Thursday, May 22, 2014

2014-2015 YISE YOUTH WELCOME


Welcome to the Young Israel Shomrai Emunah Youth blog. As of July 1, 2014, I have officially taken on the position of Youth Director, and I look forward to an exciting year filled with many wonderful events and activities that embrace the concept of Jewish experiential education. Prior to taking this position, I served on the YISE youth committee, as well as on the shul board. I have been an educator in the community for 10 years, and I continue to work full time at the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School as a learning specialist (eight years). Additionally, I have worked at Kol Shalom Talmud Torah for the past five years, two of which were in the role of Director of Experiential Education. I plan to use my prior experiences to meet with leadership and with youth in our community to create a balanced program that will foster a love of Judaism in our children while also having fun.

One of my first initiatives is to create a year at a glance calendar (subject to change) so that all families can put these events on their own schedules and attend as many activities as they would like. Additionally, I hope to send these blog posts to the shul office and have them printed and attached to the Shabbos Shorts in order to share the unique experiences that the children in our community have had and remind families about upcoming events.

Our first event of the summer will be a 5K Rabbi Relay Race to raise money for Tzedakah on July 13, 2014 at 10:30am. The race will start at Shomrai Emunah, will continue to Rabbi Chinn's shul, then Chabad, followed by KMS, SSJC, and ending at Ben Yehuda Pizza for food and festivities. To learn more about this event, and future events, please check the YISE Youth Blog address at www.yiseyouth.blogspot.com. You can also follow past and future events on the YISE Youth facebook page. If you see me in shul, please come over and introduce yourself so that I can continue to get to know the families in our community. I look forward to an incredible year!

Brett Kugler
bkugler@yise.org
Youth Director