intergenerational programs

Jewish Cultural Tapestry: Generations Communicate February, March 2003

The Drexel University Judaic Studies Program is committed to functioning as a catalyst to bring sectors of the Jewish community together. This is a unique role of our community-oriented university-based institution. Our intergenerational project, Generations Communicate: The Jewish Cultural Tapestry, entered the world of synagogue life, teaming Drexel University up with the school and parents of Society Hill Synagogue and the adult and children’s choir of Congregation Beth Am Israel. This project was featured in conjunction with a new course at Drexel University during the winter quarter 2003, an offering both of the Judaic Studies Program and The Department of History and Politics, "The Jewish Cultural Tapestry." Young adult Drexel college students in the course, as their special term project, studied the ways that adults and children learn about the diversity of Jewish traditions.

The project concentrated on two groups: sixth and seventh graders, and eighth graders together with high school students. Judaic Studies Program Director, Dr. Rakhmiel Peltz, together with the school staff, presented background information and led discussions in the synagogue classes, on the history, geography, and folkways of different Jewish communities. Drexel’s Judaic Studies Program made available educational films for teachers to use at Society Hill Synagogue. Following this, four presentations took place during school sessions, by local adult members of different Philadelphia Jewish ethnic subgroups. These presenters appeared as pairs, each pair from one family, both an elderly parent and a middle-aged child. They focused on the meaning that continuing local family customs engenders in their life. Dr. Peltz discussed this with them in advance and, together with the school teachers, facilitated the discussions in which the family members addressed each other, in addition to the audience. The audience consisted of Drexel young adults, the Society Hill teenagers, and the Society Hill parents. The presenters were representatives of Iranian Jews, Syrian Arabic-speaking Jews, Greek and Turkish Sephardic Jews, and Polish Jews, and were immigrants, children of immigrants, and grandchildren of immigrants.

Mrs. Alma Elias shows students the pan brought from Greece, that is used for frying bimuelos.

Although the learning sessions allowed the presenters to range widely over their background and retention of tradition, we dwelt on the individual meaning that such practice and identity impart. Because of the time of year, we spent time on Purim and Peysakh. The facilitators and presenters made a special effort to have the students and parents share their own ethnic practices that are especially meaningful to them. The culmination of the study project was a public concert of Sephardic music, held at Society Hill Synagogue. The adult and children’s Shira Hadasha choirs of Congregation Beth Am Israel of Penn Valley, led by Alexander Botwinik, presented its Sephardic repertoire to the participants, as well as to the larger Philadelphia community. These choirs have a tradition of cultivating the Jewish ethnic musical repertoire. They serve as a model for the way that music can galvanize a synagogue community and spur it on to heights of appreciation and professional performance. In sum, these intergenerational and multigenerational classes and folklore and music performances aim to strengthen the knowledge that the Jewish community possesses of its diverse rituals and traditions. In addition, the series will hopefully stimulate community members to increase their own adherence to Jewish folkways in their family life.

The Judaic Studies Program of Drexel University
331 Hagerty Library • Drexel University • 33rd and Market Streets • Philadelphia, PA 19104
TEL 215.895.6388 • FAX 215.895.0229
judaicstudies@drexel.edu •  www.drexel.edu/judaicstudies