Journeys:
Adult Jews Living and Learning

Journeys: Adult Jews Living and Learning is the Mandel Center for Jewish Education’s new program designed to strengthen adult Jewish engagement and identity. Through Journeys, Jewish adults in our JCCs will engage in compelling, flexible, and integrated ways of learning that bolster and deepen their sense of Jewish pride and belonging.

Journeys programs are designed to fit within the variety of programmatic offerings and settings available to JCCs and will provide participants with a community of Journeyers who are each exploring their Jewish identity in their own way. It will offer this community the opportunity to gain a greater appreciation of Judaism’s culture, traditions, and sacred wisdom. Ultimately, it will deepen their engagement with Jewish life in our JCCs and in the Jewish community at large.

Journeys’ first program unit, Food: A Loaf of Bread, a Jug of Wine and You, is an interactive program on food that invites participants to consider how the acts of eating and drinking are not only physical activities, but also ones with profound personal, communal and cultural meanings. “Food” was piloted in the winter and spring of 2008 and is now being offered in JCCs across the United States and Canada.

Journeys’ second program pilot, To Laugh! Jews and Humor: A 5,000 Year Old Love Story, explores the history and relationship of Jews and humor in engaging – and very funny! – ways. “To Laugh!” will be piloted at 17 JCCs across North America in the winter and spring of 2009.

“Food” and “To Laugh!” are the first two programs in a series of Journeys initiatives. Upcoming Journeys programs include subjects such as ‘Israel through Arts and Culture,’ ‘Love,’ ‘Judaism and Health,’ ‘Jewish ethics,’ and others.