Behrman House: About Us: Open Lion Spring 2003: The Time of Our Lives Shines Spotlight on Teens

About Us: Open Lion Spring 2003

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Spring 2003

The Time of Our Lives Shines Spotlight on Teens

Enclosed in Michael Berlin's bar mitzvah invitation was a cardboard tzedakah box. The invitation asked that, instead of a gift, guests place a dollar a day into the box for Michael's celebration. The money he raised helped Michael create his own tzedakah organization—the Michael J. Berlin Philanthropic Fund. "The money goes to projects that benefit my community," says Michael, "like Hillel and the JCC. My community has done a lot for me. I like to give back."
Michael is one of the real-life teens featured in the new 6th–8th grade The Time of Our Lives: A Teen Guide to the Jewish Life Cycle. Through Jewish wisdom, teen-friendly narrative, and peer stories of young people like Michael who have created their own ways to enhance Jewish life-cycle events, The Time of Our

Michael Berlin created his own philanthropic fund in honor of his bar mitzvah.

Lives leads young teens to explore life's "big questions" on their own: Was I born for a reason? Am I really an adult when I become a bat mitzvah? How should I act when my friend's grandmother dies? In addition, The Time of Our Lives invites students to become the authors of their own futures—to imagine their ideal bar or bat mitzvah party, to consider which qualities are "musts" for their lifetime partners, to envision who will hold the huppah at their weddings.
With The Time of Our Lives, teens think critically about how they can contribute to Jewish life-cycle events and modern Jewish life, while understanding that they are the inheritors and shapers of Jewish tradition.

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