Shalom. A year ago I stood before many of you and shared my vision for Midrasha’s future. A key component of that vision was expanding our Retreats to include a Heritage Trip - enabling our teens to understand Judaism in different communities and perspectives. I am proud to say that just 11 months later - we achieved that goal. In January, 49 teens piled on a bus with 11 educators for a 4 day and 3 night adventure in LA. A focal point of that trip was a visit to the Museum of

Last year at our Gala I shared with you my vision of expanding our retreat programs. The goal? To move one camp retreat a year to a heritage trip in a bigger city; immersing our teens in Jewish life, culture, and service. This year we started this initiative by travelling to Los Angeles. I thought we were going to have 20 teens sign up. We ended up with 49 teens! Gavin (our intrepid retreats director) and I stated three key educational goals. Here's how it turned out: 1. Imme

When someone asks me what Midrasha means to me, I always pause. Not because I don’t know, but because it feels too big to fit into a simple explanation. Midrasha isn’t just a youth group. It’s a place where I’ve discovered who I am, and the meaning of being part of something larger than myself. There’s one moment that truly changed how I see Midrasha. It was saturday night of my first retreat, during Havdalah. We stood in a close circle, the candle held high. The night was da

Shavuah Tov kulanu. Tonight my goal is to walk you through the two foundational values of Midrasha - community-kehillah, and...