Moadon “Club”

MoEd is now offering Hebrew immersion and Jewish leadership in an afterschool community for middle school-aged children in the Washington, DC area.

Background

The middle school years are a time of transition for Jewish families as much as for their adolescent children. Many graduates of Jewish day school elementary programs move into a public school setting for middle school, and kids experience different needs outside the classroom: to develop leadership skills and especially to retain the Jewish knowledge and Hebrew literacy skills cultivated during their elementary years.

 

goals

Moadon, Hebrew for “club,” builds on the goals of MoEd’s existing program, to provide middle school-aged kids with a “Jewish tool box” for in-depth, age-appropriate understanding of Judaism’s fundamental building blocks and to improve their Hebrew language skills through creative informal education. 

Program

Moadon will meet twice a week during the school year. One meeting will be an “Ivrit (Hebrew) Day” and the second will be the “Leadership Group.” On Ivrit days, participants will continue their Hebrew language studies, using approaches developed in MoEd.

Leadership Group will feature different opportunities by program year: sixth graders will be “mentors,” seventh graders will be “junior counselors in training (ozer madrich),” and eighth graders will be madrichim. At each stage, participants will engage with questions related to Jewish identity and tikkun olam (repairing the world), locating themselves as an active element in their larger Jewish communities. In addition, dedicated, experiential summer camp sessions will provide hands-on training for our students.

Moadon participants will work together on a service project in the community, moving from conception through implementation, in the process learning about group work and leadership strategies. Participants will also become leaders within the MoEd community: mentors will learn to work one-on-one with a younger child; young CITS will learn to prepare and lead a group activity with the help of an older staff member; and CITS will develop the skills to independently facilitate a group program. 

Moadon focuses on sixth to eighth graders with significant Hebrew language backgrounds, a group that is substantial and diverse. They include our own MoEd graduates, graduates of area Jewish day schools; graduates of Selah, the Washington DC Hebrew-immersion charter school; and children with Israeli parents living in the Washington DC area.

How Moadon Fulfills Jewish Communal Needs.

The immediate contributions of Moadon include:

  1. Providing a Hebrew-immersion “bridge” program for middle school students, to secure language retention across middle school and into their high school years
     
  2. Creating leadership opportunities for middle schoolers with interests in Hebrew language, Jewish culture, and informal education
     
  3. Providing opportunities for pre-teens and young teens to complete necessary volunteer hours
     
  4. Building and sustaining community among Jewish youth at a key transition point in their Jewish and secular education

 

This year, MoEd will have its first graduates, equipped with the tools to build Jewish understanding and sustain high levels of Hebrew language. Moadon provides the next step forward, enhancing our students’ levels of Jewish and Hebrew knowledge while nurturing our afterschool Jewish community.

If you are interested in learning more about Moadon, please contact us today.