Study - Youth Education | Congregation Rodeph Shalom

Once a child reaches the milestone of B’nai Mitzvah, Jewish learning does not stop, rather it changes to a more adult format and content. Our 8th, 9th, and 10th grade students explore together a broad variety of challenging ideas through the Confirmation Academy. Operating in a separate part of the building, these older students engage in spirited discussion, the study of Jewish text, and classes on subjects like Jewish sports, humor, movies, mythologies, ethics, politics, personal challenges and cooking.

In addition, we operate a gender-separated special program for our entering 8th and 9th grade students that focuses on the particular issues of becoming a young man or woman. The girl’s portion of this program is based on Rosh Chodesh: It’s a Girl’s Thing, and the boys program is a pilot developed in partnership with another local synagogue.

Please call Rabbi Freedman at 215-627-6747 x19 with any questions about Confirmation Academy.

Youth Groups

At Rodeph Shalom, building community starts with children. We have youth groups for grades 3-4, 5-6 and 7-8 each with their own advisor and programming. Students join together for engaging and fun activities and Social Action projects. The Senior Youth Group draws students from grades 9-12 for social, athletic, travel, religious and educational activities during the year. For more information, see our "Youth Groups" page.

Travel

All of our post B’nai Mitzvah students travel at least once a year. The goal of travel is to build tighter connections between students and to demonstrate Jewish lessons by living them. Students in grades 7-9 travel on a three year rotation to New York, Camp Harlam and other weekend excursions. Older students (grades 10-12) travel to a rotation that includes Washington, DC for the Religious Action Center’s L’taken Seminar on Jewish political activism; Israel for a 10 day adventure over winter break; and various domestic and international locations for projects on social action, Jewish history or Eco-Judaism.