Washington DC

It rained and it was cold but the unusual weather didn’t dampen the spirits of 10 New Jewish High School students who attended the Panim El Panim program in Washington, DC over Exploration Week. Over 100 students from up and down the East Coast were part of the program, which seeks to instill political activism through Jewish values to students.

For each session, Panim chooses two topics for students to investigate and become politically aware. This session the topics were poverty and religion and state. Students were divided between the two groups and were involved in brainstorming sessions and preparing for a visit to see their representatives or senators on Capital Hill.

Our students were marvelous. Their involvement was total and the speakers they heard as part of the presentation captivated them. The trip to Capitol Hill was the highlight of the program. We visited the offices of Barney Frank and John Kerry and were briefed by staff aides. Though Representative Frank did say hello, he was involved in committee meetings and could not stay. Senator Kerry was on the senate floor during our visit.

It was heartwarming to see our students so involved and being leaders of their various groups. It really reinforced the excellent job we do here at the school educating them in both Jewish values and general studies.

Ten students from New Jew joined 86 other high school students from all over the East Coast in the Panim el Panim program. Panim el Panim is an experiential educational program in Washington DC. In approximately 30 hours of seminars, discussion and educational excersises, the students learned about major public policy issues and how they can become more active and informed citizens. A notable program was Street Torah-an activity in which students went onto the streets of Washington DC. to give out items and to talk to homeless people. Students also met with either their member of Congress or senator or an aide. During this time they voiced their concerns and opinions on a wide spectrum of issues. After the Panim program ended, New Jew students stayed an extra day to tour Washington DC.

Maine Dog Sledding

I went to the wilderness in western Maine with Leora Schaefer and a group of nine students during exploration week. The experience had a tremendous impact on me, and upon our return to Boston, five days after our departure, it was clear that we had all grown a little as individuals and a lot as a group. Rabbi Cohen (Howard), from Bennington, Vermont, led the expedition into the woods where we stayed for three nights in canvas tents, drilled through 15 inches of ice on the surface of the lake for drinking water, and explored the region on snowshoes and dog sleds. Students took turns cooking dinner each night, and following the meal Howard led discussions on Judaism and its connection with nature and our experiences outdoors. It had snowed over a foot by the time we packed our tents and trekked and sledded back to where the van was parked. Our final adventure was at Sunday River, where Howard took us ice climbing on cliffs that reached about 70 feet high. Needless to say it was a blast, and the kids managed to climb a couple of different levels before we left for home. All in all, it was a fabulous trip.

Improv

Through group improvisation and solo performance composition, a strong ensemble was built here this week. The group learned the vocabulary of Viewpoints Technique: Space, Time, Shape, Movement, Emotion, Story, etc. and quickly became adept in communicating with each other and with the audience using these various elements of performance. The students were challenged to be spontaneous and free with their voices, bodies, and thoughts, and continually grew in these areas, both individually and as an ensemble.

Free writing (automatic writing) became the source for many of the pieces they later composed, set, and performed. The students spent the week gathering inspiration from their own and each other's writing in order to develop these solo performances. As part of their process of composition, some drew from published poems and prose which they incorporated into their original text and combined with gestures and choreography (generated during a special movement workshop led by guest artist/teacher Jesse Zaritt). The pieces covered a broad spectrum of performance possibilities. Whether they were traditional monologues combined with movement, percussive music combined with text, minimalist storytelling through movement and sparse text, or pure dance, these performances reflected the individual artists' voices and styles in a clear and captivating way.

At the culminating banquet, the students demonstrated their skill at improvisation by taking suggestions from the audience to create stories, scenes and debates on the spot. The next day, they performed their original solo pieces for a sizable audience of their peers, teachers and faculty.