Almost Teens

A welcoming space for Jewish almost teens to connect, grow, and lead

Calendar
Calendar

6th–7th graders will gather with peers to learn how to plan and carry out a meaningful Community Care Project rooted in Jewish values and practice.

That means not only planning and implementing a project, but learning why community care matters for us as Jews.

Jewish teens grades 6-7 from across North East Los Angeles

WHO?

17 Sunday evenings throughout the school year, approximately every other Sunday

4:30pm to 6:30pm

WHEN?

Silverlake Independent JCC

WHERE?

ENROLL HERE
ENROLL HERE

HOW?

Tuition Information

SIJCC Family Membership required to enroll (Fee included in tuition)

HOW MUCH?

Almost Teen Group Facilitators

Portrait of a person with short dark hair, wearing a button-up shirt with a blue and white floral pattern, standing outdoors in front of green leafy plants.

  • As a ritualist, teacher, and spiritual counselor, Rabbi Kerry Chaplin (yes, that is her real name) practices and preaches an embodied, living spirituality through authentic relationship with one’s own mind, body, and spirit. He believes that sharing this authenticity with others and with the Divine, however you understand the Divine today, deepens connections that help us live better.

    Before becoming a rabbi, Rabbi Kerry was a community organizer, living all things justice. In every community where she has served as a rabbi, from Hillel at UCLA and Vassar College, to Lab/Shul, to Beit T’Shuvah, Rabbi Kerry has been committed to helping those at the margins experience connection with themselves, others, and Something Bigger.

    She is grateful for her teachers at the Ziegler School, Washington University in St. Louis, her yoga teachers, and so many others known and unknown. She lives and plays with her kiddo Frankie, wife Julia, and kitty Smudgy.

  • Joshua Mendel is a student at the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies and will be ordained as a rabbi in 2028. Joshua has a passion for Jewish education and has taught B’nei Mitzvah lessons, Hebrew school, tefillah (Jewish prayer), Hebrew language, and has spent 9 years on staff in Jewish education and teaching horseback riding at camp Ramah in the Rockies. In his free time, Josh enjoys hiking with his dog, snowboarding, mountain biking, and baking.