Sign In Forgot Password

Ateed participates in The Omer Challenge

04/12/2021 09:43:33 AM

Apr12

 

After learning about slavery in the modern age at the Teen Seder held on March 13th, the teens asked, "What can we do?"  A follow-up program was created using the Jewish tradition of counting the Omer as a framework to engage the teens in simple but effective action items they will receive in their inbox each week.  

In the Jewish calendar, we are at our point of greatest freedom on a physical level: we made it out of slavery alive and we can do WHATEVER we want. This seems like a dream for many teens yearning for the freedom of getting the keys to the car and moving out of the house. However, all of us know how reckless our freedom can become.  

Judaism has a solution for this: Mitzvot. Mitzvot, traditionally defined as commandments, invite us to increase our connection to spirit, tradition, and people while discovering ways to live a free and responsible life. 

As the calendar marches towards Shavuot, we grow up as a people preparing ourselves in the desert to receive the 10 commandments, the start of our civil code as a spiritual people. 

Parents are always discovering ways to offer freedom and instill responsibility. We want our teens to be resilient, self assured, confident, AND responsible, safe and connected. Working with three teen groups around the state, the JCVT teen program has developed a 7 week challenge for teens to connect themselves to the responsibility that comes along with buying things.

The Omer Challenge asks students to methodically look at what is behind their shopping choices: Who are the people who make your shirts or harvest your food? How are they treated? What types of certifications and policies do companies have in place to protect their workers? In an era when purchases are a click away, the Omer Challenge turns our buying power into a form of activism and encourages the next generation to ponder how their freedoms affect others further down the supply chain.                                                                                                   Melanie Grubman Kessler,  coordinator of JTeen, an initiative of JCVT

For more information on how to particpate, please contact JCOGS director of education beth.liberman@jcogs.org.

 

 
Fri, March 29 2024 19 Adar II 5784