Lifelong Learning at Beth Am: A Vision for the Future

The primary goal of our lifelong learning program is to create a community at Beth Am in which our congregants will value Jewish education highly and engage in it regularly so that they may become committed, knowledgeable, participating, Reform Jews. They will be able to make informed Jewish choices and will live up to the highest ideals of our tradition. Using our lifelong Jewish learning map as a content guide, we will employ a variety of teaching methods designed to attract, engage, and challenge learners of all ages, interests, backgrounds, and abilities. We will create a program that is integrated, enabling our congregants to make connections among various Jewish content areas and experiences. We commit ourselves to recruiting and retaining lay leaders, teachers, and staff of the highest caliber. We will continuously identify and address obstacles and barriers to learning so that no congregant will be inhibited from participating fully in our programs.

Valuing Jewish Learning

• We will endeavor to create a community that is highly motivated to engage in Jewish learning.
• Becoming bar/bat mitzvah will be seen as a milestone along the way rather than the end of the rich, meaningful journey of lifelong Jewish learning.
• Congregants will pursue Jewish learning both for its own sake and because they see it as relevant to their daily lives.
• Congregants of all ages will make their own Jewish learning a priority because they find it to be engaging, life-enhancing, and fun.

Becoming Committed, Knowledgeable, Participating, Reform Jews

• By providing our congregants with a basic understanding of Jewish belief, history, literature, culture, and values, we will empower them to make informed decisions in the spirit of authentic Reform Judaism.
• We expect graduates of our youth education programs to be able to articulate and apply core Jewish values, beliefs, and practices; to identify what Judaism says about issues of social importance; and to be able to contrast Reform Judaism with other streams of Judaism.

A Variety of Teaching Methods

• Our programs will be student centered, employing a variety of teaching styles and methods designed to engage our diverse learning community.
• Teaching modalities will include but will not be limited to: family education, informal education, chavruta-style learning, group investigation, and direct instruction.

Integration

• Our Hebrew and Judaica programs will be more integrated so as to reinforce and strengthen values and concepts from program to program.
• Congregants will understand that Jewish life is an integrated, cohesive whole which can help them make sense of the seemingly disparate aspects of their own being.
• Informal educational opportunities (camp, youth group, Kallot) will be better integrated into our youth and adult education programs. Our formal education programs will reinforce and support participation in these informal learning opportunities. Our teaching of Israel and Zionism will be connected more organically to intergenerational congregational trips and teen trips to the Jewish homeland.

Recruiting and Retaining Leaders, Teachers and Staff

• We will hire and retain the professionals and support staff necessary to realize our lifelong learning vision.
• Most of our teachers will be recruited from within our congregation and we will create support mechanisms to enhance their development and growth.
• We will recruit, develop, and nurture lay leaders who will, in partnership with our staff, make our vision a reality.

Obstacles to Learning

• We will make every effort to insure that our programs are accessible to all of our congregants.
• Learners from all different backgrounds and of all abilities will find our programming engaging and meaningful.
• Active efforts will be made to bring congregants into our learning community (keiruv, "drawing people near").
• We will create a culture in which participants feel empowered to direct their own learning.

Expansion of our Mission Statement.