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Jewish Explorers in Stapleton and Highlands

Creating Torah stories at Jewish Explorers Stapleton.

EDUCATION & CULTURE

“Give the people what they want,” goes the famous quote, variously attributed to Red Skelton or George Jessel, “and they’ll come out for it.”

To apply even more aptly to Jewish Explorers, a new program run by CAJE and funded via a strategic partnership with JEWISHcolorado, the old axiom might be subtly amended: “Especially if you give it to them where they want it.”

Geographic proximity — “accessibility” is the word preferred by Explorers — is a big part of the educational enrichment program’s appeal. It brings Jewish culture and Judaism to Denver Jewish children, and sometimes their parents, where they are.

And where they are, at present, are the Denver neighborhoods of Stapleton, where the pilot program was inaugurated last year, and Highlands, where Jewish Explorers will get underway this fall, hooking up with an existing neighborhood group called West Side Tot Shabbat.

Cindy Coons, the enthusiastic and hard-working director of Jewish Explorers, worked alongside CAJE executive director Phyllis Adler and director of operations Susan Chayet to create the basic concept for the program and then developed its curriculum and lesson plans.

In designing a program that seeks to anticipate the curve of an ever-changing community’s educational needs, the CAJE team began with a little market research. It scoped out neighborhoods to which young Jewish and intermarried families are heading, and asked those families what they want in terms of Jewish outreach and education.

“As we started to talk with a variety of families in the community, we realized that what would be really helpful would be to change our model of delivery,” Coon says.

“Instead of having classes here at CAJE in a centralized location, we would bring the programming out to where the families lived, which would make it more accessible.”

Stapleton — a relatively new neighborhood built on land once used as Denver’s airport — was chosen to be the site for Jewish Explorers’ first foray into the community.

Jewish Explorers worked with an existing group of Jewish residents in the area, holding weekly classes in the Central Park Recreation Center from September, 2013 to May, 2014.

Nineteen children ages 4 to 10 — and often their parents or caregivers — were in regular attendance.

“They came excited, energized, ready to learn, with lots of questions, always willing to try something new,” says Coons, a New York native and longtime Coloradan who holds a BS from the University of Delaware in early childhood education and an MS in occupational therapy from Columbia.

Feedback from children and parents alike gave Jewish Explorers high marks in its fledgling year.

“There were a couple of parents who said they wished they had a program like this because when they went to religious school or Hebrew school or Sunday school, they never felt that was a place they were excited to go.

“Some of the parents said that this was the highlight of their kid’s week, that they would wake up and ask, ‘Is it Tuesday morning?’”

In sum, says Coons: “It’s working. It’s working really, really well.”

Accessibility, as Jewish Explorers understands the term, means considerably more than locating classes within a short drive or walk from Jewish homes.

It also means providing access in terms of financial aid for those families that need it. Through a partnership with MazelTogether.org, Jewish Explorers offers scholarships.

“If families are facing financial challenges, we are able to provide partial to full scholarships. We don’t want to turn any family away.”

Access also means offering a warm welcome to a wide variety of family structures and modes.

In studying the Jewish families making their home in Stapleton and Highlands, the program has found “Jewish families and interfaith families, affiliated and unaffiliated families, single parent families, LGBT families,” Coons says.

“ One of the things that we pride ourselves on is being inclusive . . . by creating a curriculum that allows families from a variety of backgrounds to participate.”

The common denominator among families participating, or planning to participate, is a desire to explore Judaism.

“That’s how we came up with the name Jewish Explorers,” Coons says.

“It’s a process. Each person brings their own background and experiences. When they arrive here, if what’s available is done in an open, welcoming way, then each person gets to enter at any point and it will still be meaningful for them.”

Coons likes to use the term “Jewish journeys” to define those different entry points.

“One of our visions is to meet families where they are on their Jewish journeys. We looked at creating a curriculum that really touched on five key things: Teaching about Jewish values, Jewish culture, Jewish traditions, Jewish history and Jewish holidays.

“We worked to create a curriculum that allows families at different points along their Jewish journey to really learn. As we developed this curriculum we kept in mind that families were coming from a variety of backgrounds. Even within interfaith families, how they define themselves as interfaith is very different.”

The same openness and flexibility are practiced in Explorer classrooms, says Coons, who is also one of the program’s teachers.

“We look at the individual needs of the kids. We want to make sure that the class that they’re in is the best fit for them. It can be fluid based on the needs of the kids.”

At Stapleton, for example, younger students and older students sometimes study separately, sometimes together. While the Stapleton classes are generally geared for youthful students, parents and caregivers are welcome to attend.

“If they ask, ‘Can we stay and watch?’ I say, “Actually, stay and participate. Be part of the experience,’” Coons says.

In the upcoming Highlands program, the neighborhood’s demographic profile caused the program to be geared to younger children, ages 2 to 6. Parents in historic Highlands, northwest of downtown Denver, also expressed a desire to be in the classroom with their children on a regular basis and to meet monthly, instead of weekly as is the case in Stapleton.

Coons hopes that Jewish Explorers will eventually provide adult education programs dovetailed with its classes for children.

“Each week following class I provide a summary of what the learning concepts were and how the kids did, to give feedback,” she says.

“When the kids come home, the families have an opportunity to know exactly what they did in class that week. We also tell them what we’ll be doing next week so there’s also an opportunity for them to talk about and learn with them.”

In Stapleton, she adds, the themes developed in class culminate and are discussed at monthly Shabbat dinners sponsored by Jewish Explorers, to which all students and family members are invited.

Starting this autumn, participants in the Highlands branch of the program will also be encouraged to come to the Shabbat dinner.

Says Coons: “Our three main goals for the Jewish Explorers program are to provide meaningful and fun Judaic programming in the communities where the families live, to help build community by connecting people to the larger Jewish community, and to connect families to resources in the community.”

Making participants aware of such resources as MazelTot.org, PJ Library, JCC and synagogue programs will encourage deeper community connections, which Coons describe as the ultimate objective of Jewish Explorers.

“What we’re trying to do,” she says,” is go beyond the walls of our classroom.”

To get there, the process has to begin in the classroom itself.

The idea is to make Judaism and Jewish culture integral parts of the students’ — and by extension, their families’ — lives.

“We’re trying to provide seamless Judaism,” says Coons.

“From the moment the kids step into the classroom and beyond, every moment is a teachable Judaic experience. We take every part of the learning experience and infuse it with Judaism. Making it experiential means that the kids are actively engaged and are learning through hands-on exploring of subject matter, of content.

“We’re not teaching to the kids, we’re teaching with the kids and they’re part of the learning process. Their contribution is often equally as important in terms of what they’re sharing while they’re learning. That often allows other students as well as teachers to learn.”

Teaching young students, for example, to understand the concept of kehillah — community — might sound like a daunting task.

Jewish Explorers begins with storytelling about such things as Israeli kibbutzim, communities in which every resident has an individual voice.

Students are asked to articulate what sort of communities they are already part of, such as family, sports team, synagogue, the class itself.

The students baked challah and made butter, and then discussed how providing food is a crucial component of community.

“Then we talk about other ways that people work together to contribute to the community,” Coons says, “and how each person’s role is equally important.”

The equally challenging concept of l’dor v’dor — from generation to generation — is approached through studying students’ Hebrew or English names and the ancestor or family member they might have been named after.

“They can understand simple concepts, like when your family knew you were going to be born they picked a name that had great meaning to them and was really special.

“We shared who the kids were named after and why they were named after that person. All of those kids understood that continuity, from a generation to the next generation, at their level.”

Such Jewish ideas as tzedakah, mitzvot and Shabbat are approached through similar experiential paths.

“It’s remarkable what three-year-olds can really understand about these concepts,” Coons says, “especially when you make them developmentally appropriate and teach them in a hands-on way so they’re really incorporating the concepts.

“You can take any concept, as long as you look at it in terms of what makes sense to them.”

Stapleton and Highlands were chosen as Jewish Explorers’ first two neighborhoods because both have new Jewish families that have taken the first steps toward community-building.

“They were reaching out to the community, and they are still, for different ways to learn and grow from a Jewish perspective,” Coons says.

“I think there is a significant number of Jewish families in both of these communities. Most of these families have younger children — preschool, elementary school age — and they’re newer to these neighborhoods.”

Both neighborhoods have a few Jewish organizations of their own, including Rabbi Mendel Popack’s Jewish Life Center and Stapleton Hebrew School, with which Jewish Explorers doesn’t work directly but which Coons does not see as competitive with her own efforts.

Jewish Explorers views its role as one of supplementary enrichment, not territorial rivalry.

“I see it not as competition,” Coons says of the Jewish Life Center, “but as another opportunity for families to seek out Jewish programming for their kids and themselves.”

Coons has no data to tell her precisely how many Jewish and interfaith families reside in Stapleton and Highlands, but she does know that she’s seeing “great interest” from parents in both neighborhoods.

Coons foresees other city and metro neighborhoods becoming attractive to Jewish families and says Jewish Explorers will keep an open mind on expanding into them.

“They may look similar to Stapleton and Highlands, which are very different. Even though the core curriculum is the same, the model of delivery is different. We will look at different communities, knowing that they each have unique needs.”

Already, small groups of Jews from such areas have reached out to Jewish Explorers, inquiring about programming, Coons adds. In response, the program has offered a few one-time activities and invited them to participate in the two existing neighborhood programs, while keeping in mind the possibility that the program could expand into their own areas if there is sufficient demand.

Such people are invited, along with participants in the Stapleton and Highlands programs, to attend a four-hour Jewish Explorers retreat on Sunday, Sept. 7, at Shwayder Camp near Idaho Springs.

The retreat will feature lunch, music and outdoor recreation in addition to community-building activities.

The get-together will also serve unofficially as a celebration of Jewish Explorers’ first year.

“I think we’re right on target,” she says. “We want to take this meaningful, seamless Judaism into communities where families can access it. Five years from now, I hope we can provide an opportunity for many communities to have programming that is meaningful and allows them to explore Judaism.”

Jewish Explorers, she adds, has just come up with a four-word tagline to describe itself:

Explore. Connect. Learn. Grow.

“I think we’re doing all of that,” Coons says. “We’re exploring, we’re connecting, we’re learning. And in the process we’re growing.”

For information on the Jewish Explorers program and next month’s retreat in particular, contact Cindy Coons, 303-951-8498 or [email protected].

Copyright © 2014 by the Intermountain Jewish News



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IJN Assistant Editor | [email protected]


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