Kabbalat Torah Art Exhibition

As a focus for our art work Yael introduced a story to us, the story of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. Something that stuck out to me about the different themes in the story was the emergence of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai with his son from the cave. This year we have done a lot of emerging ourselves, having completed our B’nei Mitzvot we have not explored a number of other Jewish areas of interest. We have tackled a lot of big topics from diaspora Jewry to human rights, racism to self care. And it’s your children, our young people at the synagogue that sat down in September and spoke about these being the topics that they wanted to know more about, things that mattered to them.  Sofi Shall (Kabbalat Torah teacher)

In my project there is a cave with six holes on it. Each hole includes a picture symbolizing a value that as a teenager, I have to learn before leaving school and facing the real world. Those are the values that I’ve learned this year, at the Kabbalat Torah program.

The six values are :

• Tolerance
• Volunteering within the Jewish Community
• Jewish Festivals
• Jewish Studies
• Being part of a group
• Family values

From the Kabbalat Torah program with Sophie and Yael, I have learned about being tolerant and welcoming people such as refugees. I’ve learned about the declaration of human rights and René Cassin. From my first year of GCSE religion, Janet taught me about Jewish beliefs and practices. I would like to thanks them.

This year, I was involved in a Jewish community called « Project Impact » volunteering with the Jewish community like helping disabled people, baking for the NHS and writing to isolated people during lockdown.

This year in Kabbalat Torah, I have learnt about everything that’s important to me such as family and friends. I have learnt a lot about my Jewish heritage, as well as stories from the past. Moving forward, I want to follow the examples that my Jewish leaders have set and shown for me, in order to be better in day to day life. While there’s nothing specific that I’m working towards, I have areas that I want to improve in, and changes I want to make. I also want to continue volunteering at a local primary school, as I loved my time with the children. My experience at Kabbalat Torah, and my time in B'nei Mitzvah, has given me lessons I can apply in the future, when striving to achieve these tasks. I would love to continue learning more about my ancestors and Jewish community, and keep a close relationship with Westminster Synagogue as I grow up.

For my piece of art, I wanted to envision the cave as a site for growth. The collage I created uses real rosemary from my garden - and shows it flying off as it leaves the confines of what it has known and goes out into the world. I see our Kabbalat Torah class as a real incubator for growth amongst our teenagers. Much as the lockdown has put us all in isolation like Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, Kabbalat Torah is a wonderful environment for our students to learn and reflect as they prepare to fly of into becoming adult members of our community and agents of change in the world beyond. We can all learn from them to challenge what we think we know and to explore new possibilities for our own emergence.