CTA Partners with Better Together
Columbus Torah Academy (CTA) has been selected to participate in the Better Together Program: a two-year program designed to encourage meaningful interaction between young and old which is generously supported by a prominent national foundation.
CTA students in grades 10 and 11 will participate in the program with members of Project ARIEL, a program of Jewish Family Services funded in part, by a grant from Jewish Federations of North America and the Jewish Federation of Columbus. |
Interactions with the seniors |
Curriculum integration |
The program will include interactions and experiences between members of both the Project ARIEL group and the CTA students throughout the 2017-2018 school year. This will range from helping the seniors with their weekly grocery shopping to trips to the symphony together.
Interview-trainingThe students will be given training on how to interact with the Project ARIEL members, all of whom are Holocaust survivors. They will begin their training at the Illinois Holocaust Museum in Skokie, Illinois engaged in an interactive out-of-classroom education on the Holocaust. The museum staff will also train the CTA students in how to interview Holocaust survivors and how to speak with them about their experiences.
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The program will be integrated into the CTA curriculum in Judaic Studies, History and Writing. In Judaic Studies' courses, students will learn the original source texts for the value our tradition places on older people and how to properly show them respect. In History, the students will learn more about the time and place of the seniors’ lives, most of whom come from eastern Europe and Russia, helping them to understand how this historical background has shaped their lives.
Writing WorkshopLocal Artist-in-Residence, Amy Greenberg, will run a writing workshop to help the students learn to write a biography.
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The focus of Better Together is to sensitize students to the challenges of the elderly and incorporate Jewish learning and values in their interactions with the elderly.
For more information, contact Yona Kimche, CTA program coordinator for Better Together at [email protected]