Kivunim, another great weekend!

This weekend we ran another incredible Kivunim weekend, you can see what we got up to in this video.

Kivunim is the MRJ’s national B’nei Mitzvah programme for our small and mid-sized communities. We have 36 young people signed up this year from 10 of our communities from as far south as Cornwall to as far north as Glasgow!

This programme created the opportunity for young people around the UK to meet other people their age going through the B’nei Mitzvah process, build connections and get high quality Jewish learning in the process.

Each weekend has an educational theme:
The first years’ (year 7/P7) theme was ‘Jewish Identity’ we looked at why we are choosing to have a Bar/Bat Mitzvah and/or be part of Kivunim. We explored our personal journeys, considered both what it means to be a Reform Jew and to be part of a community.
The second years’ (year 8/S1) theme was ‘Informed Decision Making’. We looked at how Reform Judaism encourages hearing from a wide range of perspectives and sources in order to make decisions and how we can begin to put these into practice.

We continued to build our Kivunim community through adventurous team-building activities, such as high ropes and climbing, as well as celebrating Shabbat together with creative services, Seudah shlishit (an extra meal eaten on Shabbat) and loads of Kef including a bonfire, movie night and competitive team games!

Our Kivunim young people will continue to be engaged in the programme year-round through activities offered in their synagogues as well as the national points system (footprints). They can earn footprints by volunteering, going to synagogue, celebrating Jewish festivals, working on their tikkun project, practicing for their ceremony and learning a new skill. These are all logged through the Kivunim app with an aim to achieve 150 by the end of the 2 years.