Talmud Torah Tuesdays give students the opportunity to build on their core Jewish knowledge through a wide variety of Judaics electives. For all students enrolled in Tamid, TTT nights are required for attendance. This allows our teen community to have critical mass at least once per month, which creates ruach (spirit), cohesion, relationships, and a venue for communicating upcoming opportunities. While we understand that other obligations compete for the very limited time in a teen’s schedule, we would like for them to show a concerted effort to be engaged with our post-B’nai Mitzvah congregational community by attending as many Tuesdays as possible during the month, but prioritizing TTT weeks.

Judaics electives: Taught by members of the clergy and staff, electives are a creative and fun way to dive into a wide variety of Jewish topics. These classes can be related to Judaism through pop culture, or engaging textual studies.Some past electives have been: Wilderness Narratives in the Book of Numbers, Who Was Bob Dylan, Jewish Monsters, Gender in the Torah, Judaism and Star Trek, and more! Students can choose a number of electives throughout the year. This allows for deep and wide-ranging discussions across ages and experiences.

On these Tuesdays, students are involved in discussions and programming about making our world a better place. We participate in hands-on mitzvah work while also discussing the ways they can grow into ethical Jewish adults. We work to educate ourselves on how we can be better allies to those in our communities who are excluded or oppressed.

These sessions allow Tamid students to stay involved on the issues of the day. Current Events Tuesdays occur either when there are five Tuesdays in a month or when there is something going on in the world that we feel we need to address with the students (or that the students ask us to address!) We discuss and debate current events in a respectful environment that appreciates different backgrounds and opinions. We talk about how these issues impact our lives and view them through a context of Jewish teachings and values.

Each of these Tuesdays focus on fun activities and games for our Tamid students. The goal for these Tuesdays is to help build on the community and friendships that form throughout the year. These programs might include trivia competitions, a variety of games, cooking, and other fun activities. Past social nights have included a hamantaschen baking competition, movie nights, and a Jewish-themed Jeopardy night! 

Anything can happen on a Wild Card Tuesday! Wild Card nights happen a couple times a semester and are usually off-site activities. Past Wild Cards have included bowling, mini-golf, a Tamid seder, and laser tag! We are always looking for fun new suggestions for activities!

One Sunday each month, students will be able to choose an elective that interests them taught by NVHC staff and clergy. Our electives cover a wide variety of topics, and students can sign up for one that they feel they would have the most fun in! Electives that NVHC staff and clergy have taught in past years include Jewish Matriarchs, The Book of Genesis, and Jews in TV and Movies.

Some Sunday programming will be hands-on volunteer mitzvah work, such as food packing. Like our tikkun olam nights on Tuesdays, NVHC’s teen mitzvah work helps our teens grow into responsible and compassionate Jewish adults! Our mitzvah work often consists of packing snack bags for Helping Hungry Kids, as well as packing meals for other local charities.

For our tenth grade students – and students above tenth grade who haven’t been Confirmed – who wish to participate in Confirmation, this class will be rolled into Sunday programs. Confirmation students will have lunch with the rest of the grades at 12:00pm, and then attend their own Confirmation class.  

Just as a child takes responsibility for selfhood at the point of Bar or Bat Mitzvah, our teens take responsibility for the Jewish community at the point of Confirmation. They spend the year learning with our clergy what exactly Judaism is, and then talking about what they want the Jewish community to be. Confirmation culminates with a ritual moment marking the end of the year of study. This ritual takes place on the last day of Tamid and usually takes the form of a service, but it is entirely crafted by that year’s Confirmation class.

Students in Confirmation (as well as all students 10th-12th grade) also have the opportunity to participate in the L’taken Social Justice Seminar, an exciting weekend in DC learning about different public policy issues that culminates in each student presenting a speech on a topic important to them to their Senators and Representatives.