[RBS] Registration / About the MaTaN batmitzvah course

[engelberg@ieee.org]

Please reply to: MaTaN Beit Shemesh <matanbeitshemesh at gmail.com>
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About the MaTaN batmitzvah course – English below.
       Registration open now – limited places!

TO REGISTER: Please send me an e-mail (and indicate which course you would
prefer) and I will send you the registration forms.

What (and when) is the MaTaN Bat mitzvah course?

In a nutshell:
•         Mother – daughter learning and activities for girls in their
batmitzvah year. (Ideally for 11 year olds)
•         9 weekly meetings held every Wednesday evening (Hebrew group) or
Tuesday evening (English group)
•         At Netzach Menashe in Rechov Reuven. 7:30 pm - 9:30pm OR 8pm –
10pm (depending upon the course)
•         450NIS for the course
• 1st course in Hebrew starting 21 0ctober; 2nd course starting 6th January.
(Wednesdays) *Please indicate which session you would prefer*.
               No more courses till October 2010!
• English group opening as per demand – let me know immediately if you are
interested in an English group. (Probably Mondays)
• Possibility of a group in RBS - let me know immediately if you are
interested in a RBS group.
 • Learning, discussions, activities around Jewish role models and values,
see below.


Below is an excerpt from the MaTaN website about the batmitzvah program.
I have to add though that when I did the program with my daughter some years
ago, I was blown away by the sense that the girls had so many
"possibilities" opened to them as Jewish women – there was a sense of
excitement that is often missing from what some parents feel they get in
school.

Thanks,
Evida Fenster
991-4751

>From the MaTaN website:
As a Jewish pre-teen approaches her Bat Mitzvah, she must face issues of her
changing identity and her place as both a woman and a member of the larger
Jewish community.  Through our Mother-Daughter Bat Mitzvah Program, Matan
helps young women and their mothers navigate this life-passage together so
as to allow the Bat Mitzvah girl to build an adult identity rooted firmly in
Jewish sources.

The program consists of ten two-hour sessions during which mothers and
daughters study in chevruta related Jewish sources in preparation for the
girl’s Bat Mitzvah.  Centred around the theme "Jewish Women Through the
Ages", the program focuses on Jewish role models, among them: Rivka, Miriam,
Yocheved, Devorah, Channah, Esther, Bruriah, Dona Gracia, Nechama Leibowitz,
Rabbanit Bracha Kapach of Jerusalem and Avital Sharansky. The women were
selected for the program because they embody positive attributes and values
from which the girls can learn. The girls gain insight into the world of
Jewish women. The image of the "ideal Jewish woman" they realize, can be
embodied in many different ways, all of them legitimate. As the girls reach
maturity, these varied paths can be used as a basis for each one to develop
her own unique model of the Jewish woman. Encountering these women through
varied sources, both mothers and daughters are able to appreciate the
uniqueness of these women’s lives in relationship not only to the period in
which they lived but to modern times as well. The aim is to see how we, as
Jewish women, are part of a chain across the generations, and how the Bat
Mitzvah can serve as a bridge connecting the young girl to Jewish
continuity.

At each meeting the learning session is accompanied by an experiential
activity related to the relevant figure or subject.  Each activity creates a
different atmosphere and invites different modes of self-expression such as
creative dance, music, theater, art and guided imagery. The underlying
principle is that a successful learning experience is based not on the
intellect, but draws on other realms of the personality, among them,
emotions and creativity. Each girl is encouraged to prepare a special
project for her Bat Mitzvah on the subject "Aishet Chayil", selecting a
woman from Tanakh or history, a family member or any other inspiring woman.
These projects often serve as the basis for the Bat Mitzvah girl's derasha.

For more information on the educational philosophy behind the program,
please read the article by Oshra Koren and Tirza Kelman: Bat Mitzvah: Jewish
Women through the Ages.