful attitude about Jewish learning and teaching younger children by example how to be a mensch in the world.

This is a volunteer position for one year, and a paid position thereafter.  Pay can be withheld in exchange for community service hours required by your school if discussed first with Rabbi Ariann. Paid madrikhimot are responsible for handing in all required financial forms to Mark in the main office before the first pay period of the year.

We are also partnering this year in a pilot program with the Jewish Federation of Greater Metrowest to offer a deeper level of training in partnership with the organization Moving Traditions. All madrikhimot who attend these additional trainings will receive an additional one-time stipend to honor their deeper knowledge and skills. If you are interested in participating, mark your calendars for September 15th, 12-3:30pm for the initial in-person training (the rest of the sessions will be one-hour sessions on Zoom).

Service Opportunities:
MESH, Little Free Pantry, and More

A strong group of teen volunteers have become the backbone of our Monday-night MESH service. For those volunteers 9th grade and above, we are expanding opportunities to serve!

Please join us on Monday nights, beginning at 4pm for MESH, help us fill the Little Free Pantry, and then take part in other service projects connected to the Bet Midrash before joining us for 5:30pm pizza dinner and Gaga, and heading home. For those of you who are new 8th graders, we welcome you to come and join the crew that makes MESH run each Monday beginning at 4pm(ish) before Bet Midrash each week. Please be in touch with Rabbi Ariann to learn more and to sign up.

Jewish Teen Collaborative

Last year we had over 100 teens from Montclair-area synagogues gather together to do social action work, see a Broadway show, go axe-throwing, and attend a great Jewish comedy night. This year, we are doing even more! Jewish Teen Collaborative events are open to any 8th-12th grade members of Montclair-area synagogues and unaffiliated Jewish teens. Teens are welcome and encouraged to bring friends!

Up Next:
CPR/First Aid and AED Certification 
Sunday, April 27th at 3:00pm 
Who: All Teens 8-12th Grade 
What: CPR/First Aid and AED Certification 
Where: Temple Ner Tamid, 936 Broad St, Bloomfield, NJ 07003, USA
Cost: $18
Sign up here by April 21st

*This event is put on by Temple Ner Tamid, Bnai Keshet, Temple Sholom, Congregation Shomrei Emunah, and the Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest*

Our last event of the year will be a Trip to Six Flags Great Adventure on June 1st!

Past Teen Collaborative events:
Baked Thanksgiving Pies for Manna Food Depot
Saw The Outsiders on Broadway