by Marilyn Silverstein
NJJN Bureau Chief/PMB

February 05, 2008

Princeton University students — under the guidance of two Orthodox rabbis — will mentor area teens in a new program designed to deepen their Jewish identity and knowledge.

The pilot program — so new it does not yet have a name — is being funded through a one-year, $2,160 grant from United Jewish Federation of Princeton Mercer Bucks’ New Initiatives in Jewish Education.

The East Windsor-based Rimon/the Mordecai T. Mezrich Center for Jewish Learning will team with Princeton’s Center for Jewish Life/Hillel to administer the program.

The educational and social initiative will bring together 12 high school teens and two Princeton students during 10 weekly mentoring sessions at the CJL, beginning Sunday evening, Feb. 10. The sessions will include pizza, shmoozing, and an hour of text-based discussion.

Orthodox Rabbis Joshua Ross of Princeton and Yair Hindin of West Orange are serving as rabbinic advisers to the program.

Ross, director of education at the CJL, is an emissary of the Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus. The JLIC is a joint project of the Orthodox Union; Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life; and Torah MiTzion, an independent program that fosters religious-Zionist learning.

Hindin, a teacher at the Ramaz School, a Modern Orthodox Jewish prep school in Manhattan, is educational director of Rimon.

The idea for the teen learning program has been simmering on a back burner ever since Rimon opened more than three years ago, said its founding director, Livia Mezrich. “I was trying to fill a niche for both teen and adult education,” said Mezrich as she sat in the CJL’s Wilf Chapel. With her were the pilot program’s two student mentors, freshman Zahava Stadler of Hillside and sophomore Matt Paradisgarten of Toronto.

Last spring, Mezrich shifted her focus at Rimon from adult education when she was invited by the federation to apply for an educational initiatives grant. “The grant, of course, gives us the credibility to go out into the community and get students,” she said, “and we are very grateful to federation, especially since this is a pilot program.”

The learning initiative is open to Jewish teens in grades nine through 12 — of whom an estimated 75 percent are unaffiliated and uninvolved in Jewish life, according to Mezrich. She welcomed the opportunity to have younger teens interact with Stadler and Paradisgarten.

“They’re bright, they’re with it, and they appreciate their Judaism,” she said. “They’ll be very good role models.”

The program will be positive for the Princeton students as well, Ross said in a separate telephone interview. “I think it’s a great opportunity for the Princeton kids to have an impact on young people who might not otherwise be exposed to this type of Jewish learning environment,” the rabbi said.

For Hindin, the initiative is a way for Rimon to broaden its outreach even as it provides an exciting, interactive program for teens.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity for students to experience Jewish learning and to interact with Jewish role models in a very informal setting,” he said in a phone interview. “At the same time, it will provide them with a challenging opportunity to engage in text and to think about their Judaism in a meaningful way.”

Stadler and Paradisgarten — both 19 and active with Yavneh House of Princeton, the Orthodox-Jewish community on campus — said they are looking forward to the program.

“It’s an opportunity to convey what’s exciting and meaningful to me about Judaism,” said Stadler, a graduate of the Jewish Educational Center and the Bruriah High School for Girls in Elizabeth.“It’s such a strong part of who I am.”

Stadler said that she and Paradisgarten have been working on a curriculum for the program, with Maimonides’ 13 principles of faith serving as a jumping-off point for discussion.

“We’ll definitely take our cue from the students in terms of what direction to take it,” she said, “but it’s going to be a very discussion-based class about the fundamentals of the Jewish faith.”

“It seems like a fun program,” said Paradisgarten, a graduate of the Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto. “I like working with high school students.”

As the program takes shape, Mezrich is already thinking about the future. “We’re confident it will succeed, and we hope we can do it again next year. If I had a dream, the dream would be that when the campus is built,” she said, referring to the new Jewish Community Campus of Princeton Mercer Bucks, “it would be nice to bring this program over there.”

For information about the teen learning initiative, contact Mezrich at 609-918-9750.