What is B’Yachad?
With Rabbi Arik Labowitz, Harriet Frost & Tsvi Levi
B’yachad (“Together”) is Or Shalom’s Simchat Mitzvah program with interactive study for youth.
There will be two 2-hour classes per month on Sundays 5-7pm. We will also have one shabbat dinner a month hosted at family’s houses on a rotating basis, with each family asked to host Shabbat once during the school year.
Classes will focus on text based learning, history, Jewish thought, and culture, music, holidays, craft and art activities, liturgical music from the Siddur, and tikkun olam projects such as volunteerism and interfaith activities. There will also be occasional multi-media and movie classes.
Rabbi Arik Labowitz is a teacher, musician, and ritual facilitator dedicated to cultivating a heart-centered, earth-based Jewish practice. Arik has spent the past two decades serving Jewish communities in the San Francisco Bay Area and Seattle and has recently moved with his family to Vancouver, BC. He has many years of experience working with B’mitzvah students, bringing meaning and reflection to this formative time of life and finding ways to ground them in authentic Jewish learning and practice.
Harriet Frost is a Singer/ Songwriter with an extensive background and love of Judaic studies and Judaic music. She continues to be inspired working with our Or Shalom Simchat Mitzvah students for 15 years. Harriet’s focus in the B’yachad program is Hebrew literacy and liturgy as well as facilitating monthly Friday night Shabbat programs for the families. She looks forward to working together with Rabbi Arik to create a dynamic learning experience.
A rate of 75% attendance of all aspects of the course is required.
Registration is open!
The cost of this program is $1500. To register for this program, please contact learning@orshalom.ca
Dates:
Sundays, 5-7pm
Monthly Shabbat dinner dates TBA
Preparing for Simchat Mitzvah
At Or Shalom, Simchat Mitzvah preparation begins two years before our youth are called to the Torah for their first Aliyah. Ours is a multi-modality class meeting on Sunday afternoons during the school year and includes special participation on some holidays and Shabbatot. Our program will include a social action initiative in the spirit of “It is not the study that is essential, but rather the action (Pirke Avot 1:17).”
NOTES:
- Families need to be Or Shalom members to participate in B’Yachad. Membership options are described at https://www.orshalom.ca/membership/
- B’yachad is a two-year program, fee is not refundable.
- A core value of Or Shalom is that fees should never be a barrier to participation; financial assistance for the Simchat Mitzvah program is available to member families.
Questions? Please contact programs@orshalom.ca to inquire further about this program.
B’Yachad Teacher | Harriet Frost
Harriet Frost is a Singer/ Songwriter with an extensive background and love of Judaic studies and Judaic music. She continues to be inspired working with our Or Shalom Simchat Mitzvah students for 15 years. Harriet’s focus in the B’yachad program is Hebrew literacy and liturgy as well as facilitating monthly Friday night Shabbat programs for the families.
B’Yachad Teacher | Tsvi Levi
Tsvi Levi (they/he) is a teacher for B’Yachad. He is a writer and boxer with experience teaching youth poetry, small-scale farming, and Jewish studies. He also coaches gender diverse/trans youth boxing and teaches at Temple Sholom School. Tsvi grew up in Canada, Israel, and the US with Ashkenazi, Sephardic, Roma, and British ancestral roots. They are passionate about community and relationship building, land-based living and food production, Jewish futurism, and finding oneness within plurality.
