Efforts to become Congregations of Learners and Self-Renewing Congregations have produced rich experiences in the lives of communities and individuals. Below are some noteworthy examples of the fruit of ECE.

Family Education on Shabbat Afternoon
Congregation Beth Am in Los Altos Hills, California, created an alternative track to the traditional religious school for students and their families called Shabbaton, where parents and children learn together on Shabbat afternoon. Half the time is spent learning together. During the other half adults and children meet separately. Shabbaton groups the families into havurot (fellowship groups) by age and geography, to celebrate Shabbat and holidays, and become one another’s support community. Shabbaton has had a deep impact on participants, with many adults continuing their learning on their own and becoming more involved in congregational life. In the words of Susan Wolfe, an adult participant: "Shabbaton has demonstrated to our children that Jewish learning is not only for children; we are involved in their learning, and in our own. When they go to religious school, we go to religious school. When we come back together, we each have an experience to share on a common Jewish topic. Additionally, we are practicing what we preach: We tell our children that Shabbat is a time for relaxation and study; each Shabbat we relax and study with other Jewish families at our synagogue. Very often we complete our evening by going out to dinner with another Shabbaton family, and continuing our discussions. Thus, social ties are built into the program." [ back to the top ]

Compiling a New Prayerbook
Temple Emanu-El of San Diego is among the smallest and most modest of the 14 pioneering ECE congregations. Inspired by worship services at an ECE Kallah (gathering), and the loose-leaf siddur (prayerbook) of another ECE congregation, a group of congregants began to compile their own siddur for Friday evening services. The project has become the focal point for renewed interest in both learning and prayer. Noting this accomplishment, the ECE chair said, "We have opened the eyes of many congregants to the fact that services combine both fixed and changing elements. Translations too have been the source of a great deal of reflection." The siddur project has produced several spin-offs. A group of congregants took on responsibility for annotating the announcement flyer with relevant quotations from Jewish sources. The congregation began a class to train Torah readers in trope (cantillation), with 15 participants. And, when the rabbi went on sabbatical, a large number of members volunteered to lead services and Torah study. [ back to the top ]

Addressing the Needs of Teenagers
Many congregations are unable to keep youth interested in Jewish life and education after they become b’nei mitzvah. In fact, bar or bat mitzvah is often considered a door out of Judaism or the climatic event in a Jewish child’s education rather than a milestone and new beginning of Jewish identity formation. Through small group conversations with teenagers and their parents, Westchester Reform Temple discovered a broad range of needs and concerns during this important age of transformation that could be uniquely served by the congregation. In response, they created a youth initiative for teenagers that integrates formal and informal Jewish education under the direction of a new "youth rabbi." Under the rabbi’s leadership, activities are designed to nurture not only purely educational needs of teens, but also social, spiritual and emotional needs as well. Now teens are engaged through Teen Theater, Teen Healing Services, regular Shabbat dinners and informal Torah study in the Teen Havurah.
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The Dramatic Arts as a Vehicle for Jewish Education
Jewish learning need not be confined to the classroom or beit midrash. After examining this widely-held but limiting assumption, Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills developed a dramatic arts program appealing to both children and adults. Each year, the focus of the program is an intergenerational production in which members from 8 to 88 years old participate together. Stacia Kopeikin, mother to two and daughter of two senior temple members, participates with her entire family and shared this about her learning: "Being in this play was a multifaceted learning experience. Each of us learned about Jewish history and tradition, to be sure. We sang and danced about Judaism’s triumphs and tragedies. But, just as important, we learned to work together as a temple family, young and old. We learned to appreciate each other’s different perspectives on life. My daughter met an elderly women from the sisterhood whom she now regularly visits with at Friday night services and holidays." [ back to the top ]

Turning Vision into Practice: A Community Assessment on Kehilla
After a lengthy process of study, reflection and dialogue with members, the professional and lay leaders of Temple Shalom of Newton, MA articulated the community’s aspirations in terms of five core values: Lifelong Learning (Torah Lishmah), Enriching Spirituality (Kedushah), Building Community (Kehilla), Repairing the World (Tikun Olam) and Sustaining Jewish Continuity (Brit Olam). According to ECE Chair Susan Epstein, all but Kehilla had an existing working group or committee of the Board to ‘lift the value off the page,’ "so the ECE Planning Team began a Community Assessment to identify opportunities to build and strengthen Kehilla at Temple Shalom." The team is planning to conduct focused conversations to learn about the experiences and needs of all member groups, to research the experiences of other ECE congregations and to offer recommendations for new initiatives to Temple Shalom’s Executive Committee at the completion of the process. [ back to the top ]