It behooves synagogues to understand and address the needs of parents of teens. Staff and lay leaders ought to know individual parents; they ought to know something about their lives, their stresses, their joys. Parenting Your Teen… Through a Jewish Lens, an eight-session program offered by Hebrew College and CJP’s Commission on Jewish Life and Learning, fosters communication and creates community among this special population.
As Margie Bogdanow, one of our outstanding Parenting Your Teen… Through a Jewish Lens instructors, wrote in the most recent issue of URJ Torah at the Center:
As synagogues bemoan the disengagement of teens and their families, understanding and addressing the needs of those parents is crucial. Learning who the parents are, what their lives are like, what their stresses are is vital. To be effective, we must get to know them as individuals but understand that, as a group, they have some common needs. At Temple Isaiah, we have begun talking about not only life cycle events but also “cycle of life” experiences. Being a parent of a teenager is such a cycle of life experience. It is important to not only learn about these parents, but also learn from them, learn to value what they have to offer one another.
Read the rest of her article (on page 9 of the newsletter) and let us know what you think.
For more information and to register for the program (beginning in January of 2012 at seven sites throughout Greater Boston) contact Raylea Pemstein at rpemstein@hebrewcollege.edu or 617-559-8708.
This post has been contributed by a third party. The opinions, facts and any media content are presented solely by the author, and JewishBoston assumes no responsibility for them. Want to add your voice to the conversation? Publish your own post here. MORE