Moving Traditions Adapts to Pandemic

Jewish Exponent, May 21, 2020

While Moving Traditions programming is usually centered on in-person gatherings, virtual meetups and training sessions were becoming more common before ...

Jewish Exponent, May 21, 2020

While Moving Traditions programming is usually centered on in-person gatherings, virtual meetups and training sessions were becoming more common before the coronavirus appeared. To operate its programming, Moving Traditions partners with synagogues, schools and JCCs for its four core programs: B’nei Mitzvah, which helps parents and pre-teens navigate the issues around the bar/bat mitzvah experience; Rosh Hodesh, an educational program for teen girls; Shevet, for teen boys; and Tzelem for trans and non-binary youth.

Tzelem, which comes from the Torah that we are all created in God’s image, has always been an online program for youth all over the country to meet and connect with each other. Moving Traditions has been adapting what it learned from this program, and the Kol Koleinu (All our Voices) fellowship for teenage feminists, to move all its programming to an online format.

“Like all organizations, our initial reaction to the crisis was to make sure everyone was safe,” Meyer said. “But we also worked quickly to make sure all our partners had the tools and capabilities to take our programming online. In the past months, we have done webinars and one-to-one coaching to help translate the in-depth, intimate conversations that take place in our programs to the online experience. We know we must meet the needs of Jewish life no matter what is happening in the world.”