Shul Without Walls Grant Proposal

Kesher Israel is a Modern Orthodox congregation located in the heart of Georgetown in Washington, D.C.  The membership is over 200 households and is made up of a unique mix of students, young professionals, young families, older, established professionals and empty-nesters.  Due to the transient nature of D.C., the elevated housing prices and cost of living, and the paucity of Jewish schools and kosher food, Kesher Israel has historically had relatively few young families in the congregation.  However, over the past ten years, increasing numbers of young families have decided to stay within the community after the birth of their children.  This has created a demand for children's programming, which has been met by an enthusiastic response from the membership.

We see three main obstacles to increasing and intensifying Shabbat and holiday observance at Kesher.  First, there are inconsistencies in programming due to our volunteer-driven approach. Second, integrating childrens' activities into the greater congregation has proven difficult. Third, the physical limitations of Kesher Israel itself have limited the scope and reach of our activities.

Kesher Israel's reliance on volunteers sometimes results in inconsistencies in the number, quality, and content of programs from season to season. All children's programming has been spearheaded by the drive and effort of our lay-leadership and volunteers, because the synagogue is staffed only by the Rabbi and an administrator -- both of whom have their hands full running the day-to-day operations.

Our parents initiated "Cookie Minyan," a Shabbat morning children's prayer and activity group (ages 0-5), which is now run by a hired group leader.  As the number of children continued to grow and mature, we added "Shabbat Club" for the older children (ages 5-10).  In addition to Shabbat, these groups also meet on most holidays and hold holiday-themed events (e.g., Sukkah Hop, Channukah party). Participants in these children and family programs make a consistent effort to raise awareness and invite the support and participation of the broader community.

This volunteer-driven approach creates inconsistency in programming because our volunteers juggle competing professional and family interests, making it difficult for any of them to help plan more than a single event.  What is missing is someone with the education and ability to create a consistent and comprehensive program.  As a result, our current child and family programming is vibrant and joyous, but limited in scope and breadth.

Second, integration is a challenge because of the many, overlapping programs and religious services the synagogue offers. Shabbat and holiday programming outside of prayer services tend to be geared to specific constituencies rather than to the synagogue community as a whole.  For example, just as families with younger children often do not participate in Shabbat lunches with speakers, other subgroups of the congregation have limited involvement in the family-oriented programs, thus fragmenting our community.  In addition, Kesher has a successful adult education program with numerous activities in the evenings and on Shabbat.  Often times parents have to choose who will stay home with the kids and who will attend one of these exciting programs, or, in most cases, neither are able to attend at all due to family obligations.  Many parents miss the spiritual and intellectual opportunities they once had and long to be able to participate in community events with their children in an appropriate and meaningful way.  By the same token, those without children naturally attend adult programs, with little opportunity outside of kiddush to mingle in a family environment.

Finally, achieving greater family engagement at Kesher Israel can be difficult because of the limited physical space.  Kesher Israel is a small, two-story, historic building. The children's Shabbat groups take place in a small living-room space and library in a neighboring house that the synagogue has converted for that purpose, while Kesher's main building holds two services, one in the sanctuary and another in a social hall on its ground floor. These spaces are quite limited and inflexible for children's activities.  As our child population continues to grow and mature, the wide age range necessitates more age-specific content and activities, but our space does not allow us to meet these needs.

Our proposal -- "Shul Without Walls" ("SWW") -- addresses these challenges directly and provides an innovative solution to them by pursuing education and observance of Shabbat and holidays using place-based education that offers opportunities for the synagogue community as a whole.  "Shul Without Walls" consists of a series of trips to significant sites around D.C. The excursions will be open to all age groups, and each will be accompanied by a variety of age-appropriate activities geared towards children, their parents, and other participating adults, young and old.  The curriculum will be planned by a seasoned educator who will also train our members on how to build and run such trips going forward, thereby building sustainability into the program.  Through activities that highlight the significance of each location and stimulate discussion about its meaning and its connection to halachah and Jewish practice, "Shul Without Walls" will encourage greater interaction among the various populations that make up the Kesher Israel community.  It is signficant that this unique program will allow the community not just to integrate, but also to overcome the constraints of the Kesher "campus" by going outside of the synagogue.

READINESS/CAPACITY FOR CHANGE:

In the past, programming at Kesher Israel has been informal and dependent upon the particular set of circumstances at hand. Apart from the essential ritual activities of synagogue life, the programs that are organized are those which individuals are self-motivated to plan. The process of preparing this Legacy Heritage Grant application actually began with several members of the synagogue actively soliciting input and participation from congregants and community members. The response to this solicitation was overwhelming. Contributors have come out of the woodwork, as interest and inquiries have flooded in from all corners of the community. This type of excited response demonstrates the community's interest in engaging in community projects - the objective is to now channel that interest in order to produce more systemic programming.

"Shul Without Walls" was one of a number of ideas considered by the congregation for the Legacy Heritage grant proposal. A small team of 10 parents, board members and volunteers conducted a brainstorming session at which numerous program ideas were proposed and issues regarding the congregation's needs discussed. This team chose three ideas to be presented to the wider community for selection. The ideas were summarized and sent via email to the congregation's active listserv together with an invitation to participate in an open conference call to help select the idea that was most compatible with the synagogue's mission and goals.

On the conference call, we reached a consensus that we would go forward with Shul Without Walls as our proposal.  Members utilized online tools to collaboratively draft this document, posting comments and making wholesale revisions. This collaboration has already created a "buzz" surrounding the program even prior to its formal proposal for the Legacy Heritage Grant.  This process was more open and allowed greater member input into the selection and design process than any other program the synagogue has ever undertaken.  We are confident that it will maximize the investment the community feels in having the program succeed.

After receiving notice that Kesher Israel had been selected to participate in the second round of the Legacy Heritage Grant application process, the synagogue immediately sent out an announcement to all members.  Next, this team sought more ways to engage and generate excitement among our members.

In the few weeks we've had to prepare this application, the Legacy Heritage Grant has been part of our weekly announcements, raising awareness and, more importantly, soliciting participation in a custom online survey. Over 50 individuals participated in the survey, providing us with valuable data on how to craft the program both from logistical and content standpoints.

Respondents liked all of our potential content areas, but were particularly supportive of treks surrounding the chagim (43% very likely to attend/30% likely to attend) and middot (46% very likely to attend/27% likely to attend).  Respondents suggested over a dozen potential trek destinations and over 20 potential teaching topics.

With regards to scheduling, over 50% expressed a preference for treks on Sunday afternoons with the "pre-program" preparation activities delivered the Shabbat morning before, either through drashot or existing family activities (Cookie Minyan and Shabbat Club).

Perhaps the most telling thing about the data was that it showed the wide appeal of SWW; responses were evenly split between those with children and those without, and the ages of children represented ranged from toddlers through Bar/Bat Mitzvah age (currently, our oldest child constituency).  This feedback will not only be invaluable in our crafting of the eventual program, but has already added value to the congregation.  We hope our process will be leveraged as a model of collaborative programming that programmers in our community will adopt.

Historically, Kesher Israel programmers have utilized the Kesher Israel list serv to varying degrees of success when publicizing events. We have learned from past experience that email is a great publicity tool but cannot be used alone. Therefore, we will utilize multi-tiered approach to successfully engage congregants in SWW.  

Specifically, we will:

Kesher Israel's children's programming is currently limited to weekly Shabbat activity groups (Cookie Minyan and Shabbat Club) and holiday parties.  Weekly shabbat services for adults are complemented by monthly speakers under the rubric of Adult Education.  In addition, there are numerous opportunities for educational and social events through Sisterhood programs, the Green Group, and the Young Professionals Group.  There is strong Shabbat and holiday engagement by our membership, but because of the limitations mentioned above, our current programming tends to fracture, rather than integrate, Kesher's various constituencies.

Our proposal overcomes the limitations of our space by creating a "Shul Without Walls" (SWW)  thereby integrating adult, children's, and family-based learning into communal Shabbat and holiday celebrations throughout our nation's capital.  SWW is rooted in the teaching methods known as  pedagogy of place or place-based education, which helps learners who have a hard time connecting to abstract ideas, whether secular (environment), social (liberty), or religious (redemption), when they exist in a vacuum. In place-based education, abstract concepts are explored through locations and settings that are familiar to the learner, and the locations themselves help the ideas become more concrete to the learner. Delivering a lesson through the experience of the locale strengthens the learning, which is enriched by multiple and similar encounters over time.  Through the experience, the learner will gain prior knowledge to which he or she can later make connections. Parents and educators can then invoke the experience at a later date in order to create future learning opportunities, thus building on each experience.

Judaism, as it is presented in a synagogue setting, is often largely conceptual in nature. Given this, place-based education would be a valuable method for helping people of all ages take the ideas presented in the sanctuary and learn to realize and practice them as living ideals. To achieve this goal, Shul Without Walls will consist of a series of trips to significant sites around Washington, D.C. Visiting these sites in the context of Jewish teachings will help our learners personalize the significance of the location while also creating a Jewish sense of place. A myriad of sites rich in historical significance abound, allows us to address a wide spectrum of topics and appeal to the broadest audience.

Shul Without Walls will take advantage of Kesher Israel's location in downtown Washington, D.C. an area full of meaningful sites, many of which provide messages compatible with Jewish middot. These excursions will be paired with activities, lessons, and/or lectures highlighting the significance of the specific locations, which we plan to compile as a curriculum to use again and build upon. The educational content will be delivered by a Jewish educator, our Rabbi, a guest speaker, or a knowledgeable lay person. Portions of the programming will engage a wide range of community members and entire families in a specific activity, starting with traveling and viewing the sites together. Other portions will provide separate, age-appropriate activities for children, their parents, and other adults (e.g., a museum scavenger hunt for children and a scholarly speaker for adults).

To implement SWW, Kesher Israel will engage a seasoned educator with experience in place-based education to help structure the excursions and teach our members how to build and facilitate future trips. Kesher Israel will aim to plan SWW excursions once a month and publicize them to the broader Jewish community through community newspapers, listservs, and brochures.  SWW events within walking distance of the synagogue will be held on Shabbat and religious holiday celebrations, while others will be held on Sundays or secular holidays.   In the latter case, the "pre-program" preparation activities will be delivered the Shabbat morning before through drashot and existing family activities (e.g., Cookie Minyan and Shabbat Club).

To put this approach in practical terms, consider the following example: the United States Capitol just recently opened a new, official Visitor's Center. Using our approach, SWW would organize a Saturday/Sunday program oriented around Jewish and secular government.  Our Rabbi or a member of the community would base the Shabbat morning drasha on the topic.  On Sunday morning, an insider/expert and an educator would lead a trip to the Visitor's Center. One or more of our members who works at the Capitol would explain to participants what happens in the Capitol in a way which would be understandable by all. After the introduction, the group would engage in age-appropriate activities: an educator would conduct a parent/child activity, such as role-playing a family as a small government or creating a scavenger hunt oriented around historic figures that affected Jewish Americans. Meanwhile, adults would get an insider's tour of the Capitol with insights on how Jews impacted legislation and vice versa. The outing would end with a picnic for all participants near the Capitol grounds.

The subjects addressed through SWW will range from the philosophical to the practical, from the modern to the mystical, and from the humbling to the humorous. We are blessed with a sufficiently dense population of potential locations that we could run out of topics before we run out of excursions. Examples include:

Tanach

Chagim

Modern Jewish History

Middot

By leaving the formal setting of the synagogue, these eventss provide an inviting, informal, and relaxed environment for delivering a strong educational component.  We eliminate the limitations of our physical space, permitting community members to learn and socialize at ease.  And by departing from our current programming boundaries, we have the potential to tap into the knowledge and enthusiasm of congregants -- many of whom work directly in or around D.C.'s best-known sites and can provide insider knowledge that can make such events truly memorable.

Longer-term goals for SWW include assembling a guidebook and website to help both the local Jewish community and Jewish tourists experience the significance of our nation's capital through a Jewish framework. In addition, the guidebook would become an important resource for the many Jewish day schools that bring students to visit Washington each year. Corollary benefits include encouraging visitors to create similar associations within their own hometowns.

Shul Without Walls offers a novel and exciting solution to several of the challenges we as a community have faced in developing richer child and family programming that is more fully integrated into the larger life of the synagogue. First, by taking us out into the community, it allows us to overcome the very real problem of lack of space at Kesher Israel. Second, it is designed to address the programming inconsistencies we have faced in the past. As we have mentioned, we intend to engage a professional educator who will, in turn, train congregants to design and lead future excursions. We believe that this component of our proposal builds sustainability into the Shul Without Walls program. It will also equip members with the tools required to sustain and expand the program consistently, facilitating interaction and collaboration among lay leaders across age groups and synagogue constituencies, providing real, systemic change in our programming. Third, we believe that these trips will bring together diverse parts of the Kesher Israel community and stimulate shared, meaningful experiences between parts of the congregation which often do not spend time together. This time together will have the potential to build strong and lasting bonds between these members and promote greater and more real interaction and friendship. Finally, the curriculum of Shul Without Walls is designed to have a long-term impact for everyone who participates, from children to adults, married and single. Because its basic pedagogy helps learners convert Judaism's ideas from abstract concepts into personally meaningful ideals, we believe that Shul Without Walls will impact the daily life of our community, as well.

EVALUATION/ASSESSMENT

SWW will be considered successful if:

SWW's success will be assessed using a number of quantitative and qualitative measures. We will engage a consultant to oversee the evaluation/assessment process and provide recommendations for programmatic enhancement. Participation goals will be set and tracked for each program by maintaining a master list of participants and tracking participation over time.

Participants will be asked to fill out a brief evaluation after each activity. Feedback from evaluations will be used immediately to structure and enhance future activities.

Additionally, we will conduct three focus groups: (1) During program development, (2) mid-way through the programmatic calendar, (3) upon completion of programmatic year. These groups will include representation from all target demographics and will serve to address specific educational wants/needs of the community and later assess the success of SWW in meeting those needs. Special emphasis will be placed on evaluating the qualitative takeaways for participating children through discussions at the end of each program.