We hope you all are enjoying a fabulous and relaxing summer! We’re gearing up for 3 awesome weeks of School’s Out Camp with your kiddos, and we can’t wait to be in person! Join us to brew some potions, paint vegetables, and explore the stages of the moon! See more details below, or click here to enroll in the weeks…
Makom Community News & Blog
Makom Community News & Blog
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BMitzvah Blessings
It’s hard to believe that we’ve finished our first year of the BMitzvah program at Makom Community! There’s plenty more learning to come next year, including our first few BMitzvah ceremonies, but for now we’re reflecting on the past year. In our last week, the cohort members wrote each other yearbook quotes that showed the depth of collaboration and respect…
End-of-School-Year Brachot (Blessings)
What a year it’s been! We are eternally grateful to you all for powering, learning, and growing through it with us. Your kiddos brighten our days and bring us to tears with their empathy and wisdom. It’s a privilege and an honor to have you all in our community. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Here are some favorite Makom…
May We Move from Strength to Strength
Garinim Here we are, gathered together at the end of a long and harrowing journey, looking over a river into a new land. By “we” I really mean “Bnei Yisrael (the Jewish people).” They’ve traveled for 40 years in the desert from slavery in Egypt to freedom in Canaan, and now they’ve learned that they have to take their next…
On Leadership and Strength in Torah
Garinim Last week the Garinim (PreK and K kiddos) focused in on a character study of Moshe, Bnei Yisrael’s (the Jewish people’s) greatest biblical leader. We looked at snapshots of Moshe’s life and choices to discover both what made him such a good leader, and also what mistakes he made. After growing up in Pharaoh’s palace, empathizing with the plight…
The soul is harder to change: BMitzvah & the Book of Ruth
After seven weeks of studying the Book of Ruth, our BMitzvah cohort took the reigns on our discussions. Having the BMitzvah students lead text discussion is such a joy. These students deeply embody the middot (values) of “studying in order to teach” and “sharpening the wisdom of one’s teacher.” While working on these student-led discussions, we focused on using the…
The Brachah (Blessing) of Uncertainty
We made it to Egypt! Last week the Garinim (preK and K kiddos) journeyed with Yaakov’s family from their famine-ridden home in Canaan to Egypt where Yosef had saved up enough food to last the region for years. Yaakov enjoys another 17 years of an already long life, surrounded by his reunited family, including his long-lost favorite son. Shortly before…
On Families, Preciousness, and Sharing Skills
Garinim: Family dynamics and gossip Sigh. Families, am I right? Can’t live with ‘em, can’t live without ‘em. Last week the Garinim (preK and K kiddos) dove into a story that’s fraught with difficult family dynamics. Yaakov is married and has 13 kids – 12 sons and 1 daughter – with his four wives. Yosef, the first born son of…
Stay Safe: Brachah for Protection and Awe
Brachot (blessings) help us articulate our hopes for our loved ones and notice amazing things in the world around us. Those brachot can look like a lot of different things – special words, art and nature, supportive actions, and more. Let’s see how our learners unwrapped text to help them articulate brachot last week. The Garinim (preK and K kiddos)…
Masterful Conversations in Tefilah Workshop
Tefilah mastery check-ins have long been one of my favorite parts of teaching BMitzvah. Seeing the cohort so proud of the work they’ve put into learning to read and chant a prayer is amazing. Our one-on-one conversations are always rich with meaning and new ways to think about the prayers. This has continued even now that Tefilah Mastery means clicking…
Being, Writing, and Mastering Brachah (Blessing)
From being brachot (blessings), to writing them, to mastering them – Makom Community learners are becoming experts in all things brachah! Each age group is exploring this idea in their own way. Let’s start out by digging into the stories the Garinim (PreK-K kiddos) have been working through. Avraham was getting old and worried about his son Yitzchak’s future. He…
New Structures, Same Fabulous Learners
We know that last week was full of new difficulties and stresses as you all started navigating new online learning formats for school. You did it! You made it through that first (maybe hardest) week! Thanks for sticking with us as you managed all that, especially our Garinim (PreK and K kiddos) families because we started a new schedule with…
Finding the Divine Online
“And then I realized that everything I thought was infinite actually depends on something else. The only thing that’s infinite is dependence.” Ooph. Zahdi’s words definitely rang true for me, especially over our virtual Zoom classroom. Lots of things have changed over the past few months, but some have stayed constant. In February, we went as a cohort to the…
Creating New Traditions: Birthday Celebrations in Isolation
We’re living through a strange moment in history, and a lot of things are weird and hard. Usually, when we’re all together at Makom Community, we get to enjoy celebrating each others’ birthdays with donuts, singing, and chocolate chips and sprinkles in challah. Birthdays provide extra tasty and enjoyable moments for our community. Not being able to gather together puts…
Chag Pesach Sameach!
Chag Pesach sameach! Happy Passover! This week, we embarked on the adventure of Zoom Camp. Kiddos joined us on video chat from the comfiest spot in their house, some even still in their pajamas! In the morning, we did passover-themed art projects. We learned about Elijah’s cup, Miriam’s cup, The Four Children, and so much more! After lunch and a…
Distributed Community: Learning Over Distance
“What communities are you a part of that don’t exist in a particular place?” While the answer should have been obvious, I was surprised when Ronia said, “Well, right now, Makom.” The past two weeks have been a disruption in all of our lives, but seeing the faces of the BMitzvah cohort while we daven, learn, and create together, even…
Adventures in Zoom Teaching: The Kids are Alright
Zoom learning continues to be an adventure! Our methods are ever evolving, and it’s a little funky to hear and see each other sometimes. But per usual our empathetic and insightful learners have empathetic and insightful things to say! Here are some of the moments when they impressed us this week. On Wednesday we unpacked the importance of family names…
Summer Camp Sneak Peek!
Summer will be here before you know it, so save the dates for our June and August camps! This summer, explore the holiday of Shavuot, dive into Harry Potter and the Torah, make some fantastic tie-dye, and more! See more details below, or check out our website to enroll in the schedules and days that work just right for your…
Launching Makom Community on Zoom
We are full of gratitude for you and your families coming out of this first week of social distancing and online learning. Rather than focusing on the content of the learning that we did, I want to reflect a little on the transition to this new normal. Monday morning, your faithful Makom Community staff met on Zoom to figure out…
Purim Shenanigans with Our Community!
Chag Purim Sameach – Happy Purim, everyone! We’ve had an amazing and hilarious time celebrating with your kiddos over the last few weeks. Here’s a recap of all the Purim-related fun we’ve had: Hamantaschen baking These tasty treats are always a crowd pleaser. We enjoyed filling them with all kinds of jam, nutella, and chocolate chips. The traditional triangle shape…
Feedback for all, including God
“Is God good?” “What does God want from humanity?” Not the simplest questions to ponder on a Tuesday night, but our BMitzvah cohort and their parents dove in with open hearts. Following the theme of our current Rosh Pinah project, we focused on our questions about God. Our first activity exposed some of our conflicting feelings. We wrestled with those…
Meeting Needs, Increasing Joy
Around Purim at Makom Community you’re likely to notice us jumping and dancing while singing MisheNichnas Adar marbin besimchah – in the Jewish month of Adar, our joy increases. What can we do to help ourselves feel joyful? One avenue to joy that we explored was getting our needs met. We differentiated between two types of needs: surviving needs and…
Learning to Lead
“I never thought a third grader could change my perspective on Jonah…” One of the most powerful things we can learn is that we can learn from anyone! At the end of our study of the Book of Jonah, the BMitzvah cohort shared some of what we learned with the Nitzanim (2nd-4th grade) class. The BMitzvah students designed and taught…
Mishe Mishe Mishe Mishe (Adar is Here!)
The time has come: MisheNichnas Adar Marbin Besimchah–when we enter the Jewish month of Adar, our joy is increased! Last week was full of extra silliness in honor of Adar. Ice cream for snack, an afternoon of playing and chalking in the fountain in Rittenhouse, tongue twisters, joke telling, spinning and marching our way through Tefilah: prayer, music, and movement,…
Our Communities Need Us
Naomi’s family starts off their story living in Beitlechem. Because of famine, they move to Moav. Do you think they stop being a part of the Beitlechem community when they go? Do you think they fully integrate into a community in Moav while they’re there? Last week we took a deep dive into communities, which ones we’re a part of,…
Taste of Makom: Sweet, Funny, and Full of Song!
As families walked into 1733 E Passyunk Ave, they were greeted with an array of well-loved afterschool enrichment activities. But this time– parents and kids got to do them together. One grandparent read a book about King Solomon’s wisdom with her grandchild and some friends. Meanwhile, the children listening built the story out of natural building materials and then re-told…
Are you there God? It’s BMitzvah!
Sometimes we spend too much time thinking about something and not enough time experiencing it. In BMitzvah, we’ve been working on a new Rosh Pinah project about God: creating art pieces that express our personal theologies. We’ve been learning about how Jewish texts show different ideas of God: God as the authority, God as everything, God as all-good and all-powerful, God…
Walk and Talk: Relationships to Community
What communities are Rut and Naomi a part of? What are their relationships like with those communities? This week we’re continuing to use their story to unpack our relationships with our communities. Want some ideas of questions to chat about with your kiddos? Read on to discover! At the beginning of the story, Naomi, Elimelech, and their two sons go…
How We Take Care of The Ger (Other)
Why would the Torah repeat the same mitzvah (commandment) 36 times? That’s so many times! Maybe because it’s really important. Maybe because people are really bad at following it. Or both. Both is good. The Torah reminds us over and over again to treat gerim (strangers/others) well. Let’s find out what that has to do with the story from the…
Our American Jewish Stories
“Emma Lazarus! The New Colossus!” Drew pointed at the quote on the wall as we rounded the corner to the next gallery. “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…” read the famous quote. Drew told us about the quote’s position on the Statue of Liberty and Lazarus’ history as a writer, as Lazarous was…