FOLKSHULN OF PHILADELPHIA INC

Youth Education Program: At the core of Folkshul is its youth education program, serving K-9th grade students with weekly instruction by certified teachers on Sunday mornings. The Folkshul curriculum is centered on fostering an identity through learning about the ideas, values, ethics, activities, traditions and celebrations of secular humanistic Jews and providing opportunities for students to practice what they learn. After completion of the 9th grade, our students are given the opportunity to become working assistants in our classrooms and community until their graduation from High School. Over 75% of rising 10th graders become Folkshul Assistants each year.

Breit Mitzvah Program: Folkshul offers Bar and Bat Mitzvah in a manner unique to secular humanistic Jews. Working with a mentor, the child will spend several months researching and developing a presentation for their family, friends, classmates, and the Folkshul community. Together with the Lifecycle Coordinator, the family prepares a ceremony which reflects their love for, and ties to one another as well as their connection to their Jewish past and future. Our community is diverse, and the process of becoming a Bar or Bat Mitzvah in our community allows significant room for the students and their families to express their own feelings and orientations towards their Jewishness, integrating his/her personal interests with his/her Jewish values and knowledge. Topics of recent Breit Mitzvah include: Jewish Immigration; HIAS and Todays Immigration; Jewish Food; Mythology; Anti- Jewish Propaganda in Nazi Germany; Klezmer Music; African American and Jewish Relations; History of the Bar Mitzvah and Rites of Passage in other Cultures; The Plight of Argentinean Jews; The Use of Wine in Jewish Tradition; and Art Created by Concentration Camp Victims.