It's A Girl Thing

Temple Micah is reviving a group for 6th and 7th grade girls called "Rosh Hodesh: It's a Girl Thing" designed to empower Jewish girls to navigate the challenges that they will face in the upcoming years.

It is understandable that as our pre-teen and teenage girls prepare for their b'not mitzvah, high school, and all the exciting opportunities that come with growing into young women, they face new and difficult challenges--challenges that will require them to deal with peer pressure, social and academic pressures, self-image and more. How do we help them successfully make this transition?

This year, Temple Micah is reviving a group for 6th and 7th grade girls called Rosh Hodesh: It's a Girl Thing designed to empower Jewish girls to navigate the challenges that they will face in the upcoming years. Together they will build self-esteem, leadership skills, and their own Jewish identities.

Through a variety of experiential modalities, girls will create a safe space for themselves in which to question and explore: how to create friendships based on support and trust; how to respond when faced with the ever-present realities of harmful drugs and unhealthy body image; how to balance the many competing demands of home, school, sports, extra-curricular activities, and friends; how to build into their lives leadership and involvement in meaningful experiences.

In It's a Girl Thing, our girls will learn about great Jewish women and their achievements, like Miriam's leadership. They will discover their own feminism and continue the work of becoming strong Jewish women. They will understand Jewish values like Chesed (loving-kindness) and Tiferet (balance) and how those values can help guide their decisions. They will have the opportunity to work with their hands, hearts and minds to share their individuality and discover what makes each young woman unique.

It's not easy talking about these things, at any age. For this reason, It's A Girl Thing will emphasize indirect conversation. By way of these conversations, the girls will be able to discover who they are through their own works--and maybe even surprise themselves in the process.

Rosh Hodesh: It's a Girl Thing will meet once a month on Tuesdays after Machon Micah. The group will gather for dinner and spend time using discussions, drama, crafts, stories and more to explore the social and cultural issues they encounter as they become Jewish adults. All who think they might be interested are encouraged to email Rachel Heaps. The first meeting is Tuesday, September 20th.

[By Rachel Heaps; from Sept.-Oct. 2011 Vine]