Posted on: Saturday, September 25, 2004
Mitzvah Corps set up locally
By Mary Kaye Ritz
Advertiser Religion & Ethics Writer
If he were like most Jewish boys his age, Raphael Leonard would have taken a year off after his bar mitzvah several weeks ago. Instead of schlepping his way over the Pali to Hebrew school at the Temple Emanu-El, he might be spending his Sundays doing schoolwork, vegging out in front of the tube, or playing Nintendo.
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser "I don't have a Nintendo," the 13-year-old admitted.
Partly because he had to and partly because "it sounded interesting," Raphael chose instead to sign up for the temple's newest program, what Ken Aronowitz calls the Mitzvah Corps.
Whose brilliant idea was it to join the Mitzvah Corps?
"Mom's," Raphael said, then chuckled. "It wasn't mine."
As for whose brilliant idea it was to start the Mitzvah Corps, turn to Aronowitz, who heads up the School for Jewish Studies at the temple on the Pali Highway.
Meets at Temple Emanu-El. Students ranging from age 4 to adults. Includes students from all kinds of Judaism, not just from the reform movement. Upcoming program for adults to begin Oct. 3. (Details will be announced at today's services for Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, the holiest day of the year in Judaism.) Information: 593-3757. "It's a challenging year," said Aronowitz in his office at the temple's preschool, his Hawaiian-print yarmulke slightly askew. "We wanted to build a bridge to meet with confirmation."
Thus was born Hawai'i's version of the Mitzvah Corps, which will set up opportunities for students to serve their community and fulfill the commandments of Judaism through loving acts of kindness, called "mitzvah."
Aronowitz is not only lining up bar/bat mitzvah'd teens, but also seeking organizations that will accept the free labors of these 13- and 14-year-olds. That, too, presents a challenge because some groups prefer their volunteers be at least 16.
"I'm in the process of finalizing organizations," he said, naming the Honolulu Zoological Society and the Sierra Club among them but hoping for more.
As a Jewish educator, he tries to find ways to use the program to fulfill specific commands, such as "Lo Tashchit" (do not destroy) or "Bikkur Holim" (visit the sick).
"We're talking the talk of bar mitzvah year," he said. "It'd be good to walk the walk."
The goal for now will be one good deed a month.
Since today is Yom Kippur, or the Jewish Day of Atonement, the high holy days services are bringing hundreds to temple who might not usually go. That's also a good time, Aronowitz knows, to put out information about other projects coming up, such as the School of Jewish Studies for adults, with classes beginning Oct. 3.
Those topics will range from Hebrew study to a class on the history of Jews in America to the Helene Mann upcoming class called "Oy, I Could Plotz ... a Look at Jewish Humor."
Raphael Leonard and his family will be there, too. His father, Ray Leonard, is looking forward to the teenager's new project.
"We've done an occasional volunteer project before, some cleanups in one or two places," the elder Leonard said. "We're interested in these kinds of volunteer opportunities and it makes it easier that something's set up. I don't think he'd know much about volunteering on his own."
Well, maybe not that last one.
At the Honolulu Community Jewish Preschool, children learn about the shofar, or ram's horn, that will herald Yom Kippur today.
The idea was planted last November, at a biennial conference of the reform Jewish movement in Minnesota, when a congregation in Virginia outlined its plans for harnessing middle-schoolers who drop out of Jewish education classes after their bar mitzvah, and before they start the confirmation process in high school.
School of Jewish Studies
