What is the best thing about a Yavneh Shabbaton? Everything! Last weekend, on Shabbat Shuva, fifty Yavneh students - freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors - literally took over our magnificent Schultz Rosenberg Campus to celebrate Shabbat, make new friends, and develop meaningful relationships with one another and with our outstanding staff and their families who chaperoned the "amazing experience," according to many students who attended.

 

photo by Heidi Kravitz '17

 

A Shabbaton on the Yavneh campus is a uniquely wonderful, memorable time for our teens, as they appreciate our buildings, grounds and, most especially, our first-rate kitchens and eating facilities.  Filled with prayer, songs, games and "chill time," our campus Shabbaton consistently receives rave reviews from students and staff, and this year's Shabbaton was considered "particularly excellent," in the words of one of our adult chaperones.  "The mix of students, the joy, the ruach (spirit) and the leadership of our upperclassmen, was really sensational." 

 

Long after they remember the particulars of what they learned in school, to paraphrase the great American poet Maya Angelou, they will remember how they felt - and it is precisely this type of experiential, religious education that makes such a difference in a community such as ours.

 

As we head into the Sukkot holiday, from all of us at Yavneh, we wish you and your loved ones a hearty Chag Sameach - and Go Bulldogs!

 

Dr. P